Thursday (Aug 22)
I have an easy drive today, so in typical fashion I procrastinate on my packing and end up doing it all today. I dawdled at the Jungle (actually Cafe Capello, sigh) till 1-ish. Picking clothes, packing food, plates and utensils, cleaning the kitchen – then getting it all down the elevator and stowed in the van meant I didn’t leave till 5 pm! It’s required (by me) to fill the gas tank in Nevada before entering California. After all that I rolled into the Susanville McD’s somewhat after 7. The drive from Susanville to Chester is very pretty, but I was kind of hurrying at this point and didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked.
WHUFU page for: Jeffroe's Fruit Stand and Pie Shop
My friend Jeff lives and works in Reno until Memorial Day, then he commutes to Chester every weekend to run his fruit stand / pie shop / ice creamery / burrito place. It's really fun to hang out here.
tonight:
Heading to Petaluma, stopped here prior to an afternoon of looking at houses in Chico.
Nobody home when I got here, place was deserted when I went to bed, but hopping with activity when I got up on Friday morning.
Arrived at Jeffroe’s a little before 8 and a little after sunset. Nobody home, but I drove around back to my official stop and settled in. His friend Burt was supposed to be there, but he was evidently catting around somewhere. I cracked a beer and took it to the front where I watched the dull red of the last of the sunset over the Mt Lassen foothills till it was really dark. I’m on the road again!
Friday
Didn’t sleep well. Often don’t the first day or two. I dozed in the morning until the van got too hot, then I walked up to the fruit stand to see what’s up. It was like time had stood still since the last time I was there. Four old dudes sittin in kitchen chairs in the shade behind the fruit stand, waiting for customers, telling lies and drinking beer at 11 am. That’s the scene at Jeffroes!
Jeff was the excellent host as always, hooked me up with a french press coffee and a quarter of one of Lark’s wonderful pies – blackberry apricot as it happened!
I tear myself away from the male bonding around 1-ish to make it to my appointment in Chico. It’s a very pretty drive through the meadows and canyons, then there’s that magic moment when the last spur of the foothills opens up in a giant panorama of the northern Central Valley.
Straight to the realtors to meet up with Katy the realtor, who was dressed so smoking hot that it kind of disordered my thoughts for a while. The four-inch heels and the skin tight denims and the extremely well filled-out white top did me in. We looked at a nice gamut of houses from an utter fixer-upper, to a couple of run of the mill student houses, to a really, really nice newly renovated house. That’s the one I would buy if I were moving right now [but it sold within the week…].
I was running out of energy, so we did a drive-by on a couple of more likely homes, then returned to home base, where she went back to work and I sat on the front porch to calm down and plan the rest of my day. The nice lady manning the phones at Black Butte Reservoir was quite sure the campgrounds would not be full tonight so that made my decision easy. I would go to that lovely place. Probably try the other campground that I missed before.
Drive straight outta Chico and straight to Orland. I toyed around with going to one of the spots on the east side of I-5, but ended up at the place I know, the I-5 Cafe on the west side. I still like breakfast there, but the dinner was average at best. I will try a different place next time.
The drive west out of Orland to the reservoir is really very pretty. The main feature are the ditches along the road full of sweet, pure lake water being routed out into the valley to irrigate the fields. Nothing like running water to sooth the soul.
WHUFU page for: Orland Buttes Campground
Due west of Chico, about 12 miles on the west side of I-5 is Black Butte Lake. It has two ACE campgrounds, this is the secondary one, it closes in early September. It's a few miles closer to Orland and on a bluff 100 or so feet above the water. Very pleasant.
tonight:
Very similar to the other campground (Black Butte), loops of campsites on these little knolls with intermittent shade.
Orland Buttes is a more low key affair than the main campground at Black Butte – just a campground with a very steep boat ramp. Much less actual lake access here.
The lady was right, I didn’t need to worry about getting a spot. There were only three campers at my 40-odd site campground.
It is so fucking hot. The annoying camp host scared me about mosquitoes, so I tried to exist inside the van with the door closed for a whole, but that was just not bearable. I gave up and opened the big door and the rear door to get some breeze, and spent the night that was relatively pleasantly. Very few mosquitoes. Thanks for nothing dumbass, know-it-all, mansplaining camp host!
Saturday – Wednesday
It was very pleasant in the morning, so I hung around till noon-ish, but the forecast is for today to be as miserably hot as yesterday. One night of it is enough for me thank you. I had planned to stay at Cowboy Camp tonight, but texted Martha to ask if I could show up at their house tonight. She said yes (woo!), so I am good to go.
Leave my lovely site and retrace my path back to Orland, enjoying the cold, clear water rushing along the irrigation ditches just as much as I did last night. Breakfast at the I-5 Cafe was good again. Dinner just ain’t their meal.
I did not get on I-5. I crossed it at Orland and took the 2 lane county road than runs parallel to it. If I’m in any kind of good mood at all I always take that road. It takes me right past the Sacramento NWR entrance. I have a fairly urgent need to poop after all that coffee so I decide to drop into the Visitors Center. It was closed for the weekend, but thankfully the bathrooms are on the outside and unlocked. Woo! It was very pleasant there in the shade, so I stretched out on a bench and took a little nap. Very refreshing.
Back to the county road for the familiar drive straight south to Williams parallel to I-5. Here I have the familiar choice of south then west on interstates or west then south on sometimes curvy two lane roads – basically CA 20 to CA 29 to county roads between Calistoga and Santa Rosa. Maps says the two routes take about the same time today. I hate freeway driving worse than I hate curvy roads, so west on CA 20 I go!
Still haven’t gone back to Harbin since it re-opened, and drove right past again today. I did remember this time that Perry’s Deli in Middleton is really good, so so I stoped and got a coupla sandos their roast beef special and their italian special. This was a great move. I ate half of one there, and the other three halves over the next few days when my meal time was a variance with the family’s meal time.
Leaving Calistoga on the road to Santa Rosa (Petrified Forest Road !!?) there was an EPIC backup going the other way for the four-way stop. At least two miles of stopped cars. I got a little 20 car backup at my next stop sign, where my route take a a left, but after driving past the other I felt lucky rather than annoyed.
Martha was out. Chad was home with the kids and helped me get settled in my special spot next to the house. It’s nice to see everybody, and it’s SO nice to be out of the infernal heat!
Sunday
I quickly settle into Petaluma life. In the late morning I emerge from the van with coffee on my mind when Chad and the kids appear. He has the kids for the morning, and he too wants coffee, so we head out on an errand run. Coffee shop -> Whole Foods for kiddie snacks (and a Sunday Chron!) -> the feed store to pick up cat food. The feed store was kind of a trip for me. It was huge. There was a whole wing for horse care equipment! Best of all there was a shed in the back where they sell live chickens – 6-8 different varieties it appeared. Petaluma’s roots as a dairy and farming community really show here.
We were heading home when we spied a “jumpy house” in the downtown park. Tula had seen one yesterday at a yard sale with her mom, and had specifically requested that we go to one today, so this was kind of a godsend. The event was some kind of liberal issues / Dem candidates fair. There were booths for all manner of lefty issues – enviroment, unions, transportation …. Kamala had a booth, Bernie had a booth. My favorite E Warren did not appear to have a booth. Oh well… We all (mostly) had a good time. There were a couple of rough kids in the jumpy house, so Tula came out sad a couple of times. But she when right back in.
Tyler was delivered home by other Grandpa from their weekend getaway to South Lake Tahoe, where they water skied and generally lived it up! Tyler’s arrival caused Chad to make another Whole Foods run, this time to get food that Tyler likes. Two trips to Whole Foods in one day is mighty fast living for a modest spender like me! :)
Monday
A normal, mellow weekday with the family. Kids are at school, parents are off doing their work things. Just me and Jessica, Martha’s old friend who helps out with shipping. Chad came home at 2:30, ready to head out pick up the kids from school. Sounds simple, but took about an hour and a half all told.
This year Rylan (first grade) and Tyler (seventh grade) are in the same school! That doesn’t mean much to them day to day, there is not much involvement between first and seventh graders, but it does mean we go to the same place to pick them up. Ty always wants to get driven back home to avoid the rest of the trip, but not happening today, he had to sit in the back and endure it. The three of us head off to pre-K care at Sonoma State where Tula still is. It was a bad traffic day – yuck. I love going to the pre-K place … good energy as they say. Also cool that Ry is a recent grad, so he got lots of love from the teachers. Still a bad traffic day. Chad had cleverly called in a pizza to go from a place along the way in Cotati, so each of the four of us snarfed down a slice on the way home. The two boys got the other two slices.
Finally having a little leisure around the house, I see that they have done a LOT to the place since my last visit waaaay back in April. The front yard is spic and span and ready for a magazine spread. Other grandpa brought in a grader and leveled out the back yard, so the corners are now usable space instead of trash piles. Chad built a little shade structure on the back deck, so that it is cool and pleasant for a good part of the afternoon. That’s my spot!
Then around 6 we all trundle off for a 6 year-old soccer game. It was not nearly as much fun as Tyler’s basketball games were back in Eureka. Nobody told me to bring a chair, so I’m either standing around in the hot sun or sitting on the wet grass. And sad to say, the simple act of sitting on the ground then getting up is kind of a big deal for my tired old body. But mostly Rylan just didn’t seem that into it. He doesn’t play it on his own, so he has no skill, and therefore very little success in the game, so he kinda just moped around. Tyler was a natural “ball guy”, always bouncing a ball or throwing a ball or dribbling a ball. Rylan not so much. We’ll see how this goes…
Tuesday
Easier day. The only person who must be picked up is Tula, so it’s a simple trip to Sonoma State and back. I tag along with Martha for a walk downtown. We started too early in the afternoon, and the heat is oppressive. Maybe they woulda made it without me, but somewhere around the Creamery I pooped out and said I was turning back. Nobody was having much fun, so we all went back. Good decision.
Wednesday
Even easier day. Just hang around the whole darned day. After sunset we did the short walk around the corner so the kids could ride their scooters and play on the playground at the elem/junior high right around the corner. This is NOT where Ty and Ry go to school … just walking around the corner would be too simple. When they moved here Martha and Ty shopped around and decided the school up the hill had better programs, so that’s where they go.
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