Well, now we’ve done it. We’ve crossed into California. I have to admit we were holding our breath as we did so. Nope, nothing happened. We are still middle-of-the-road conservatives. Neither of us feel the need to give everyone else’s money away to the illegal immigrants. We still feel you have to earn what you have and that government needs to stay out of our lives. Whew. We ARE NOT happy about the high gas prices.
Anyhow, we are traveling up and over the Sierra Mountain range from Nevada into California heading for the coast we stop at a memorial to the Donner Party. The Donner Pass is located on Route 80, and is a few miles from where the Donner party and several of their members perished. If this June snowdrift is any indication of what they went through, kudos to those who survived.
Hmm. I don’t know if this reflects the state of California’s education system but “emmigrants” isn’t a word. It is “emigrants” or “immigrants”. You are an emigrant from a place and immigrant to a place. Maybe they couldn’t decide if the Donners were coming or going so they combined the two terms. Who knows. It is California.
On the other side of the Sierra Nevada’s we again look for an interesting boondocking spot. We found one along the Cache Creek, called Cowboy Camp Horse Camp. A place that is geared toward horse-people is sure to have spacious areas to park big rigs like ours.
Our friends Jim and Becky find our adventurous nature fun and refreshing. Another friend Laura Mae claims that we turn the mundane into adventures. Some people wonder how we find all these fun places to camp. We use two websites for locating boondocking or free camping, Free Campsites and Campendium. I know I said “free,” but nothing is really free. It still costs us diesel fuel to run our generator and to get us where we are going. Sometimes these boondocking spots are off the beaten path and out of our way. Ah, but with views like these and the solitude they offer, it is worth it.
Well, maybe not worth it in this case. The fields of grass are hiding wall barley or foxtail grass. The seeds have microscopic barbs on them that stick to the dog’s coats, and work their way in to their skin. Poor Jake had some that got stuck between his toes that I missed and caused some sore spots. So maybe this will not be a repeat stop for us.
Another reason we probably won’t becoming back here are the ticks. Of course, the dogs are well protected from them, but John and I aren’t. There are two types of ticks we have found on the dogs and both are a type of dog tick. These are the ones that can infect you with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, the one that causes some people not to be able to eat meat for the rest of their lives. John is very scared about this one.
Well, if nothing else we had great views and the dogs had a good time swimming in the creek.
