As soon as we got to the Monterey area we headed for the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is one of the finest in the country, especially as a lot of the wildlife is just romping and playing in the bay outside the windows. The aquarium is just to the left in this picture in one of the old canneries on Cannery Row that John Steinbeck made famous in his book. More of the old canneries stretch in the distance in the photo ... now tourist themed restaurants and other places to take your money.

Here is their huge kelp tank that opens onto the bay and the kelp sways with the ocean current ... really awesome.

And one of the best jellyfish displays I have ever seen.

We hope everybody has been having as good a holiday season as we have had! We stayed in Placerville until the 27th of December and have now moved to near Monterey. Here's Bill and Dee and us at our last dinner in Placerville. I'm not sure why Bill and Bruce are not too cheery here as the meal was first rate ... maybe because the wine glasses are empty ...



And in continuing the wine theme from this very winey region, I couldn't resist a Christmas tree made entirely of wine bottles.

Happy Holidays From California!

Bruce, Jo-Anne, Bandit, and of course, Buster wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone is having a super holiday time as you battle the throngs of shoppers to bring cheer to all!

A little about the town of Placerville near where we are parked with the goats and chickens. Because of the gold which was found near here in 1848, Placerville became so prosperous and lawless that lawbreakers were hanged from a tree on main street first singly, then in pairs. As a result the settlement was named Hangtown and the storefront here supposedly has the trunk of the infamous tree. Not sure when the name reverted back to Placerville to reflect the placer form of gold panning ... but the chamber of commerce probably thought it better than Hangtown.

One of the famous sons, is John Studebaker, who made enough money in the 1850s to move east and establish the factory where the first Studebaker automobiles were produced.

Here's another shot of the main street which has many shops, restaurants, and boutiques geared to the tourist trade. The tower in center is a historical fire warning bell tower. The town of 10,000 is popular as a stop as you go up the mountain on the way to Tahoe, where, over the last few days they have gotten at least two feet of snow.

This is Sweetie Pies, our favorite restaurant on the main street. Obviously the specialties are pies, but the breakfast menu, served till 1 PM is equally awesome with a spinach and cheese scramble with country spuds.

As it is the 17th and we can't book longer near Placerville, we are looking at what to do in the new year and we will probably leave here on the 27th and head for Monterey for the next stage of the Adventure. We've looked at some promising parks near there and will stay somewhere in the vicinity until the new year and then head for Tucson which will be our next extended stop.

About 52 and misty rain on and off today. Tomorrow is to be 30 MPH winds and 46 and rain all day ... yuck.

The electric fireplace had ceased to function, but with a little solder on the circuit board we have fire again ... nice on a cool and rainy day.

You will probably notice an animal theme for the next couple of pictures ... maybe as a result of all the wine tasting ... not sure. I will apologize for the last week as we have been busy with some good weather and following brother Bill on the winery runs. His business requires the contunual visits to the vinyards and contact with the owners. His customers are basically farmers selling their crop and storing some with him and they are some of the nicest folks we have met.

One of our favorite stops is the Fenton Herriott vinyard a couple of miles south of Placerville. While tasting some excellent Zins and Petit Syrahs, Jake the black lab, a male, found another similar creature, except female, outside the window where we were tasting. For the next 20 minutes in the yard Jake and the unnamed female enjoyed intense amorous delight while we watched and continued from good zins to a rather nice port and cheered them on. Here's Dee and Chrissy, one of the vinyard owners, sponging the poor boy to cool him off after his apparently intense ordeal ... I mean, he literally had to be carried in from the yard ... poor but happy guy.

And finally continuing on the animal theme here's Buster nose to nose with a rooster. KOAs by law, I think, must have a host of animals like ducks, donkeys, goats, and chickens ... the kid aspect. This rooster wasn't the least bit afraid of Buster and actually ran toward the enclosure and pecked him on the nose. In spite of that Buster didn't budge either and if the fence wasn't there, it would have been a pretty good fight ... but Butster most likely would have lost. Don't know for sure but I know places in Texas where a lot of money would have ben bet on the outcome ...

What a difference from yesterday down toward Placerville. Yesterday, I was working in shirtsleeves and today we went up to to the snow in Lake Tahoe. Here's Jo ready to whack me with a snowball. Just not a really pretty day but here is the waterfront at Lake Tahoe today. Barely in the distance on the lower right shore you can make out the large casinos.

A pretty scene on the way home...it's winter here!

Lake Tahoe in the far distance with the city airport as the snowy strip in the dead center ... don't want to fly in here this time of year!

On Tuesday, I helped brother Bill move one load of wine from his old warehouse to his new one, the new home of El Dorado County Wine Storage. Here is Bill unloading one of the 2,000 pound pallets from the truck. We had 8 on the truck or 16,000 pounds of wine.

And here's Bruce pretending to be of any help whatsoever. As a part of the business, Bill does this every day, moving tons of wine to and from the various vinyards in El Dorado County.

Feeling faint after one load, I opted to go back to the RV park and move the Flying Scotsman from one site to another to see if we could get TV reception.

A quickie about the RV park life. We would have liked to book a place for a running 30 days as we have in other parks, but this one is different. First the price is high. These guys get $41 a day or $650 a month, almost twice what we were paying in Washington or Oregon, for half the amenities. This KOA only has 4 sites that the county allows to be for monthly rental (taxes and stuff). I mean it’s all mud and grass, so what the heck is the diff. The only site that we could have used on a monthly basis was further down in the trees and with our satellite TV system that’s a no-no. At the owner’s insistence, we actually unhooked the bus from its present position, moved down into the woods to give the TV a try and after an hour of trying to make Dishnet perform, gave up. We then moved back to our original site which is a weekly rental site. Rules. So now we have booked for a couple more weeks at our present site, which will take us up to the 27th of December when we must move from this site. The difference here is like now we are in FARM country and the place last month in McMinnville or even on Whidbey Island was like the Hilton.

We did scout out several other RV parks in the area and none could come close to the amenities we were spoiled with in the McMinnville park. All of these are similar with gravel sites (read mud) uneven parking, and older facilities. Within a 30 mile radius of Placerville there wasn't one that was worth trading for the one here, so we will try to stay put if the manager can get us into a monthly slot ... if not we'll be forced to go elsewhere in a week or so. But back to the serious stuff ...

So much wine and so little time!!

Actually, for the next segment of the Great Adventure, my Brother Bill and his wife Dee are our hosts and this is their wine storage warehouse in El Dorado County, near Placerville. As Bill says, here is a football field of wine; a full 300 feet of it, 40,000 cases+/- a few, and a whole pile of barrels all living in climate controlled comfort. Let's see ... 40,000 cases divided by 365 days a year ... at least a couple of years to drink it I'd say.

And after another fine (rain free) day, the California sun sets over the vines on Sunday, where we finished up tasting some good local vintners' products.

Well, due to the weather and dead camera batteries and whatever other excuse I have, this post won't have any pictures.

We left McMinnville and headed for I-5 in the rain. That night we stayed at a place called Jacks RV park in Grants Pass, OR. Really nice park with all the amenities and paved streets and level sites ... all good to have. It was a bit close to the interstate, but nice otherwise. It was even a short walk to a couple of restaurants.

The next day was a constant drizzle which changed to snow flurries in the passes between Oregon and California. The Flying Scotsman performed well up to the highest point which was about 4500 feet and then down again. Got about 6 miles per gallon but I think that's pretty good for the big beast. We went by Mount Shasta, but all we saw was fog, drizzle, and snow flurries for the whole day. As we came out of the mist, we saw Lake Shasta which is at a 15 year low and looked to us as almost dry ... really wierd.

We picked Corning, California to stay last night and we hooked up in a small, but limited park in the town. These sites are still averaging about $28 a night and all so far have had a good computer hookup. We broke ground this morning in the rain and 45 degrees, but that cleared off and we actually had sunny weather the rest of the way here. We are now in the KOA in Shingle Springs, CA, about 9 miles west of Placerville. Like most KOAs it is a mud pile due to the recent rains ... but there are goats ... I guess that makes up for the mud, eh.

Tomorrow we will hook up with my brother Bill and also go out and scout some different parks to spend the balance of December ... I don't think this one is it ... someone here must have some paving material to share.

Wow.

OK, tomorrow we are off to California on the next leg of the Great Adventure. We have delayed here because of the minor interference of 50 MPH winds and torrential rain and snow and sleet ... and whatever. But for those of you that know us, we are having a super time in spite of whatever nature can do. Here's snow flurries on the Flying Scotsman.

We are getting ready for Christmas, the chili lites are in place, and you can see Buster actually helping with the decorations on the tree.



It was so cool that Richard and Wanda could come down to Oregon. We had spent a bunch of time with them and then they decided to come down to McMinnville to redo the fun we had on Whidbey Island.

Oh man, is this house really going to move again, we can't take it ....

And the last for today is with the Tillemas at a really neat Spanish influenced place on the main drag of McMinnville. This ranks in the top ten of the best meals we have had.