THE FOURTH OF JULY IN GOLD COUNTRY

What better place to celebrate the founding of our great country than Gold Country, where men and women of amazing courage and fortitude rushed to make their fortunes in California. All this activity led to populating the West and building one of the world’s great economies.

With the fire danger so high and temperatures in the 90’s no one was up to shooting off fireworks here but we did have an old washing machine tub to contain a fire, which we did nightly. Folks would walk by on their evening stroll with their pets and usually stop and chat in the cooling evenings. It was a pretty nice Independence Day even without the fireworks. It has been interesting watching RV’s coming into the park for the big weekend filling virtually all of the 136 sites and then pulling out again on Monday, leaving us diehards in peace and quiet once again.

On Saturday, Patti Hadfield came down to Folsom from Reno where we met for lunch and then saw a movie, “Knight and Day” (be sure to miss it if you can.) Patti is the widow of Jim Hadfield, one of my best buddies since the 1940’s. He passed on about five years ago, shortly after Greg died. Jim was also Greg’s godfather and now we try to see Patti each year to reminisce and keep up to date on her activities.

Sunday was our “day off” (it isn’t easy being retired) and we just watched hundreds of people cavorting in the river in rafts, kayaks and inner tubes, getting dumped into the water occasionally and just generally having fun while ducks and geese were cavorting in the water as well. One couple had their dog swimming alongside their raft. The dog never seemed to tire of swimming along and then sliding through the rapids -- some pooch. After Rick and his boys had tried fishing in the river with no success, they went home and the following day a young lad caught a 15+” trout in the same place, which he proudly showed off to everyone. His dad later told us they had it for dinner that night.

Monday we finally found the Red Hawk Casino that many folks had recommended as having excellent meals at reasonable prices. Well, they weren’t exaggerating; we are not into gambling except for an occasional dollar or two but it is worth the trip just for the food. It is located on Highway 50 at exit 140 just a few miles west (downhill) from Placerville.

So here we are for a few more days, we will spend Tuesday getting things cleaned up, packed up and ready to head out on Wednesday morning to the Napa Elks Lodge. We don’t often stay two weeks in one place but we are both feeling somewhat sorry to see our stay come to an end.

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That’s all for now, folks!