Apr 2007

After a long day of sitting in garages yesterday, we decided to stick around Sacramento for another day and do some sightseeing. There’s a section of Sacramento called ‘Old Sacramento’ that is restored buildings where the original settlement was located. There’s also several museums. We visit the Railroad Museum first. It’s reportedly the best railroad museum in the country and I’d have to agree that it is very nicely done. We take their 45-minute tour, which is led by a volunteer who seems to know everything about trains.

Then watch their 20-minutes introductory movie—it was worthless. The film made sure to mention every single possible minority that had anything to do with California (except white males of European ancestry) and said very little about train history. Jere and I both had the same opinion of the movie. BUT the rest of the museum is staffed by many volunteers who eagerly explain their exhibit and that’s what makes this museum enjoyable and educational. My favorite exhibit was their mail car, where they sorted the mail between Chicago and Oregon.

Joe enjoyed their large exhibit of toy trains.

We then grab some pizza, walk around a little, and then look at the Wells Fargo exhibits. We wanted to look at the California exhibits at the visitors’ center, but at 3:00 it was still closed for lunch. I heard someone complain to the shop next to the visitors center, and the shopkeeper told them that they sometimes close for 3 hours for lunch. So we went over to the Discovery Museum and looked at their exhibits, especially their gold mining exhibits since the 1849 gold rush started close to here when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.

We walk along the river and then call it a day.

After dinner Joe and I relax by the lake watching birds….well, I was watching….Joe was throwing stones in the lake 

We get up bright and early and take the 5th wheel to the RV garage for our 8am appointment. The one tire is wearing unevenly and the Camping World we took it to in AZ thought it might be the Mor-Ryde suspension system (and they don't repair them there). Plus our electric hot water heater is still not working right, and the front legs seem to be struggling to go up and down.

We all spend the morning hanging out in their lounge. I'll not bore you with the details, but around 1pm, they're done. They think our axle is bent and they don't fix axles so they send us to a different garage. So we pay our bill and drive to garage #2.

Garage #2 looks at the 5ver and after an hour or two (Joe and I ate a sandwich, took a walk and hung out in their lounge), they think the axle is bent 1/8" but they say they can't straighten it for us. If we want it fixed, we need a new axle. We don't remember hitting anything or doing anything to cause this, but they remind us that trailers are not made well--it may have been this way from the beginning. Jere and the guys (they've become buddies while trying to figure out what is wrong) decide to just switch tires more often rather than spend the $ to replace the axle. The good news is that they don't charge us anything -- our unusual problem has been very entertaining to them and they enjoyed working on our RV :-)

So we go back to the RV and have dinner and do wash. Long day....unfortunately the electric water heater still doesn't work (we'll continue to use propane to heat our water) and our axle is still bent and our front legs are still not sounding good when they go down. I go sit by the pond and watch birds for awhile and do some wash -- soft, warm, clean laundry can be very comforting :-)

We have an 8am appointment in Sacramento tomorrow to have our RV fixed (wheel/tire is wearing funny and we're not sure why), so we pack up and head to Sacramento. On the way we stop in Fairfield to tour the Jelly Belly factory.

We look at their display about Ronald Reagan and his love of jelly beans and then put on the hats they insist we wear for the tour and then take their interesting tour through the factory.

We smile at the many pictures (and even a sculpture) that they have made out of jelly beans. A fun time.

We arrive at the Placerville County Fairgrounds to camp, have dinner, and then run some errands.

Joe has complained about too many baseball games on this trip, but not today! We're going to see his team, the San Francisco Giants! The rain has stopped and it's a beautiful sunny day for a baseball game.

We arrive early, get our tickets, get our free SF umbrellas (love those free baseball giveaways) and walk around the park. Someone tells us to take Joe over to get an autograph from one of the players so he goes get his SF hat autographed by one of the pitchers (#31, Vinnie Chulk) and then Joe & Jere go to the outfield to hopefully get a homerun ball, while I go take all of our stuff to our seats and relax in the sun.

The view is great from the stadium. It looks out into the bay and the sun is shining.

The highlight of the game is a Barry Bonds homerun, #740. I was actually walking near where the ball was hit, but no chance of getting it. The stadium went wild when it was hit. This town, or at least the fans at the stadium today, love Barry Bonds.

The Giants win 2-1! After the game we walk around the park next to the stadium

and then we head to Fisherman's Wharf area and walk around a little. Joe sees a Joe's Crab Shack and talks us into stopping there for dinner, so we get a window seat and Joe is thrilled: the Bushman is across the street from us and Joe gets to watch him scare unsuspecting tourist as they go by.

A walk along the bay after dinner and then drive back to the RV park.

Unfortunately, they’re calling for rain today. So we decide to go to Sonoma and tour the mission there and some other buildings there which are part of the state historical park. We tour the northern-most mission, Mission San Francisco Solano, and then the Sonoma Barracks; watch a movie in the Barracks about the area; and then visit the Visitors Center in town. By lunchtime, it’s starting to rain fairly steadily so we decide to forgo an outdoor winery tour and just stop in at the Knudes Estate for their free ‘cave tour’. Well, you get what you pay for and they basically just take you into their wine cellar caves and say ‘this is our cave’. But it is dry in there :-) This area has field after field of grape vines. The hills are just covered with them.

It's still raining steady so we decide to do a little shopping. We make a stop at Circuit City and buy a digital camera to replace my broken one. No research, no cost comparison, just look to see what they have in my price range and pick the best one.

We get back to the RV and I do some quick research to see what the reviews say about my camera. They all say good camera for the price (it's not an expensive one, I go through cameras too quickly for a large $$$ investment), so I open the box and figure out how to use it. Looks pretty simple. I hope it lasts for at least the rest of our trip :-)