We Survived Labor Day

One of the ladies that workamps here has season tickets to the Giants games in San Francisco.  She was unable to attend a game and give us her tickets, sweet!  We decided to take the BART into the city as we haven't been on it yet and I have to say we were very impressed with with it, more cities should have such a system. 

AT&T Park - Home of the Giants

Looking down from the top of the stadium to the water below you will see folks in kayaks waiting to retrieve fly balls.

Looking in the other direction you will see only a small portion of the tons of boats that are moored in San Francisco Bay

We had a great time and I am happy to report that the Giants won.  Note the coats people are wearing in August.

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We usually work the weekends but I worked for a lady so she owed me a day and I decided to take it on a Saturday.  Chandra is our book keeper and we have developed a good relationship over the months, she likes crafting and thrift stores so you know we get along great.  Well she had never been to Old Sacramento so we made plans to check out thrift stores and a wonderful bead store that I have been to before and then go downtown.  Needless to say we had a great time finding a thrift store that was like a department store and closed down the bead shop.  Then we headed down town taking in the sights and doing some shopping.  It was a awesome day and I will miss Chandra when we leave.  

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I have been busy creating jewelry on my days off getting ready for my jewelry party in September.  Mark has been doing some metal detecting and researching where we will be staying once we leave here.  We have enjoyed our time on the Delta but can't wait to hitch up and move down the road.  For us 6 months is too long to stay in one place.  But if you are looking for a job on the Delta be sure to contact the Sugar Barge RV Resort & Marina, Tracy and Dave are great people to work for and are always looking for new workampers.  We arrived here in April when the season just started and we have seen the park packed to full capacity during the summer months and holidays.  Labor Day was our last big weekend and the last weekend that the Bar & Grille was open.  We had two bands playing with standing room only, it was a great success and nice way to end the season for the owners.  Now the fisherman and duck hunters will soon invade the park. 

Tracy and Dave had an Employee Appreciation Beach Bash a week ago.  We all loaded up on the patio boats, a skiff and jet skis and head to a sandy little beach.

A good time was had by all, thank you Tracy and Dave.

  Our friends Sandy and Dale that we visited in Gualala a couple of months ago headed our way when they finished there job.  They really hadn't seen sunshine or warm weather being in the redwoods all summer and I was happy that we had good weather when they arrived.  When they got here we showed them around the park, had cocktail hour, grilled a nice dinner and then sat around the fire.  The next day we took them on a boat ride around the island.  On Friday we had to work so they headed to San Francisco to see the sights before they pulled out on Saturday morning.  We enjoyed their visit and will catch up with them again this winter.

We are always open to new possible opportunities for jobs.  Recently I answered an ad for selling Christmas trees in southern California but when I got the email back I said no thank you.  We couldn't have the rig on site, bad pay and way too many hours.  Our plans are not to work next year and do more prospecting, if we find a glory hole we won't move one inch!  So for now when we leave here we want to be true gypsies going where we want when we want.  Speaking of work some folks we know recently took a job gate guarding in Texas, which is something we have thought about because the money is good but after their report we will cross that off our list.  You should check out their blog report, as it is very eye opening and may change your mind if you have ever thought about doing this kind of work.  http://wanderingwingers.blogspot.com/2012/08/know-when-to-fold-them.html
Sometimes jobs just don't work out and when they don't you pick up stakes and head on down the road.

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                                    I will leave you with some words of wisdom from Mark....

"Oh that's not a good plan".

Note the bunge cord attached to the awaning and then the truck.

                                               Thanks for following and have a good day!

 

Yosemite National Park

At the end of July there was a sailboat regatta at Bethel Island.  A lot of them came from San Francisco and by the evening there was boats everywhere.  It was a sight seeing them all coming in, Mark and I got the lawn chairs and sat at the end of the dock and just watched them.

There has been high speed skiing races, archery fishing for carp, several fishing tournaments and weddings at the Sugar Barge.

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This past week we took a bike ride to Mount Diablo State Park.  Mount Diablo can be seen up to 200 miles away on a clear day and has been used for navigation and mapping.  It is very popular with bicyclists, during October there is a race benefiting Mount Diablo where 1000 cyclists bike 10.8 miles and climb 3,249 feet.  We seen several of them the day we went but I liked being on the Harley passing them, now the ride down might have been great, maybe next time as it was 97 degrees the day we went.

Once at the top you will then walk to the look out point where you can see more land and water then can been seen from any US park in the lower 48 states.

                           The views were great and we were lucky that it was a pretty clear day.

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The next day we went to Yosemite National Park

We left at 8am stopping for breakfast along the way as it was a 3 hour ride.  Once on route 120 we passed some beautiful lakes and house boats seem to be very popular because on our return trip there had to be 25 of the tied up together.  It would have been a nice place to kayak.

These lakes are fed by the Tuolumne River.

After this we entered the Stanislaus National Forest

                               You begin to climb in elevation then you pass by the Vista overlook.

Then you will enter Yosemite

There is no other word I can use to describe it other than "Awesome".  Everywhere you look it is beautiful.

                                                                      The Half Dome
There are several places to pull over to take in the sights if you can find a place to park.  That brings me to a point I need to mention.  We were told the best time to visit the National Parks was in the off season as they are packed during the summer and we found this to be very true, there was people everywhere.  All lodging was full with reservations that were made up to a year ago.

Looking down into the valley.

                                           Looking behind us, the cliff walls are breath taking.

Now we drop in elevation as we went the valley.

It would be amazing to have seen this spot the way President Roosevelt seen it.

We drove around in the valley stopping at the lodge checking on available rooms, like I said earlier there was nothing to be had.  No worries.  The temps were in the high 90's so we spent our time stopping at overviews as opposed to hiking.  Then we headed to Glacier Point stopping at this spot to have a picnic lunch.  I highly recommend bringing a lunch and drinks as it will save you a bundle.

Inspiration Point

As we travel to Glacier Point we climbed in elevation on winding twisting roads that carried us to Washburn Point with a good view of the Dome and the falls.  I will let the pictures do the talking but they don't do true justice to the beauty of this wonderful place.

The Dome

                                                       Vernal and Nevada Falls

 

Now let see just how high we can get. 

Traveling on we reach Glacier Point at 7214 ft.  At this point you are as close to the Dome as you can get and the views as just awesome.

That's a long way down!

What a great day we had.  We decided to headed back to the island and not stay over night outside the park as we probably wouldn't find lodging anyway.  I get spoiled sleeping in my own bed as it is much cheaper.  It would be nice to have more time and come back in the fall and do some hiking but we will be hitched up headed south by then. 

Thanks for following our travels and I will leave you with this: