Hooked After Long Day

Our day started with another meeting with Bill, the owner of the 49er Ranch. He answered more questions and described other advantages for us to become long term Workampers here at the park. People were coming in and out during the meeting, all with testimonials for the park.

I took some pictures of the park during a short break and have them posted below.

Starting with the entrance:

Then the office which also shows the trailer that we stayed in while here:

The next shot shows the back part of the park which contains terraced spaces for RV's:

Bill told us about the campfires that he conducts during the summer months when he tells stories and people sit around and cook marshmallows and sing. This is the campfire area:

Next is the area where people, mostly the kids that visit, come to pan for gold:

The last one is of an actual covered wagon (with a newer cover, of course) that was used by settlers in 1852 when the park first offered space to people traveling through looking for gold and is the reason it is the oldest RV park in California:

Bill told us about several places we should see before we left and we decided to go to the town of Murphys and visit the Ironstone Winery that is there. The town is only about 7 miles away and we crossed a bridge on the way that passes over a "leg" on Melones Lake, which is one of the huge lakes in the area:

We arrived at the town of Murphys and it's a good thing we had the GPS guiding us to the winery as we went directly to it after going down a couple country roads. Aside from being one of the top wineries in the area (there are several), there is a museum and jewelry display/store containing historical mining memorabilia. But the real attraction is a 44 pound gold nugget (The Kautz Nugget) that was discovered about 9 miles from the winery in 1992 and is the largest crystallized single gold nugget in the world - it has been appraised at $3.5 million:

After leaving the winery we drove through the business section of Murphys and were amazed at how similar it is to Julian, CA. A shot of the downtown follows:

We will definitely return to this town and visit the shops. The town of Sonora, CA is also a quaint town and I have a shot (below) of the downtown:

Overall, it was a wonderful day of visiting some local sights and pleasant discussions with Bill. We have decided after running the numbers that this would be a wonderful place for us to spend an extended period of time. We informed Bill that we accept his offer and will make arrangements to arrive back here as soon as possible. We have to now inform the folks at Western Horizon of our new plans and Josie has to inform the owner of the Palm Springs Florist that she will not be available to work during the Valentine's week. That is the only disappointment for us, but it works out better for us financially to begin our jobs here as soon as we can. More about that on another day.

The weather forecast is for a big storm to move in today, so we decided to head out early to try and beat the storm instead of staying over another day. Bill is also excited for us to come back so we feel we are on another good track for our life's adventure...