Visiting Gold Country

Monday 17^th

Over Sunday and Monday everyone went their separate ways, while we had determined to stay an extra day sos that we could take in a bit more about Gold Country, it really is a beautiful area of rolling hills with many small villages and towns tucked into the valleys, there is a lot of evidence of the mining that went on here many years ago, we revisited the Kennedy Gold Mine, which we have passed last year when we drove up 49, this time we swung off the main road to a small town with a grand name called Amador City, if 20 houses can be classed as a city, but it was very pretty., we drove on through and parked in Sutters Creek, a town which looks as it did in the 1850s, thought the wooden sidewalks have been replaced with concrete, many of which Sally could not negotiate in her chair, but we still saw plenty. There are many antique/junk shops, also many preowned clothes shops, full of the fifties and sixties fashions that Helen is looking to have at her wedding, so of course this set us off looking at vintage memorabilia, which was very interesting. In many windows were  posters advertising a local event – Vintage Fashion Show and Afternoon Tea, for the local people Vintage included Victorian, Edwardian, Suffragette, Flappers, pre war and post war fashion (so the poster said and I a sure that it would have been a great event, unfortunately not until October, when we will be many miles away. It was here that we found a lovely shop with hundreds of musical boxes and chiming clocks, many of them Disney, so we spent a fair while there trying the different items on display.

We moved on to the next town, this one is bigger, called Jackson and list the hub town for this area. It too has a main street, which is now bypassed, so is very quiet. We parked the car and started to stroll, once again many antique and clothes shops, though we did find a huge sweet shop, which we were forced to go into and look round. We saw a huge variety of sweets, fudge and ice cream, I was forced to sample some of their homemade fudge, but not tempted to buy any. We did find a huge array of Cookie Cutters and bought a pack of various sized hearts, we think that it might be a good idea to make and decorate heart cookies for Helen’s Wedding, but we shall see, at least we have the cutters even if that idea does not fit into the plan.

It was now time to eat, we asked the Candy shop people where was a good place and were directed to Mel’s Diner, originally just a kiosk it had become so popular that it had now opened as a large diner. We chose a booth (green leather) and ordered a New York Strip, fries, one trip to the Salad Bar and two plates, we were embarking on our new strategy of trying to share meals, not only to save money, but also to try and keep the calories down (more of that later). We had a very nice meal, well cooked and ample for both of us, though we did have fun balancing all the salad on the plate you get for the salad bar. I succumbed to a milk shake – a peanut butter milk shake, which was delicious. Feeling full, but righteous, we continued our exploration of Jackson, which included the newly refurbished National Hotel, all the time feeling that we were extras in a cowboy film, because the street was so reminiscent of the towns we see in Westerns.

Our last stop was some shopping, which would enable us to resupply after a week of not leaving the campground (except to get the truck done), Sally had not left the campground at all. So Walmart was the first stop. Since beginning to lose weight my trousers have been getting bigger and bigger, so I figured that it was time for a smaller pair. I chose some Wrangler Relaxed Fit, same as I bought last year, but a size smaller – 38” and a pale blue Tee shirt, then tried them on. They fitted perfectly, the only thing being that the Tee shirt was a L, rather than the XL, or XXL I had been buying and when we looked at the jeans instead of picking out a 38”, somehow I had picked up a size 36” waist!, so from a tight 40” I have now gone down to a 36” waist! I felt quite chuffed at that. We completed our shopping and returned to the trailer to start packing ready to leave tomorrow to follow the old road which brought the Wagon Trains from the East to California, though we will be travelling in the other direction, as we head to Lake Tahoe.