During the three days I spent with cousin Nadine Colberg Mottoros and her husband John Mottoros I was impressed with their rather large house. While the photos I took Sunday after sundown are a bit dark, one can get a somewhat better view by clicking on them twice. [Hope to learn whether Google's Picasa, which is one of the sources blog-newbies must use to post photos to a Blogspot blog, can lighten photos such as those in this post; most graphics programs I've used on a desktop computer have that capability -- but not Microsoft's dinosaur program Paint.]
The house is built on two levels since it sits on a hillside next to a small creek; it has two outside stairs at its north and south ends as well as an inside stairs from the kitchen/dining-family room down to the living room.
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Nadine is an outstanding cook. I particularly liked the salmon she prepared Saturday evening. And the next day John bought four freshly-cooked dungeoness crabs which we cracked, picked, and devoured for lunch Sunday. John does a considerable amount of cooking for the Native Sons of the Golden West, which Nadine calls "the Boys Club." He often enters the local chili-cookoffs, and has had a fair amount of success.
But the real character of the house is enhanced by its contents: "John's Toys," as he calls them. He has numerous nickelodeans, player pianos, and other electro-mechanical devices for which he sells music rolls. And, except for the player pianos, most of the devices have such things as drums, cymbols, tambourines, and pipes meant to simulate string and wind instruments. You might call the nickelodeans a "Band in a Box." They were used in taverns, saloons, etc. to entertain customes -- espcially those who had nickels to deposit in the slots.
One of John's other interesting collections is a set of videodiscs which contain many movie shorts produced for black audiences by Roy Mack. [I believe I've seen Mack's name on some piano sheet music.] The first short we watched was "Born to Tap," starring a young Sammy Davis Jr. and Ethel Waters. Others featured bands led by Eubie Blake and his song-writing partner Noble Sissle. Since I had only seen Eubie after Johnny Carson had him as a guest several times on the "Tonight Show" when Eubie was in his 90s, it was susrprising to see him with a bushy black moustache. But when he took off the chef's cap which was part of theme for the short, it was clear that his baldness did not begin during his old age.
The Creekside Cabin
If you have a chance to stay in Nadine & John's Creekside Cabin, which doubles as a guest house and a short-term rental, you'll not be disappointed. As one who stayed in motels from 4 Oct to 18 Nov, I believe the CC is better than any motel where I stayed -- even including those which were built in the last 3 or 4 years.
Be Prepared!
The Boy Scout motto came to the forefront of my memory during yesterday's drive from Sutter Creek. I had intended to go to the Stockton Library and do some genealogy lookups. But shortly after I found a parking place adjacent to a park (across Oak St from the library) in the Civic Center, two young Latinas who had parked near my rig and walked to the library returned to their car. As they began to back out of the diagonal parking, I knocked on the left window and asked if the library was open. "No," they replied in unison, "it's closed!"
So my lunch in the camper while parked on El Dorado St cost me an extra 50 cnts; parking is reasonable (especially when compared with rates near the State Capitol in Sacramento) at two-bits per hour. (Not sure if there's free public parking near the library.)
One side-benefit of the trip to the Stockton Library was that I passed an Arco gas station which was selling unleaded gas for $3.03, 6 cnts cheaper than the lowest I saw in the drive from Sutter Creek to downtown Stockton. It's at the corner of Harding Way and Center Street. [N.B. El Dorado St, the street on which the Chavez Library is located, is one-way North whereas Center St is one-way South.]
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I-5 was just a short distance down Center Street; I took it north to Eight Mile Road to find the Stockton/Lodi RV Park c5 miles east of I-5. Never found it or any evidence as to where it might have been.
I then drove to the end of Eight Mile Road to the west at the Venice Island Ferry, which is located next to the former Helen & Herman's Marina; my ex-fishing buddy, Gordon Athearn, and I as well as others made numerous houseboating/fishing trips in the 80s & 90s from that marina, which is now owned by Houseboats.Com and is called H&H Marina. Took several photos of the docks, ferry, store, and a few houseboats -- again just after the sun had set behind Mount Diablo. Plan to post them shortly.
Not sure if the last 2-5 miles of Eight Mile Road are any rougher than they were years ago, but the stiff spings in my Ford F-250 made me slow down to slightly under the posted speed of 25 mph. Once back on I-5 I drove south, thinking I'd take SR120 to Manteca. However, I saw a sign on I-5 pointing to French Camp on SR4. While I had seen signs to French Camp for most of my life when my father or I drove to/from Tuolumne County, where my mother was raised, I had never been there. And after arriving on SR120 near Oakdale, I'm not sure I've been through French Camp even now; I suspect I was busy watching the road and didn't notice a sign.
The Woodward Reservoir RV Campground/Park has very reasonable prices for seniors -- only $10 for a full hookup. Couldn't find the self-registration station or forms, but I'll both pay and ask about those when I depart before noon (which is the usual check-out time for most CGs).
Today's Route: Sutter Crk - Pardee Resv - Comanche Resv - Stockton
Later Revision: Stockton - French Camp - Oakdale - Woodward Reservoir
Tuesday's Route: Oakdale - Jamestown - Sonora
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