Despite last Wednesday's hot weather, the wind picked up and it cooled down enough for me to move the much lower elevations; that is, I drove from New Hogan CG to Stockton. One of the reasons for the drive was that I was tired of squinting at my laptop's screen as I sat in the cab of my pickup in front of the Valley Springs Starbucks.
After spending time at both the Stockton Main (Chavez) Library and the Lathrop Branch Library I drove to Dos Reis County Park; it's one of two San Joaquin County Parks which permits RV camping. [The other is Westgate Landing on the Mokulumne River which is principally a boat landing.]
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With the sun low in the west, the shot above is of the boat landing at Dos Reis Park on the San Joaquin River; the park has about a quarter mile of river frontage.
Recall that last December I took a photo of Mt Diablo from the west end of Eight-Mile Road, which is to the NW of Stockton. At that time the sun was setting almost exactly behind the 3000'+ peak; not so now, for the sun was behind a tree to my right; I had walked far enough down the levee to get a clear shot and at the same time put the sun behind a tree.
A view of my rig on the other side of the two horseshoe pits. [Click 1 or 2 times to zoom in.] While the sycamore trees are messy at other times of the year, the park was very clean compared to a few county parks in adjoining counties; but it's more of urban park than some of the Sierran foothill parks in bordering counties
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On Friday I returned to the Lathrop Library, and, as a librarian had suggested the previous aftn, I was able to do some things from the cab of my P/U while waiting for the library to open at noon on F 6 May. After forwarding some e-mail I went inside because it was getting warm in the pickup. [The library has air-conditioning.]
I had planned to meet Ken & Jaana Lemmon at the rental their oldest son Matthew shared with some other students, including his girlfriend, while attending UOP. In fact, the graduation ceremony was this morning. Jaana had said in an e-mail that they would be at Matt's place in the early afternoon. But a more recent e-mail said that they would be at Matt's by late morning if they left Fort Bragg at 0600.
Since I already had the route from Lathrop to Matt's place near UOP in Stockton in an Window running Mapquest on my laptop, I shut things down & headed up I-5. One of the turns on the route was from Pershing Dr to Mendocino; I saw Monterey & Mariposa Avenues, but no Mendocino Ave.
Once I crossed the Calaveras River I assumed that I had missed the turnoff, but continued on to a street I recognized: Bengjamin Holt Dr -- and a Safeway with WiFi. A quick look at Mapquest showed that Mendocino Ave. was the next street east of Mariposa Ave.
As I drove past Matt's place & turned around at the next intersection, everyone poured out the front door and in unison waved "Over Here!" After parking briefly on the other side of Bonnie Lane, but with the left reat corner of the camper sticking too far into the street, I parked in front of Matt's place behind Ken's large diesel pickup.
The "live wire" of the gathering, of course, was a canine. Instead of leaving her with Loyal Jr, Ken & Jaana brought her along. She barked up a storm at me, with a tail wagging all the while; she did jump up on my leg once, but thereafter I moved my back of computer accessories and camera so that she could not repeat the greeting.
Matt's girlfriend Shannon and Jaana made a lasagna -- and I hung around long enough to not only shrare some of it but also to "finish it off." [But, of course, I'm one of the few people in the Universe trying to gain weight. If memory serves, there were tomatoes from Kenn & Jaana's hothouse.
Matt's degree is in civil engineering. He and his girlfriend submitted a project for the retrofitting the primary football stadium in Lodi, the "Grape Bowl," which apparently be implemented
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Onn Sa 7 May, as Matthew's graduation took place at UOP's Stagg Memorial Stadium, I returned to the Lathrop Library, mailed something at Lathrop Post Office, which is very close to the Library, bought some things at Save-Mart, and head NE on SR88 toward Lake Amador. While passing through the town of Clements I noticed a familiar name: Athearn -- my ex-fishing buddy's surname.
Prince Allen Athearn must have been important in the history of Clements, in the NE corner of San Joaquin County, but I can find no on-line history of the town.
A view from the dam at Lake Amador looking up the lake in a westerly direction. The owners stock their own trout and permit 24-hour fishing all year for trout, bass, crappie, bluegills, and catfish.
If you're interested in fishing for any of the above species, L Amador may be worth a try. But $25 for a tent/RV dry-camping site and $30 for a full hookup RV site is a bit stiff -- especially given the amount of detritus left by previous campers and the lack of recent grading on some of the dirt or dirt & gravel roads.
A veiw of the arm next to which I parked my camper.
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Links:
- Save Lodi's Grape Bowl web site
- World Connect site for Prince Allen Athearn
- Location of Prince Allen Athearn burial
Su 8 May Actual Route: Lake Amador - Jackson - Indian Grinding Rock State Park
M 9 May Actual Route: Indian Grinding Rock State Park - Jackson - Sutter Creek
T 10 May Route: Sutter Creek - Plymouth - El Dorado Fairgrounds (Placerville)
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