September 23rd we drove 157 miles south to the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah, CA for one night. This is the same place we stopped in January 2003 on the way north. Two fairgrounds in two stops but they looked very different:
September 24th we drove about 50 miles to the place Diane's sister Kimberly had arranged for us to camp, close to her house. It was dry camping and here we are:
After setting up we headed into Lakeport and watched a seaplane moving around:
When we got back to the motorhome a guy drove up and started yelling at us that we were not allowed to camp where we were. He "was in charge of the local association" and it was against the rules for us to park here. He got nastier and nastier and we decided that even if we had approval from the business owner to stay where we were this guy was going to take some action of some sort. We moved to the Konocti Vista Casino RV park in Lakeport and camped. It was a further drive to Kimberly and Dennis's house, but we were not worried someone would damage our motorhome. Our total driving distance for the day was 67 miles.
Petrified Forest on September 26
Sammy in the back yard of Kimberly and Dennis's house:
The pool and back yard:
Solar pool heating:
Rudy, a very mellow dog:
The accent wall in the living room:
Sammy inside:
This piano used to be Kimberly and Diane's parents' piano:
The weather continued to be really nice for our stay around Clear Lake.
On the 29th we drove 110 miles through Napa to park in front of friend Brian's house in Martinez, CA. The highway between Lakeport and Napa was no fun with a large vehicle. It was curvy, narrow, and slow going.
Our last stop at Brian's was in March 2003. Here is how we parked, there was just enough room for us.
Martinez Marsh Trail on September 30
Mount Diablo State Park on September 30
We took a walk in a local park one day:
We had a good time with Brian and had a couple nice meals out, including Italian at Mangia Bene Trattoria in Martinez and Indian at Swagat in Walnut Creek.