Road Trip through the Gold Country and Pirates!

Placerville, CA
Storm Valley Ranch


Hmmm.  What do I want to do for my birthday?  I was pretty tired from too much celebrating and staying up much too late (3am?) the night before so I didn't want to do anything that required much effort.  How about a road trip?!  Perfect!! The weather is sunny and warm and the flowers are blooming everywhere!

 

We got up early at 9am and headed out.  We planned to have breakfast out in the small town of Plymouth, visit some friends that were camped there for the weekend, drive through the quaint gold rush towns and maybe end up at Calaveras Big Trees.

 Once we finished breakfast (almost 11am!) we visited John & Tina at 49er RV Park.

They had a great spot at the back of the campground with a nice view of the hills behind them.

They will be going out fulltime as well in August!  Yay!  John will be retiring and Tina will work from the road.  Looking forward to seeing them later this year in Idaho.

 What a great view out back. It looked like a waterfall of tiny white flowers in the grass.

 

 Tina, Me, Judy, Kevin, John & Steve.  Tina fixed us Birthday Mimosas. Judy just had a birthday too.

 A coyote was having fun trying to catch the ground squirrels. He wasn't having much luck at all.

We thanked them for birthday wishes and my gift of the famous Sugo di Caparella (John's yummy homemade sauce) and headed down Hwy 49.  We passed many wineries and farms.  The Hwy 49 corridor has many wineries.

 Boer goats enjoying the lovely sunshine.

Steve stopped for a few geocaches and found a friend.  It was actually a cache hidden in a tree.  The frog painted boulder was another cache.

 The run-off from the mountain snow has filled the lakes and creeks.

 Blooming Wysteria.

While looking for a cache in Amador City, we came upon this street with an interesting name.  Never knew it was there!

We grabbed some great pastries at Andraes Bakery and continued on to Sutter's Creek.

The Labyrinth.

 We walked through town and picked up some chocolates and Goat Milk soaps and candles.

By now it was late in the afternoon and I realized Calaveras was much too far to go.  I was pooped anyway.  We took a different road back and met up with our daughter for dinner and called it a day.  I had a wonderful time and enjoyed phone calls and texts from family and friends.

Happy Cows.

 

After recovering from all the birthday fun the other day, we had plans with Ron & Rene to visit one of those Escape Rooms.  I've always wanted to try one.  Great idea Rene!  We met them at their RV park to see their new trailer.  It's a beauty!  They are also fulltime RVers.  The escape room was about $30 each but Rene found a discount coupon for us to use.

Then we drove over to Beat the Room.  According to their website, Escape Rooms got their start in Japan in 2007 and quickly grew, eventually coming to the U.S. in 2012. 

We chose the Captain's Quarters.  It's goal: In the early 1700’s on a dark and stormy night, the infamous Black Bart and his crew have set anchor and gone ashore after months at sea. You’ve heard tales that Black Bart has a treasure map of immeasurable value hidden in his quarters. His boat, the Royal Fortune, bounces angrily in the waves, beckoning you – daring you, to come aboard and find the treasure. But you know if you’re caught, walking the plank will be the last thing you do. Can you and your crew brave the storm and sneak into the captains quarters, find the map and get out before the captain and his crew return?

You're not locked in.  You can come and go if you need to.  Basically, you have one hour to find clues, solve puzzles and finish.  Our challenge was to find clues to be able to find the 3 parts of a treasure map.  We had lots of chests to figure out how to open.  Some had keys you had to find, locks that were numeric or alpha that you had to find the combos for.  It was very challenging and we all did pretty good at figuring things out and contributing.  At first we just stood there looking around. We had no idea what to do.  Then slowly we got the hang of it. We only needed to ask for help twice from the caged parrot.  It took us 5 minutes over the allotted hour to finish.  Not bad at all we were told.

Then we got to take pictures.  Above is a happy picture.  Then I told them to make angry pirate faces.

Ron is still smiling and Rene looks scared!  Ha, so much fun!! 

Next we were hungry and hit up Out of Bounds Brewery in Rocklin for some beer tasting and food.  What a great evening it was and we'll definitely try another one of those Escape Rooms.

 Thanks for a great time Ron & Rene!!