Greetings From Highway 49
 

I have this week off from work. Bill and I decided to take a road trip up to the California gold country. We’re in Oakhurst right now. Tomorrow, we’ll be traveling up highway 49.

The hotel we’re staying at tonight is very nice – woodsy and rustic and well maintained. Lots of carved bears and eagles; even a huge Statue of liberty carved from a redwood trunk. We had dinner at the restaurant, and the food was very good.

Then… there are the paintings. Everywhere. Hundreds of them. In the rooms. In the lobby. In the restaurant. And murals. Every room has one; even the exercise room! Landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes of really big flowers. They’re all the work of, Delores; the wife of the hotel owner. She may be no Rembrandt - but bless her 76 year old heart - what she lacks in talent, she makes up in shear volume.

What Hotel are you at? You should stop by and say Hi to my Bro and SiL.

Mariposa has a small but nice gold museum as well as as few good antique shops.

Yay! Sounds like fun! Have a great time! :)

Be sure to drive thru the Oakhurst McDonald's and say Hi to Thurston's bear friends too,

When you're in Sonora can you stop at the casino? They still owe me $40 that one of their slot machines forgot to give back to me.

If you want a nice side trip when you get to Jackson (where 49 crosses 88), if you head east you'll get to Volcano, California. There is a cave there that has very nice formations and a pretty good tour.

We just did our own little road trip out that way, taking Highway 4 all the way to Lake Tahoe (a completely new route for us). A very nice drive through the Sierras up there.

Oh, this sounds like such a grand California adventure!



Have fun, you two! :D

It sounds like you are at the Best Western Yosemite Gateway Inn {or something close to that}.

I have a picture in front of that carved statue! LOL We like to stay there, and, the fellow in the restaurant, he was very nice. He was from San Diego area, I forget his name. Not a young chap, but of course, neither am I.

The murals, lovely aren't they? I always take photos of them, that is the start of our trip, the murals in the rooms.

49, ah, I wish we were on that trip!

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ca/chinese.html

If you go by this place, I wonder if these places are still intact. When we've gone, I haven't seen anything that seemed visitable. Except right off of the highway, I believe, is this place that may be an old gas station. They sell indian things there, if I am right. We just stopped there to use the restroom as none of the gas stations seemed to have one {when we needed one}. The gentlemen there were nice and they just asked for a donation to use the clean bathrooms. Not a problem!! That place was interesting, too, you go into a yard and that has artifacts laying around.

Are you heading in to Placerville? And from there? Ooo, when you head home, will you be heading by San Jose? I've always wanted to stop here, but never have. Oh, link didn't work. But, 'Brookdale Lodge'. It is near San Jose but not really. Off some beaten path, but, still on a roadway/highway.

Oh, and we've only been once but finally, we went to Fresno Flats. A lot of history there...

http://www.fresnoflatsmuseum.org/ as well as not far from the hotel you are at.

Have a lot of fun and take a lot of pictures!!!

Have fun!

[mom] And stay off the computer, it's nice outside![/mom]

Oops! Bill just read that over my shoulder. I doubt he'll let me go antiquing. :(

That's the place!

Placerville, yes. We plan to go as far up as Nevada City, then back home through Sacramento. I have a sister near Lodi. We're going to stop by there on the way back.