[JWBear]

We left Oakhurst this morning. First stop Mariposa. Pretty, but all the antique stores were closed. Saw the museum Cool.

After a tortuous and winding trip trough the mountains, Coulterville was next. Quaint, but kinda run down. Again, everything was closed.

We stopped in Sonora for lunch. We ate in a little hole-in-the-wall named Miner’s Café. Good food, cool antiquey decor, and very friendly staff. Highly recommended. We prowled around town for a bit. The stores were open!

Next was Angel’s Camp; home of those famous jumping frogs. The site of Mark Twain’s cabin is supposed to be just outside of town, but we couldn’t find it. We did, however, pass the Glory Hole Recreation Area and the adjacent Glory Hole Shopping Center! The town of Angel’s Camp is cool. They have plaques in the sidewalks honoring record winning frogs, kind of an Amphibian Walk Of Fame. We were surprised to see several art deco buildings in town.

We almost missed Mokelumne Hill. The main part of town (not that there’s much town) is just off the highway. When they coined the term “sleepy little town”, they were thinking of Mokelumne Hill. Again, nothing was open. The only person we saw was one of the locals who came over to talk to us about my Mini. He has one the same color....

Jackson was a disappointment, and we didn’t stop.

Our last stop of the day (Before Placerville; where we are now) was our favorite town; Sutter Creek. Very quaint. As it was starting to get late, we didn’t stay long. But we did get ice cream at the old Ice Cream Parlor on the main drag. Yum… ice cream!

The stretch from Sutter Creek to Placerville was my favorite of the whole day. Part of what made it fun was that we had Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps in the CD player. It was the perfect soundtrack!