Thursday, September 20, 2012

The Brewery and the Seventh Day Adventists


Thursday and Friday we decided to just “putz” around and enjoy Prado Park and the surrounding area.  There was some shopping to do and Dave wanted to check out some breweries.  After filling up the fridge and pantry we set off for 2 of Dave’s favorites:  The Bruery and Bootleggers.  At Bootleggers, Dave joined the “old white men drinking beer club” (really!  That’s what they called themselves!).  This table adopted us.  They meet almost every Thursday and they bring interesting brews to share with each other.  It was a little weird drinking Bruery Specialy Reserve at the Bootlegger, but we overcame it!  Dave really enjoyed shooting the bull with the guys and I joined in too between trips to the food truck.  In California, tasting rooms can’t sell food, so they almost always have a food truck in the parking lot.  This one had a truck specializing in bratwust and tatertots with various toppings.  We skipped the tots!  The “old white men” warned us that the Bruery had a new tatsting room and had lost its character.  They were really right.  It was nice and air conditioned, but the owners and brewers had been replaced by college students pouring the beer and they weren’t near as much fun to talk to.  I guess this is a case where success breeds contempt… at least by the “old white men!”  The food truck, however, served great burgers!

Friday dawned hot so we took the segways out early.  I wanted to find the peacock again and instead of finding just “cocky”…. We found a whole flock!! Behind one of the service sheds was a feeding pen .  Unfortunately they were too skittish for photos. After polishing off the cleaning of the RV, I took a nap with my novel.  When I woke up, a tent town had blossomed on the field outside our RV.  We had noticed the string grid, and wondered what it was for.  There was a Pathfinder conclave scheduled for the weekend at the park.  About 500 young people and their chaperones proceeded to come in and set up.  We found out that Pathfinders is a co-ed scout-type organization run by the Seventh Day Adventists.  The other RV campers were not thrilled, but we sort of enjoyed watching them and knowing we didn’t have to chaperone.  Except for using up all the toilet paper in the loo, they were really nice kids and were not noisy at night.  We decided that the rest of the RV’ers were cranks who couldn’t enjoy watching kids having good clean fun.  We thought it was refreshing, but of course we were leaving in the morning.
 

On the way to Sequoia (actually Vasailia) we saw vineyards with oil wells in the middle.  That seemed like a win, win situation!  We again noticed the California flora… there is always something blooming and I swear we saw ivy (or some vine) growing up more than 6 stories on a Holiday Inn!!  And they can make a hedge out of almost any plant!  We also saw nut trees, cotton, peaches, oranges and pomegranates growing.

We dropped the RV at a KOA and took off for Sequoia before dark.  It was pretty far and curvy to go for the Sequoia grove, but they are so massive and quiet, it was worth the trip. 

On Sunday morning, we realized that they Panthers/Saints game would start at 10am our time and that there was probably a sports bar with all access to games.  A call to Wild Wings confirmed this.  We folded up the RV and dropped it at a Walmart and had Panthers and Saints for breakfast!   Somehow though, chicken wings for breakfast was a little less than appetizing!   We left at the start of the 4th Quarter to make sure we got to Yosemite before it was too late and I worked Dave’s phone with the NFL app and my phone with Jennifer playing Words with Friends and texting me to keep tabs of the game… Jennifer told us about the ultimate win first!! Go WWF!!!

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