Interesting Times: Yosemite to Redding, CA

Click on map to enlarge

The beginning of our trip was a semi-nail biting drive from Indian Flat RV Park down Highway 140 . . . some steep grades, lack of shoulders, sheer drop offs into the raging Merced River . . . but other than that, it was a beautiful drive.

Our original route from Yosemite to Placerville was to be along Highway 49. However, about 20 miles into this highway we saw “Road Closed” signs. We just kept driving because we figured there would be a detour ahead. We were wrong. The road just ended.

Dead End, Sucker

No detour at all. So we unhooked our Jeep from the RV, turned the motorhome around, and then re-hooked the Jeep. This, plus backtracking, plus a longer route, added about an hour to our trip. No biggy. We arrived at our Placerville campground late in the afternoon.

PLACERVILLE

Our Campground Site

The Campground Spa

Dinner with Tim & Beth — great company, great food

REDDING

After 4 nights at Placerville, we hit the road early this morning because SOMEONE BOOKED A CAMPGROUND STARTING ON MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND. Fortunately, traffic was light because we were on the road by 7 am. Yahoo! Dodged a bullet.

We arrived at our campground near Redding at about 11 am, had dinner at a burger joint, and did some grocery shopping.

Our Redding Site

Then at about 8 pm my iPhone received this incredibly loud text message from the National Weather Service that said in effect Tornado Alert! Take cover immediately!

We had been seen thunderheads building all day, but thought nothing of it. However, when we checked the Internet weather radar, it looked bad.

Fortunately, the storm missed us and ran out of gas. When we were outside our RV watching the sky, we met our neighbor who was camping in a small, pull-behind travel trailer in the site next to us. Her name was Jan and she’s an Earth Science high school teacher. Jan told us that she lost her home during last year’s wild fires, but was in the process of rebuilding. However, she also told us that it will be another 5 months before she can move in to her new house.