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A Sunday Drive

We took about a 60-mile drive through the Mariposa countryside today. We’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while and finally took the drive.

It was great. We truly live in a beautiful area, and much of it in reach with a short drive.

Some photos from our trip . . .

Chief Waupaca

For some reason our Sunday drive reminded me of summer vacations my family used to take in northern Wisconsin.

Often we’d stop near a Waupaca, WI historical marker for Chief Waupaca. I’ll never forget the text on that marker . . . it was so . . . well, here it is . . .

I think that Waupaca settlement narrowly escaped a massacre. When Sam Wapuka fell off his horse and then died immediately, it was very very fortunate that his fellow tribesmen didn’t interpret Sam’s sudden death as an omen to kill whitey.

However, judging by the last sentence, it looks like Sam’s progeny quickly became part of the white community — at least in name.

We Got Shot!

With Moderna vaccine lot #043L20A . . . whatever that means.

I was scheduled for the vaccine last week, but the weather delayed the vaccine shipment. However, the county rescheduled me for today. Jan tagged along to see if she could also get vaccinated. She did.

When we arrived at Vaccination Central (aka Mariposa County Fairgrounds), I was checked in first as I was actually invited. On the other hand, Jan was first turned down as the county was only vaccinating septuagenarians and Jan is a year shy.

However, just after I was shot, Jan was allowed to get one too. Yahoo!

The 2nd dose for both of us is already scheduled in March.

It’s Official. We ARE Californians Now

Today we got licensed and plated (driver’s licenses & car/RV plates, that is).

In a marathon CA DMV session (~ 5 hours), Jan and I were able to obtain both our driver’s license plus the license plates for our Jeep and our RV.

Actually, both of us were kinda surprised by how smoothly it went. Since COVID, DMV inside access has been all but curtailed. Instead you wait in long lines OUTSIDE awaiting your turn to come inside. All in all pretty efficient.

We filled out as many of the forms (there were a just a few) the night before.

We had to have both our Jeep and the RV “validated” to get our CA registration. That just means we drove to the DMV office and an official checked our VINs, and so on.

Costs were about $320 for the Jeep . . . a fair amount of that is because we failed to register the Jeep within the 30-day time period. The RV registration was about the same cost. Very surprised. AZ registration was much more because AZ adds a percentage of the RV’s market value onto the registration fee. Costly, especially for newer RVs.

However, in order to drive a 40-foot RV in CA, you need what’s called a non-commercial Class A license. (If your RV is greater than 40 feet, then you need a non-commercial Class B license.) Both types of licenses have similar requirement: written tests, health statement (or exam), and finally a behind-the-wheel driving test . . . which we’ll have to take in Modesto (about 75 miles away).

And who will be taking that non-commercial Class A license test first?