We left Monterey's cool and gray skies Tuesday mid day for the heat of the valley and a visit with Paul's sister, MarLyn and her husband Randy. It's been more than a year since we had visited them in their new home near Copperopolis in the foothills east of Stockton. What fun to see all the changes they've made in a year. The house renovations are complete and a new garage was added to their property. Their home/cottage is on a hillside with beautiful trees and views of the hillside across from them from the huge deck that surrounds the house. The heat of the day gave us lovely evenings and a perfect way to enjoy it was on the old pontoon boat they have down at Lake Tulloch.
The lake has 55 miles of shoreline with tiny little coves tucked all along. It's surrounded but the Table Mountain range studded with beautiful mature oaks and scrub. Since it was late in the afternoon and a mid week evening, the lake was quiet and peaceful. With Randy as captain, we found a secluded part of the lake to hang out with a picnic both nights. The first night we went out we needed a flashlight for lighting our way back so...on the 2nd night Paul brought along his LED lighting to add to the front of the boat, turning it into one of the brightest boats coming into the dock.
MarLyn fished, Paul puttered, Randy read and I relaxed enjoying the serenity of this view.
Paul and MarLyn at twilight. As we returned to the dock we looked behind us to see a lovely full moon on the rise!
We were in for a different treat on Friday night...a John Fogarty Concert outside at Ironstone Winery in Murphy's. Such a fantastic evening of music which started off with Arlo Gutherie's Family Legacy Band opening the show. The long, silver-haired Arlo sang both his own and his father, Woody's songs. His talented son, daughters, grandchildren and even great grandchildren joined him on stage as they finished an hours performance with "The City of New Orleans".
Then at 9pm Credence Clearwater Revival's John Fogarty came on stage and performed non stop for an hour and a half. All the wonderful music sung with the voice I remember from 40 years ago. Not much has changed and what a kick to hear it all live. He's an amazing guitarist and changed guitars frequently during the show including his baseball bat guitar he used when doing "Centerfield"! Amazing! Of course, even though we started out sitting in our beach chairs, I just had to dance once John Fogarty started playing. Hoped that Marcus and HJ were singing and dancing with me somewhere out there in that starry night.
Saturday morning was time to roll our newly named motorhome off the planks we'd used to get us balanced. Paul chose the name
Rever for the new name of our house; a French word meaning to dream, which is what we are doing right now...living our dream as we travel this big round rock of earth.
Again, time goes so quickly and we were soon saying good bye to Randy and MarLyn and their cute little house.
We'll be back next year and maybe the next addition will be a flat RV pad at the top of their land for us, but if not...we'll prop up our Rever and enjoy the stay.
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