West Point

On July 14, I wrote that Saturday night. My friend and I sat on the rocks behind the hotel we were staying at in Volcano – the Union Hotel. We saw a rabbit as we wandered over to the amphitheater. Sadly, the show was a private affair. Back at the hotel, we had to watch the Return of the King DVD because Two Towers was missing from the library.

I got up lazy the next morning at around 8:15 but we got going quickly. We went downstairs and had French toast. I was really content with my morning.

We drove to Highway 26 and we descended to the Mokelumne Crossing. It was a bit late so it was hot. We got the bikes out and tried riding the canal trail in the direction of Tiger Creek Reservoir. We had to stop in shade several times and we decided to take it easy at that point. I only wanted to see if the road between the reservoir and the highway connected anyway.

We gave up on going swimming and we went to West Point instead. We got a drink at Willow‘s restaurant. We even met Willow. She seemed like a nice lady. We had thought they opened later, but they were actually closing for the day.

I suggested we take a drive up the hill on Winton and we agreed that might be a nice idea. The drive gave me insight into the area and views of the Mokelumne River, Blue Mountain, Bear River and Blue Creek. It was a breath of fresh air for both of us.

When we returned to West Point, we went to the VFW. They told us about the nonprofit up the street, a supper club promoting local schools. So, we went there and discovered they were having their weekly dinner deal fundraiser. They offered us tri-tip and mac & cheese. The food was great and we were really happy about the whole experience.

We returned to the river then. It was not too late, but I only got in once. We clapped for a little girl jumping in the water. We decided that the water was too quick for real swimming though. So, we drove up to 88 then. I looked at a couple of other roads as we drove back. One went to the hardware store. We descended to Volcano and had a small meal and a drink.

The evening was pleasant. We went for a walk. There was an old apartment complex or something maybe part of the (now closed) St. George Hotel. We found two phone booths. We walked along the creek. There was a big mansion kind of house there. We watched Merchant of Venice from the DVD library at the hotel.

The next day, we got up and left at 6:45. There was food in the fridge for us. We drove to Pine Grove, Ridge, over to Highway 16 and out to Rancho Murietta.

After we got gas, we went through Sacramento to Vacaville and arrived in Vallejo a short while later. We got on Highway 37 and went to Novato. Most of the drive was unnoteworthy, but we had scones from the Union Hotel. We were stoked about seeing birds in the North Bay as we drove along. We put folk and country on the sound system.

We hit a bunch of traffic then but we got to the toll plaza a short while later. Then I dropped my companion off and after I unpacked I dropped the car off at the car rental place and caught a bus to work.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.