Today we decide to follow our friends' suggestion and visit
High Hill Farm, one of the Apple Orchards now in high season. This takes us along CA 49 in the opposite
direction from the way we came in (thank goodness). In less than a mile we're in Coloma, site of
the first gold discovery. We drive
through the town, most of which is now part of a state park, saving this for
tomorrow.
Soon the road starts climbing and becomes twisty, although
it's not nearly as bad as it was coming in from I80. We're still traveling through lush farm
country and eventually we arrive at US50 (yes, the same road we traveled across
Nevada!) at the town of Placerville.
The road across the highway points to "Tourist
Information" so we decide to try again for a map. This takes us to the main street of Placerville
which shares three things with the main street of Truckee
- it's cute, narrow and congested!
Fortunately we're driving the car, not the RV, but we get through town
without seeing any tourist info - strike 2!
We take Rte 50 east for a few miles and soon find the
farm. It's huge! First we check out a display of working
models of 19th Century machines, some of which identify their function, some of
which don't! Beyond that a row of craft
tents that we explore - everything from hand lotions that "don't dry up
your hands" to cute model houses to jewelry.
Eventually we find the apple barn with displays of more
kinds of apples than I've ever heard of.
In fact I'd be hard pressed to name as many fruits as they have
varieties of apple! They also sell apple
salsa of various kinds, apple chutney and anything else made of apples you can
imagine. We buy a couple of bottles but
pass on the apple fritters, apple donuts and suchlike.
We cross the path the their "restaurant" and
choose from a bewildering variety of
apple pies. I choose a slice of
something called "Caramel Apple Crunch" and it's just as wonderful as
it sounds - light flaky pastry, crisp apples, something crunchy on top
smothered in caramel, and pecans, which I don't particularly like, but covering
them with caramel makes them great! It comes with a huge scoop of smooth home
made vanilla ice cream.
Stomachs satisfied, we peruse the rest of the craft stalls
and decide it's time to check out Placerville
(pronounced with a short "a", we find). We park the car and walk down main
street. We still don't find the tourist
info but admire the huge bell tower in the middle of the street and visit some
shops without buying anything. When we
get to the Farm Table Cafe, housed in an old hotel, and check out their menu,
it's time to complete the meal. (We
already had dessert, remember?)
The name says it all - everything is freshly grown and
cooked to order. Vicky has the daily
special - a spicy sausage in a pretzel bun, accompanied by a salad of to die
for multi-colored cherry tomatoes cooked with tarragon. I get the same salad with an empanada - light
flaky pastry surrounding a mix of chorizo, cheese and vegetables. It's as good as any I had in South
America and better than many.
They call it an appetizer but with the tomatoes it's enough for me,
especially after the apple pie!
Now it's time to head back to the RV park where two cats
tell us they're ready to eat. We serve them. They eat the obligatory two bites and visit
with us. Of course, everything will be
eaten eventually.
I didn't mention that the site I chose for us is right along
the American River. We have the sound of the river passing over
some Class II rapids, and if it weren't for our fellow campers we would have
the peace of the countryside. But even
through the place is now full, and our neighbor's canopy is on top of our
slideout due to the small spaces, we do have a great view across the
river. No sign of the otters yet but we
do have a family of ducks. A delightful
spot that we'll come back to, especially now we've found a route that won't
test the RV and our nerves, but we'll come midweek since it fills up on
weekends.
You can raft the river and we probably will next time, but
for now there's plenty more to do.
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