Our next ‘campground’ was in my Aunt Betty’s driveway. One of the best things about traveling in California, I get to visit with my aunts Marilyn and Betty. They’ve always lived out here while my parents lived in Iowa. I’ve spent more time with them in the last 5 years than I spent in my first 60. And, what fun it’s been.
On the way to her home we passed through some of the agricultural land in central CA. Here’s some field work - back breaking since they have to bend over most of the time. You can see how green the irrigation makes the land. The hills get no irrigation and they are slowly turning back to brown after the last rains we’ve had.
We drove by this reservoir and were stunned at how low it is. You can see how low it is. It is usually up to the green grass on the left slope.
Here’s a section of the reservoir that should be almost up to the camera.
Many of the reservoirs are like this today. Much smaller sections of blue and much larger sections of brown.
We’ve spent the last 3 days camped out in my Aunt Betty’s drive way - a great campground with electricty, a level site, free wi-fi and delicious food. Plus - Betty and her family are special. And, I wish I had taken some pictures somewhere along the way but was enjoying the company so much that the camera just hung on the back rung of the chair in the dining room. Saturday evening, Betty had asked everyone over for dinner. We had a marvelous time chatting with her family: son David and his wife Connie,
daughter Susan whose husband, Troy, who is a beekeeper and is moving his bees tonight, and she could only stay for a short while, daughter Audrey whose daughter is expecting Audrey’s first grandchild, step-son Jeff who was there with his significant other, Robert who regaled us with his tales of his travels, Judy and Nancy, Betty’s sisters who had gathered round with Betty when their mother was sick and Betty. Betty had planned a dinner of home-made tacos, refried beans, salad, all the fixings and peach cobbler and ice cream.
Hmmm - tacos. Not my favorite meal but I was going to eat them. Of course, I’ve mostly seen the tacos in the stores which are as stiff and as brittle as a piece of glass. I’ve always thought that they would snap in your hands when you tried to eat them and now, you’d have a mess on your plate. But Betty cooked her tacos on a griddle and they were as soft and as pliant as a a tortilla. These tacos were delicious.
The peach cobbler baked in the oven while we were eating our dinner and its aroma wafted around us as we finished our meal. Finally the cobbler was done and we all had cobbler with cold ice cream. And some of us had seconds - I won’t mention who.
Do I have a picture of the peach cobbler? Do I have a picture of the dinner? Do I have a picture of Betty cooking? Do I have a picture of anyone who was there? Nope. I was having too much fun talking with them all. But I do have a picture of Betty and I who, with Gary, were taste testing yogurts. We had strawberry, blueberry and peach Chobani and Dannon Light and Fit, both lo-cal and Greek. The Dannon Light and Fit won hands down.
Betty likes to adventure and visit things so on Sunday we headed over to the McHenry Mansion in Modesto. The mansion is a beautiful older home built in 1883 for Robert McHenry, a rancher, businessman and banker in Modesto. It was built for $10,000. Wouldn’t that be a great price to pay for such a large, beautiful home now? But, guess what? There is no real Robert McHenry, it is really just a made-up name. How could that be? And this all came to light just recently when an investigative reporter began to dig into his history. Imagine the surprise in Modesto when they found out that one of their most distinguished citizens after whom the local library was named (it is now a museum), was really a deserter and a fraud.
His real name was Robert Brewster and he was a direct descendant of William Brewster, a Mayflower passenger who became a prominent leader and preacher in Plymouth Colony. However, he deserted from the army during the Mexican-American War when he was transferred to the front lines. He changed his name to Robert McHenry and wandered to California where he was in the ‘mining business’ - actually he was a miner just like thousands of others but he happened to find more gold than they did. From this beginning, he built a ranch, was a banker and became very well-known in the area. Our questions are: if he was a deserter and wanted by the law, why did he establish such a high profile and how come no one ever found him? and, by the way, he was in touch with his family. His brother even visited him in California. There seem to be no answers to these questions.
But back to the house. Built in 1883, it was a beautiful house and has been restored to it original look.
At one point it had been made into apartments but with a grant from the Gallos of wine fame, it has been restored. Most of the furnishings are not original but there are a few which are. The walls were all wallpapered as were most Victorian walls but here the ceilings were papered also. I hadn’t seen that before. Obviously, the more oppulent your hone looked, the richer you were.
They even papered the underneath of the steps to the second story.
Here is one of the original pieces of furniture in the house, the son’s desk. Seems he carved his initials underneath.
Gary and I can’t get over how green it is getting. We’ve been in the desert Southwest most of the winter and then into California where the drought is turning everything brown. However, there are a few sprinkles of green, expecially in the spring. You can see the greenery coming out in this watered lawn. Every tree has a green haze over it as the buds burst forth.
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