Sacramento – Day 3

Friday July 3 – Today was a catch up day from yesterday. We went to visit Arnold at the State Capitol Building. But unfortunately, or fortunately whichever the case may be, he wasn’t at home. Apparently he was too busy passing out IOU’s to the bill collectors (California doesn’t have enough money to pay its vendors) and raising the number of state employee’s furlough days to 3 each month (California doesn’t have enough money to pay its employees). It sounds a little like Washington State, doesn’t it? I wonder what is next? Letting all of the state prisoners out of jail one day a week? With all of the prisons that we saw (see previous post) they must have a bazillion prisoners. They could save a bunch by giving them a day off. Okay everyone in cell block 3 you get Monday off. Have a good time and we will see you back here 8:00 Tuesday morning. Just think, with all that savings Arnold and the State Legislature would not have to cancel any of their junkets to Europe this year. After all, politicians need these vacations on the taxpayers’ expense. (Enough of the soapbox, this was an unpaid political announcement, and I approve this message).
Anyway we did get our Capitol picture. The California Capitol Building and grounds is one of the prettiest we have seen so far. Lots of palm trees, flowers and public space. There were also a lot of squirrels on the grounds also but thankfully they were not as friendly as the ones at Zion. There was no need to do the “Squirrel Dance” to keep them from crawling up the pants leg.
We also visited the 28 acre “Old Town” of Sacramento, a registered historic landmark and state park. This is a great little area down by the Sacramento River that has some of the beautiful old buildings dating from the late 1800’s complete with boardwalks and horse drawn carriages. They even had some old Hotels that had the arched windows. We learned last year in Pendleton Oregon that arched windows indicated this was a place where lonely cowboys could find some female companionship on an hourly basis. If you know what I mean.
Saw old Fort Sutter which is now a state park and right across the street from the hospital where Dianne’s friend Nancy works. We decided to park, check out the Fort and have some lunch. Instead we discovered another way California is trying to make ends meet. We put our money in the PAY HERE machine to get a sticker for our window. It authorized our payment – but it wouldn’t print a sticker. Finally we put the sticker that another machine had so kindly printed when we paid to park at the Capitol back in our window. We managed to run across the street, take a couple of pictures of the Fort and leave without supporting the economy even more by getting a ticket. Maybe we can go stand in Arnold’s IOU line? After being bold enough to go off the edge of the map we had and getting lost a few dozen times we finally made it back to the motor home. By getting lost we at least we got to see the town. Some portions of the town multiple times since we went in circles a lot. Only 92 degrees here the last two days and cooled down enough at night to not need the air conditioner.
Tomorrow we are invited to the Anderson’s for a Fourth of July BBQ. (AKA the Nancy and Dianne trip through memory lane and Giggle Fest, oops I mean Chortle Fest. They don’t giggle, remember? Actually, when they were visiting the other night there were a few tears. Women, Go figure..).
This may be the last post until we get to Bend, Oregon on Monday. I don’t think there will be time for any posting on the Fourth of July (I may not even remember what happened on the Fourth of July) and there will probably not be any internet connection at the Klamath Falls Fairgrounds where we will be on the 5th.
Have a safe and sane Fourth and keep all your fingers safely attached to your hands.

Old Sacramento

California Capitol Building