After leaving Acorn, we headed towards Irvine, CA. It was too far to drive in a day, so we stopped overnight at a Harvest Host, Great Change Brewing. The smells of the brewery brought back many, many memories of our time spent working and playing at Abita Beer. We had a great sleep, and moved on to what we thought was going to be our next home for a few days.

We had a reservation at an Orange County park, but we didn’t read enough about the park. As we were pulling up to the ranger station to check in, there was a sign. No Dogs Allowed. The park is what they call a wilderness park. In wilderness parks, no domestic animals are allowed. There were multiple reasons including a mountain lion problem. The ranger was kind enough to call another park to see if they had availability for our reservation. Thankfully, they did. So, we turned around and headed to O’Neill Regional Park in Trabuco Canyon, CA.

We were stopping for just one night again, and this time chose to camp on some BLM (Bureau of Land Management). We found the most incredible spot off of American Girl Mine Rd. We were in the Colorado desert and it was beautiful!

We left Emigrant Gap with excitement! We were headed to Ethan and Lara’s house in South Lake Tahoe. We had such a good time together in August that we all decided to it again. Lara and Ethan graciously offered for us to mooch-dock (you stay in your RV at someone’s home) at their house. We were back in civilization, in a neighborhood and with family for some fun.

We even had a bunny visit us at their house.

Lara and Ethan were fantastic hosts. They took us on some beautiful bike rides and walks. We got to watch salmon spawn, take long walks with the dogs, play cards, and drink wine. The entire Tahoe area was beautiful and I could have spent a month or more just exploring. There were amazing bike paths and trails everywhere. We didn’t have to drive at all to get around town.

As much time as Aaron and I have spent isolated in the our wanderings, it did us both good to spend time with family. Through this, we have learned a new appreciation for each other, nature, friends, and family. We could not have asked for a better visit. Lara and Ethan were wonderful. Their dog Tango was great for Murphy. I’m not sure if Murphy was as great for Tango ( he is older and Murphy is still a puppy and way too energetic), but Tango taught Murphy some manners. Lara was also very helpful in training advice. We were sad to go, but it was time. I have a feeling that we will be camping together again in the future. Hopefully, the near future.

We had a spot booked at Acorn in Spring Valley, CA and we needed to get there so that Aaron could get his work laptop, check in with his Fremont crew, and keep wandering further south before winter.

As we pulled into Acorn, we saw a deer checking out someone’s campsite. We had stayed here once before. This is the place where our ring camera caught the deer at sunrise by the lake. There were still deer everywhere, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and the lake was the perfect place for Murphy and I to spend the day while Aaron drove to Fremont.

This is the original shot. The black specks are parachutes.

In a cropped version, I counted 6 separate parachutes. What a cool way to start our four day stay.

With Aaron’s mission accomplished, it was time to move south again. We were headed towards Irvine, CA to stop in at a jobsite and experience a little bit of southern California before making our slow trek back east.

We spent the week in Snowflower Campground in Emigrant Gap, CA. It was pretty much a noneventful week filled with lots of walks with the dog. There were young growth redwoods scattered in amongst the pines. It got cold (to us anyway) in the evenings and mornings, but the afternoons were great.

There were dirt bike and ATV trails not far from our sight. Murphy enjoyed watching them all drive past. He would get very excited for each one. Friday the 13th was uneventful, and we missed the eclipse. It was really cloudy, the light change was pretty cool, but that is about all we got from it.

The gang will be together again, and more games of cards will be played! Look out Tahoe, here we come!

Driving through the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range never disappoints. It is such a beautiful and varied landscape with mountains, creeks, rivers, lakes and valleys. If it wasn’t October and getting cold, we could spend months out here and just scratch the surface of all the beautiful places. It is getting colder, and we do not want to be here when the snow starts. We will be making our way south very soon!

We made it to Logger Campground just north of Truckee, CA and just 30 or so miles west of Reno, Nevada. There were very few people there when we arrived, but there were a lot of squirrels! Murphy loved being able to run free and chase them all over the place.

It was time to do laundry and grocery shopping, so we decided to check out Reno, Nevada. It was very close and neither Aaron or I had ever been there. We took the dog, so no casinos (this time). We did drive around and sight see and have lunch while we were there. It was Saturday, and Saturday should never be a chores only day!

We were very close to where the Donner Party was trapped for the winter. If you aren’t familiar with the Donner Party, they were on The Oregon Trail and got stuck for the winter. They turned to cannibalism to survive. Usually they consumed pioneers in their party who had died of natural causes, but they did kill two Native American guides for food as well. We will probably be back to actually explore Donner Lake and learn more of that story.

We made it to our new destination, which happens to be close to Crystal Lake (Friday the 13th is coming up). I wonder if we will run into Jason…hopefully not!

I also wonder where we will end up for Halloween! Hopefully not with Michael Myers…Happy October!

We arrived at the western edge of the Eldorado National Forest. We had a spot booked at the Dru Barner Campground. This was a really cool campground which was built and intended for equestrian campers. Just about each site had a paddock for horses, and there was manure scattered all about. Murphy thought adding horse manure to his diet was a great idea, Aaron and I did not. We were the only people there almost the entire week. We did have some distant neighbors with horses for a few days. The dog never got comfortable with them riding past our site. Luckily, the horses were not spooked by his barking!

Aaron had a busy work week, and I had a very quiet one with lots of down time. It was so quiet and peaceful there. It did my mind and soul good to just rest and listen to the stillness of the forest. We did have a few stressed nights worrying about the possible government shutdown. Our next planned stop was also in a national forest and if the government had shut down, we would have had to scramble to find reservations elsewhere. Fortunately, for us, the shutdown did not happen.

After our quiet week in Eldorado, it was time to head east and a bit north to the Tahoe National Forest. October was coming, and we were preparing ourselves for some colder weather before we head south and slowly east.

Look out Tahoe, here we come!