We stayed the night in Folsom, a town I served in for 1 year of my mission. Shortly after I returned home they announced that a temple would be built right next to the stake center ( church meeting house ) in Folsom. It is on several acres of land purchased from Aerojet, right after the space race was over. We also saw some wild turkeys when we arrived. We walked the grounds for some time, then went out to dinner and crashed, as we had a big day ahead of us.
The Young Men broke into the house, with a little help from Erika, on Saturday and put together a surprise birthday party. Equipped with a 5 Guys Hamburger ( all the way ) with a candle in it, and pizza. We all ate and watched the best teen movie ever, “Better Off Dead“. Thanks YM, it really made my day. 
At Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, CA is where the gold was discovered that caused the great gold rush. I visited this state park just before my mission ended. They have a great museum and lots to see, could even make an entire day of it if you wanted.
Here is one of the gold scales used by the buyers, with all of the standardized weights.
The boys really loved the blacksmith shop. We nearly spent an hour in there, talking and learning from the two blacksmiths. They work on new pieces for the museum, and you can also order new parts from them, if you pay a nice donation to the museum. They had all kinds of cool stuff in there.
Sutter’s Mill was made by 6 Mormons, from the Mormon Battalion, in 3 months. Then a few years later a flood washed it down river. Several years ago, it took something like 50 prisoners, nearly 2.5 years using the same tools to make the replica of the saw mill. Mormons must have known how to work hard back then.
The first leg of our trip was from SLC to Reno, NV. Nevada is as boring as going to church, so there is nothing really to say about it. After a night in Reno ( and a hamburger from In-And-Out ) we set out to California. We passed several of these ‘Bear Crossing’ signs up by Lake Tahoe. It is really beautiful up in the Sierra Mountains.
We stopped and picked up 10 of these huge pine cones. Each measuring nearly 7 inches tall. They are a good find for the Den Mother / Wife. They will be covered in peanut butter and rolled in seeds to feed the birds in the neighborhood.
As we passed into California, we were stopped at the infamous fruit check stations. The inspector found it unusual that we did not have an ice chest, nor any fruit. So he kept looking around till he found the pine cones. We had to convince him that we got them from the California side of the lake, and not the evil Nevada side. What if we had picked them up from the other side? Would all the fruits of California be wiped away from the face of the earth? Would they be contaminated with Nevada germs? Would there be an interracial breading of pine cones?
This is why we should hate all governments. It is stupid that I have to convince some paperwork loving, letter of the law, retired DMV employee that we are in the right by having a shopping bag full of pinecones. Best part was when we had to keep a silly yellow paper in our car, in case we got pulled over, that we ‘had’ to produce, else we would have to pay a fine.
5 Days Out
Number Of Miles: 1829
Gallons Of Gas: 49
MPG: 37.32
Number of Pictures: 2086
Corolla Turned Over To: 140,000 Miles ( on the way back )
2 Boys Saw Ocean For The First Time.
1 Time Through ‘Travels With Charley’
Met 1 Mormon
1 Trip Across Golden Gate Bridge
1 Stop At In-And-Out-Burger ( 5 Guys Is Much Better )
Drove 12.5 Hours Straight Back Home ( 2 Gas Stops )
Visited 1 Temple
Saw 3 Wild Turkeys
Ran Over 1 Baby Rabbit
Chased ( And Never Caught ) 1 Gecko
Used GPS, Paper Maps, Google Maps, iPhone Maps And Still Got Lost 5 Times
2 Boys Fighting
Watched 4 Movies
Brought Back 10 Pinecones
1 Bag Of Sea Shells And Rocks
0 Flat TIres & 0 Tickets
The family went on a bit of a road trip this week. Left Sunday and went to Tahoe, Coloma, Sacramento, Redwoods, Bay Area, and to Monterey Bay. Will have stats, pics and better detail in the next day or so, as we still are sifting through 2k pictures.
We traveled ‘ultra light’ for our trip. The bags below are 6 Liter tube bags that we fit all of our clothes in for the entire trip. Also if the boys wanted any special toy / stuff to go it had to fit in the bag too. It was really nice as we did not even come close to filling the small trunk of our Corolla.
We brought no ice chest, just the usual backpacking stove, freeze dried food and snacks. Definitely the way to go if you are planning a road trip in the future. BTW, the bags can be bought at Kirkham’s Outdoor Products, found here.
