The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - IX

Wednesday - November 19,  2008

Day - 259

Walking Days - 106       Total GAP miles 1832.7

A relaxing, fun day. Gail and Jerry, and Dave and I had a
relaxing breakfast together. Then we got ourselves ready to head
to the hills - Apple Hill specifically. On the way Jerry very
kindly stopped at a Starbucks for me (I hadn’t had my chai latte
for several days).

Apple Hill is an association of grower members. They formed
this association over 42 years ago. The area is defined by
boundaries that assure excellent growing conditions within their
borders. The soils here are high quality with just the right
climate that bring excellent growing conditions. It is a compact
enough area that one may visit as many ranches as you want in
one day. It is located in and around the Placerville area in the
foothills of the Sierra’s. Check out their website at
www.applehill.com

There are gift shops and eating places, and it’s just a fun place to
visit. We bought some items there that were just too good to
pass up, and that will be used quite regularly. Then at one booth
we started talking to Barbara, who was working there. Two
others from neighboring booths also talked with us some. They
had noticed my necklace - you know, the one Dave gave me
after the walk across America that has the map and a line across
showing our route for that walk.

Barbara and Marilyn asked a lot of questions, and Dave and I
stood there talking for quite awhile. At times he wandered off
while I talked with them. It was really a great time visiting with
these Christian “sisters” who were such a blessing to us.  I took
a picture of Barbara and Marilyn, then went out to join the
others. We sat at one of the picnic tables and enjoyed the lunch
that Gail had packed for us. Then we continued on to some other
sections of Apple Hill up the road a bit.

It was 5 pm when we arrived back in the Lincoln area. We
stopped at Jack in the Box for dinner. I haven’t been in Jack in
the Box territory for months, and I was craving one of my
favorites there - a monster taco. That was good. Then we went
back to Gail and Jerry’s where Dave and I quickly did what we
needed to do, and gathered the stuff we needed to take with us
to visit Chris, Dave’s cousin. Her husband, Ron, was not home,
but at least we had a brief visit with him yesterday.

Sunny girl greeted us when we arrived (their beautiful little
Bishon dog - I’m sure that’s not spelled right, but I have no idea
how to spell it. We went into Chris’ computer room where we
downloaded (or uploaded, as the case may be ????) all of the
GAP Walk pictures, and the GAJ Walk pictures. Chris will be
going through these to pick out scenery pictures, mostly, that
she will use to make greeting cards and such.

Soon Floyd, her father, and Janice, her sister, arrived. For the
rest of the evening we sat and visited, and had a great time of
catching up with each other, jumping from one subject to
another throughout the evening.  All too soon we noticed it was
after 10 pm, and we all had to get moving so we could get some
rest.

Back at Gail and Jerry’s we sat for a bit with them before
heading off to bed. It was a full day, but so much fun!