While traveling back from Lake Tahoe,
my brother and I stopped by Rainbow Orchards for hot apple cider doughnuts and
some fresh pressed apple cider to take home. We left Lake Tahoe later than
expected, so it was a quick stop, then off to Placerville to visit the Fountain
and Tallman Museum. It’s a very small museum with a variety of artifacts on
display in what used to be a soda works factory. It’s a historical building
dating back to 1859.
A lovely, elderly woman greeted us and
provided an overview of the two story museum. A narrow staircase takes you to
the 2nd floor displays housed in another small room. The woman, who is a volunteer, also provides a
paper for a walking town which gives the historic significance of the various
buildings within a three block area.
A gentleman comes in and she goes
begins her overview. He takes a look around the first floor, before making his
way upstairs. A few minutes later a woman walks through the door. She recently
moved to Placerville and wants to learn more information of the area and she
wants to do some research on her home. She is advised to visit the County
Museum where they would have the papers concerning historical properties.
The gentleman comes back downstairs and
we learn he is from Edmonton, Canada who is driving the West and is making his
way to Southern California. He is very interested in history, so I ask which
direction he was going. He didn’t really have a plan, but I suggested visiting
Old Sacramento and going to the Sacramento History Museum, the volunteer
suggested touring the capitol and that’s when he realized Sacramento was the
capitol of California. He says he kept thinking Los Angeles was the capitol. I
explained why it is Sacramento, and how the influx of people moving to
California during the Gold Rush is how California became a state. They quickly
boosted the population. I suggested if he is driving along the Central Coast to
check out Monterey, and if he was a reader of John Steinbeck, then he could
visit the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas. I think between the volunteer
and I the gentleman had plenty of options for his trip to our state.
After leaving the museum, I walked
down the street to a bench in the shade and waited for my brother. A woman in her early 70s was sitting
at the bench with her right leg stretch out. She had a cane to the left side of
her. I learned she and her husband where driving back from Lake Tahoe and
heading back home to Lake County. They spent the night in Placerville last
Saturday, but it was busy with an Oktoberfest event, so they decided to stop
when it was quieter and to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant they enjoyed on
their last stop. While in the Tahoe area, they had also visited a hot springs.
It was just a relaxing getaway for them.
So take the time to meet new people.
They can have some interesting stories.
