Brannon IslandNov 11, 2011
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passing the Napa River on our way to the delta
the highway from Fairfield to the delta
these wind arrays are fairly new
Thursday: Our destination this trip is the Sacramento River delta where we hope to visit wildlife refuges near Lodi, and see the Sandhill cranes. We are watching our grandkids Ryleigh and Sam this week while their parents are on a business trip to Germany, so they are going with us.
Just past noon we herded the grandkids into the RV and after a stop at the grocery store we got on the road for the delta and our campground on Brannon Island. We headed southeast to Highway 101, then south to Lakeville Highway and east through Napa County to Highway 80. A few miles east of Cordelia we turned south east again, and headed toward Rio Vista.
The road is hilly and open, and there are some interesting draw bridges that cross the various waterways that make up the Sacramento River Delta. Half an hour later we turned off on Brannon Island Road, and the ‘scenic 10 Mile loop’ road’ turned to gravel for a ways. It eventually returned to pavement, and we arrived at Lighthouse Resort by 3:30.
We found a campsite that has electric, water and sewer hookups, and while there is no cable TV we managed to get about 9 channels with just our antenna. After a brief exploration of the campground we returned to our RV and settled in for the night. Sam commented several times on how ‘interesting’ the campground is - with a basketball court, miniature golf and a rec room complete with a ping pong table. The kids have done most of their camping at state, county or national parks, and they’re not used to having so many things to do.
Lighthouse Resort is one of the campgrounds on our ROD (Resorts of Distinction) membership, and we can camp ‘free’ here for up to two weeks a year. Our reason for coming to the Delta is to see the Sandhill cranes, which are supposed to be inhabiting the nearby wildlife refuges this time of year, but rain is forecast for tomorrow.
Friday and it's Veteran's Day: The day dawned overcast and cold, and there were sporadic rain sprinkles to make it even less inviting. We decided to postpone our Sandhill crane search and stay at the campground today.
During a break in the sprinkles we played 18 holes of miniature golf. Sam and I tied for first place, with Madolyn and Ryleigh tying for second. It’s a nice little course and the equipment is free, but they charge a $20 deposit which you forfeit if you lose even one ball. This is not a big risk on a miniature course, and we returned all our equipment in tact.
Back home we watched the latter half of a U.S. vs France soccer game on a Spanish speaking channel. France was the dominant team, but the U.S. held them scoreless until near the end. The game ended with France winning 1-0. We spent the afternoon watching TV and playing UNO, and we cooked up a batch of Italian sausage spaghetti sauce that made the RV smell pretty good!
Tomorrow we will go looking for cranes no matter what the weather! Hopefully it will be good.
