This weekend was a nice regroup after our reservations were cancelled at Wright’s Beach due to all of the fire evacuations in Sonoma County. I can’t complain about losing the site, and I hope those who needed it were offered some peace and healing ocean energy. We experienced about five minutes of contemplating just staying home, and then Richard found a place we’d never been to that sounded interesting.
Winter is coming and we are arriving post sunset now. After Daylight Savings Time switches over, it will be even darker. I’ve gotten pretty used to towing at night though, so it’s ok. Also, it was a really lovely drive up highways 12 and 88.
Saturday we explored the state historic park and that was incredibly cool. In addition to a nice museum dedicated to local Native American history, the site was set up with recreated outdoor structures, including a huge Roundhouse where sacred ceremonies take place every fall. The site is famous for the mortar holes ground into the limestone bedrock, used by the Miwok villagers to grind acorns and seeds into meal. The whole experience was fascinating, though inescapably sad.
After eavesdropping on tour groups for a while, we took a short nature trail and ended up back at Dory for lunch. From there, Richard headed out for a bike ride and I wrote a report. At this point, I’m so used to the working set up in Dory, I’m not sure I’d be able to write a report at home.
In the afternoon, we decided to tackle a project. We’ve been noticing small amounts of water under the front doorstep for a while now. I thought it might be solved by re-caulking the toilet, but no. And as there was no other ready explanation for where it could be coming from, we went ahead and looked behind the shower faucet to see if we could diagnose the problem. 
Getting to the panel in the first place requires removing all of the shelves. Not too hard, as each shelf is held on by one screw, plus velcro to keep them on their supports. After that, we had to remove four long screws before the panel could come off. It’s an awkward space to see or do anything, but we were able to identify actual signs of very, very, slow leaks coming from both the hot water faucet, and the T that brings fresh water to the toilet and the cold water faucet. It wasn’t easy, but we tightened the hose straps at these junctures and waited to see if any more water came out. After an hour and no signs of wetness, we declared the project a success and put everything back together. I would like to say this story has a happy ending, but alas, in the morning we noticed some moisture on the ground. Less, for sure, but enough to tell us we’re going to have to do this again at some point.
*Update: we actually think it’s fixed. We didn’t see any leaks the next weekend and we left the pump on while she was in the garage, with no signs of leaks. Crossing our fingers, but I think just a little bit of tightening did do the trick. We shall keep you posted.
Sunday we stopped at Brannan Island to dump tanks and have a bit of lunch. We both really like that place. It was all but empty except for a preponderance of bunnies and ground squirrels. Fun!
And the last thing to report was that we got a new 12v hand vac that seems pretty nice. I honestly didn’t realize this model doesn’t have a battery, but I think this will suit us better. It didn’t use up too much main battery power and it reaches nicely between the bed cushions and walls. There was an awful lot of blue fluff back there.
Total miles: 109.2, 15.6 mpg, 3 hours 13 min. Site 11, pull through. No good solar sites anywhere, but nice, woodsy feel and good spacing between most sites. No hookups, but water spigots and nice bathroom. No dump. Sporadic service for ATT, very little for Verizon.
