Yesterday, the 20th, Marilyn and I walked over three miles after breakfast. I spent the afternoon working with Ancestry.com tracing mine and Marilyn’s families.
This morning, the 21st, we, once again, walked over 3 miles. After lunch we visited the Lodi Wine Visitor Center – not much so we left. Then we stopped at WalMart and Safeway.
We were smart when we woke up on the 17th. I had a bagel, and Marilyn had her piece of toast before we went to breakfast where I got my coffee. They did have more donuts, but I only had one. After lunch, we toured the Woodbridge Winery. 
It is huge, but they gave a nice tour, and a 10% discount on 6 or more bottles of wine. We bought 8, and sold two to a friend. The tri-tip dinner was good, and we listened to Johnny Goodrum sing some more tunes – I bought 2 of his cd’s.
Thursday, the 18th, was the day for everyone to leave except the staff, which stayed an extra night. For lunch Denny Orr took a group of us back to Costco where we again had cheap hotdog lunches. As the fairgrounds emptied, we chit-chatted with friends, helped with some bookkeeping for the event, and we all had pizza for dinner. After dinner, we sat out for a little while solving world problems and gossiping.
This morning, the 19th, we packed up and moved the house back to the Lodi Elks Lodge for a few nights. After parking at the Elks, we drove the Jeep to Sacramento to tour the Capitol Museum. 
They started building the Capitol in 1869, and it took 14 years to complete. They were going to put steps to the second floor and name it the first floor, but the state ran out of money. Oh well. The walls were made of brick with a granite veneer, and the mortar began to disintegrate, so, in 1975 while the outside looks the same, the bricks were removed and the interior walls were made of steel reinforced concrete – they became afraid of a collapsing building due to earthquakes. They have tried to make the interior walls, stairs, and some of the offices look like they did in 1902. Some of the offices and chambers – Governor, Senate and House are still operating in the Old Capitol Building. 
The dome is still in place. 
Arnie found a bear statue that he wanted in front of his office. When he left office, he donated the bear. It still stands in front of the Governor’s office. 
The state troupers nicknamed the bear Bacterium but were told that was not politically correct so they re-named it Mike – short for Microbial.
Type at you later.
On the 15th, we had biscuits and gravy for breakfast – only one biscuit, so I was still hungry. I walked through the Market Area – did not find any RV related items I couldn’t live without and I did not find a new motorhome that I wanted. Marilyn helped finish registration, went to line dancing and played bean bag baseball while I did the blog of the 14th. In the afternoon, I went to Mark Nemeth’s “Easy on the Pavement” seminar about getting your rig weighed – he does a good job. At 3:30, Paul Evertt’s RV provided ice cream for everyone while Johnny Goodrun sang. Several people got up and danced – including Susie & Denny Orr, and Marilyn and Denny. 
After dinner, we went to listen to Todd Netland play the piano. Nice concert.
On the 16th, there was coffee and donuts for a donation to CARE. They ran out of donuts, so after my one donut, I went back to the house for a bagel. Marilyn’s team got in to the bean bag baseball playoff, and won again. Prizes were bags of Cracker Jacks.
For lunch, we joined Denny & Susie Orr, and Dennis & Carol Hill at Costco for hot dogs and sodas – total $3.24 for the two of us. At happy hour, we had a Parade of Banners of all of the Chapters and BOF’s represented here at the WARE (Western Area Rally for Escapees). Marilyn and I made up signs to represent Chapter 57 from Florida. 
Type at you later.
Today I had to be up early so I could be outside by helping to park attendee rigs with the rest of the parking staff from 8am to 3pm. Marilyn worked from 9am to 3pm helping Paula Serra, Caroling Fennell and Gloria King with registration. By 3pm we were both ready to sit for a bit. I took a nap.
At 4pm we had opening ceremonies and announcements. Walt Gunn did most of the talking. Denny Orr and Dennis Hill lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Sandy Kruty, our activities director told us about tomorrow’s happenings. Then Brenda Neal called out door prizes.
Then finally, it was time for the wine tasting. We each had 4 tickets for 4 two ounce cups of wine. Of course everyone brought heavy snacks.
Denny Orr was given a Polyp. Of course he is the type that was once given a yellow skirt. 
Of course I had to take pictures of two extremely well dressed young ladies. Tina Woody displayed a Nice Rack over a glass of wine. And Carol Hill is definitely a Social Butterfly. 
We left Vallejo and the San Francisco area on the 11th, although we did not leave our hearts there. We drove CA-12 the 64 miles to the Lodi Elks Lodge. It is a very rough road that really shook everything in the motorhome. After spending two nights at the Elks, we moved the couple of miles to the Lodi Grape Festival Fairgrounds for the Western Area Rally for Escapees that is being held Sunday through Thursday.
Many of our friends are here for the rally also. Here is Marilyn with Carol, Loretta and Gloria. Then Geil Pelley, and Kelly Gunn. Dave Neil is standing with Art & Caroline Fennell. And who could miss Dennis Hill with Frank King. 
I wonder what this lady is doing in this Jeep. 
We went out to dinner at the Lodi Brewing Company, a local micro-brewery. Dinner and the company were great. 
Today is Wednesday. After breakfast, we drove back to the Jelly Belly Factory. We were first in line for a tour. We had just missed the last one. But we only had to wait for 20 minutes instead of over an hour if we had waited last week. The tour is pretty good with several stops in front of TV monitors that explained the history of Jelly Belly, and some of what was happening on the factory floor. There are many steps to making a jelly belly from the making of the center to adding the sugary outer layers. Most flavors take at least a day to make. Overall the tour was good, but they could have given better explanations about what was happening on the production floor. We are glad we went, but we do not think it requires return visits unless you have kids/grandkids to take.
After the Jelly Belly tour, we had lunch at In-and-Out Burger, followed by shopping at Wal-Mart. We returned home and started getting ready to leave the area tomorrow. Marilyn did some cleaning, and I dumped the waste tanks.
Type at you later.
We took our last ferry ride to San Francisco from Vallejo today on the 10am ferry. As soon as we reached the Ferry Dock at 11am, we started walking to Pier 33 so we could get our will-call tickets in time to catch our boat to Alcatraz Island. We made it. We even had time to visit the rest rooms. Here is our ride to prison. 
As soon as everyone was on the boat, they locked the doors and us in. 
Alcatraz Island began its inhabited life as a military fort to protect San Francisco. Eventually it became a military prison in the 1860s, and finally the Maximum Security Prison we recognize from television and the movies. The federal prison was only in use from 1934 to 1963, but housed some famous prisoners like Al Capone and the Bird Man.
Upon arriving on Alcatraz Island, one can see the national park signs, but the first building is the officers quarters. 
The Rock was first occupied by the military in the early 1850’s to defend San Francisco from enemy attack. In fact, the first building is the Sally Port built in 1857. Over one hundred canon were placed on the island for defense.
Many of the original buildings have deteriorated due to fire such as the Officers Club, Chapel and Warden’s home. 
The reason they are in such deteriorated state is that they were declared a National Historic Site by Richard Nixon. Thus the exterior walls can not be changed.
This is a first view of the Cell House. Access is up a walkway-road to the height of a 13 story building. 
Upon entering the cell house, you can pick up a set of head phones for an audio tour of the cell block by both guards and prisoners. It is one of the most wonderfully done audio tours we have taken. You hear information about conditions and attempted escapes.
As we continued our walk towards the cell house, we saw the gardens and foundations of the officers homes. 
Since this was a military property in the middle of San Francisco Bay, a lighthouse was needed to aid navigation, and it has been operating from 1909 to present. 
Life inside the main prison was night luxurious. In fact, each cell housed only one prisoner. 
Interestingly, if you have a visitor, you get to see him/her through one of these little square window. 
Your visitor gets to see you from the other side of the wall. 
Here is a volunteer explaining, and demonstrating how the cell block doors are opened and closed. 
We caught the 3:45pm ferry back to San Francisco (I did not leave Marilyn, and she did not leave me on the island), and then had to hustle to catch the 4:30 ferry back to Vallejo. We arrived at the ferry dock at 4:25pm, and the doors were closed, but one very nice passenger on the ferry came back and opened the doors so we did not have to wait for a later one.
Here are a couple of goodbye pictures to Alcatraz Island and its infamous prison. 
Type at you later.
