Lake Minden RV Park - 2022/07/07-09

Welcome to our next stop! Lake Minden!

Lake Minden RV Park, just a little bit north of Sacramento California and only a 3 hour drive from our last campground. 

And sure enough, the whole campground surrounds a large blue lake. 

After coming from a place with no sewer, I was very happy to find a spot here that had a hookup. Not every spot here has one. We arrived not too long after check-in, so I didn't want to spend too long driving around looking for the perfect space. I just wanted to get into a space that had sewer.  

This one was a little on the small side, but we just barely fit. 

If I park the truck just the right way and maneuver the hood underneath the 5th wheel cab I am just off the road. 

And the back of the RV is pretty close to the neighbors. The entire time we were here, the back neighbors never showed up! 

The one problem we really had though was with the electrical. The sockets are quite loose, so I had to use a bungie to hold the plug in. The voltage on the lines kept tripping my protector, because it was sagging so low due to the load of everyone running their AC units. It's an old park that could really use an electrical upgrade, and they know it. 

A site near mine had a bag over the electrical box I learned because the hardware inside melted! 

As we were out and about, we found a Boudin Bakery! Just like the one at Disney's California Adventure! How can we not stop in? 

Just like DCA, they had bread in different fun shapes. Is that Mickey Mouse? No, we later learned that it was a bear. 

Not all of them are good deals though. A baby turtle for $4 or a whole baguette for $4.50? 

We ended up getting a whole loaf of bread, just like we'd do at DCA along with a stack of butter. 

Yum!

Where's Pop Pop when you need him? 

Ooh! There are 85C bakeries here too! 

Yum!

Look who is here! Jacob! He's having his own summer of travel just like us! 

What should we do together? There's mini-golf here so let's go play! 

I was trying to putt through the obstacle, but somehow this happened! 

What else can you do? 

Ian and Alli did not like this course at all. Why? Because the course was covered with ants! They were all over the holes too, so the kids didn't like getting their ball from hole either. 

The use of bricks as the border of the course added an extra layer of difficulty. You don't always get a nice bounce off the edge, but sometimes you get a weird angle going in a crazy direction. 

In the end, it came down to the last hole. Jacob had the opportunity, but the hole did not cooperate. His putt looped around the edge of the hole and couldn't fall in. It's a tie! 

Jacob brought a card game too! A version of Uno that the kids have only played one other time before with friends in Arizona. Uno Flips! They have numbers and colors on both sides, and when someone throws a FLIP card, everyone has to turn their cards over! 

After a few rounds of that, we like to switch to another game, like Phase 10! 

It's those Shock and Awe type plays that really make playing it wild. 

On one round Ian was the first to go, he grabbed a card from the stack and then announced he was going out! A straight from 1 to 10! Wow! 

There was a local flea market that promised fresh fruit. Theresa was really looking forward to picking up some good fruit, having gone through most of her Fresno fruits. 

More peaches? 

We always look forward to the Candy Bar Bingo that the RV parks offer. And here is another one where you don't even have to bring your own candy. The RV park provides them all and gives them away!

There are so many different variations of Bingo that you can play. The kids had a lot of fun with it, playing for over an hour!

A look at all the candy bars they won! 

I actually showed up with just a few minutes to go. A fellow RVer was having electrical problems and so I grabbed my bag of electrical tools to help diagnose the issues. Using my multimeter, we figured out that his 12V batteries were only at 9V. Then we traced that back to the electrical box having a temperamental connection that we just couldn't get to stay connected. I ended up letting them use my 30' 50A extension cable to hook up to another site so they wouldn't have to move the entire RV.  

As a special bonus, Ms. Susie, the recreation director had another special treat for us when bingo was done. Free ice cream for everyone! 

Wow! Free candy bars and ice cream? Score! 

It's been great hanging out with Uncle Jacob, but I'm sure we'll see him again before too much longer. 

During Bingo, the kids were making friends with people at nearby tables. Somehow the topic of other games came up and these two ladies mentioned how they played Skip-Bo. We love Skip-Bo, and after Bingo was over, the kids asked them if they wanted to play? 

Sure! Though they have a different way to play. Instead of having 4 piles that count up from 1 to 12, they have 2 piles that count up, and 2 other piles that count down from 12 to 1! Can the kids keep up with the change in rules? Absolutely! They picked it right up! And when the ladies pointed out cards the kids could play, they refused on the basis of strategy. Everyone had a good time playing with lots of smiles all around and Ian was the big winner. 

Gotta check those seals on the roof! Though we haven't had rain for a while. 

It's been over a month since we arrived in California. We're way overdue to put that sticker on our map. 

Boom! California! It's really starting to fill up now!

In the evenings, we like to take walks and explore the campground. This one has a large lake to walk around. 

And the kids love checking out any playgrounds they find. 

Fruit Trees! This resort did explicitly state that you weren't allowed to collect anything from the trees and vines on the property. 

Looking back over the lake. 

And enjoying a nice sunset. 

It was a short trip here, but a fun one. We did get out and do a few other things that I'll be posting separately. 

As we were packing to leave, I was chatting with the neighbor who happens to be a fire chief. He came over to chat with the kids a little bit and brought them stickers because who doesn't like stickers! On to the next stop!