Meeting friends in Penn Valley CA

25 years ago I was working at Frankfurt (Germany) airport and made friends with Ray Macintyre that was the Pan Am Germany Manager,during the 3 years that we both were stationed there  we and our spouses met many times ,but as always there came a time that we both were relocated and we lost contact for a long time but renewed our contact again.

The last time we met was in Half Moon Bay CA in 2005 and it was a great pleasure to meet Ray again after so many years, we left the trailer in Virginia City and drove the scenic Hwy 20 to Penn Valley where Ray lives by now.

 

Ray and Ruth welcomed us into their beautiful house and did some catching up until leaving to a car show that was taken place in the neighbourhood next to the lake.

   

We spent the late evening on the porch zipping wine and having a great time

 

On the following day Ray & Ruth took us for a ride along the scenic Hwy 49 visiting the small old towns along the way:Coloma,Placerville,Amador City and Sutter Creek,all very colourful and with a long history.

   

As all of these small towns depended in the past on mining it was impossible to complete the day trip with out visiting at least one mine and see some of the huge equipment's that are displayed all over the place.

 

In between we visited bars and had some chats with the locals including a grand tour from a manager of the oldest hardware store West of the Mississippi that told us very interesting story’s about the shop and the area.

On the third day our great hosts suggested to tour Nevada City and Grass Valley ,2 beautiful towns loaded with mining history,so we drove down ,walked the main streets ,visited the covered bridge that was used to be a main passage to the traffic from East to West in the early days.

Take a look at the toll prices at that time for passing with wagons and horses….

It was tough and expensive,but the Gold Rush did not stop the people from trying.

Thank you Ray and Ruth for your kind hospitality it was just fantastic to meet you after so many years and I hope that the next time we get together will not take so long.