Saturday 4 August 2018

We have a light motel breakfast this morning. After last night’s dinner we don’t need much to eat. We stop at Castros Bakery, highly recommended on Yelp, to buy some Mexican pastries. We purchase a variety for Manny to thank him for sharing his campsite and a few for ourselves for tomorrow’s breakfast. We also stop to top off Vincent’s tank and to get some DEF. Vincent will be needing a replenishment of his exhaust fluid soon. After a final stop at Starbucks, we hit the road.

Back at Ponderosa Campground we find Manny and his friends. He confirms his offer for us to share site 16. O and I drive the loop and set up Wglwof down a slope from Manny’s tents, hammocks and swing. We finally have an opportunity to sit in the shade, read and observe.

While O reads geology, I am engrossed in a book called Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner, about the use and misuse of water in the American West. On the whole it is, so far, a fascinating but somewhat depressing book. As we read we hear raucous squawking in the spreading California black oak near our campsite. O grabs his binoculars and sees two woodpeckers with red and white head and black back. They fly off before I can get my binoculars and camera. O searches Sibleys to identify the birds. I take a closer look at the tree. Its bark is riddled with holes, some with acorns tucked inside.

We continue reading while we wait for the birds’ to come back. Soon we are rewarded with the return of our squawking feathered friends. We get a clear view of the birds. They are indeed acorn woodpeckers. I snap many photos, hoping for a few clear shots. We see a recent fledgling demanding food from his parents. We imagine the parents saying something like, “The tree is full of acorns. Get your own!” The acorns stored in the tree trunk pantry are last year’s crop. This year’s acorns are still tiny and not yet ready for harvest.

In addition to the woodpeckers, who come and go all day, we see a variety of lizards, and some chickadees, juncos, nuthatches and a warbler. Manny and his son return from a coastal drive. They say it’s a madhouse out on Route 1. We present them with the pastries. Manny and his friend offer us a couple of ice cold Coronas. We trade two of our Mahallo Apollos that we brought from Iron Hill in Pennsylvania.

As we are preparing our dinner, a German couple in a Cruise America RV drive up and ask if there is room at the campground. We point out we are sharing with Manny, but we have seen no one at site 15 all day. They decide to park there and see if anyone else arrives. The campground should empty out a bit tomorrow as the weekend campers leave. O and I have reserved site 16 for tomorrow night. We have site 9 for Monday and Tuesday night. As we sit and enjoy the evening the temperature cools to a more pleasant range as the sun sets.