No Room at the Inn!

March 4, 2006
I had it all planned. We’d drive north of Sacramento and leave the interstate to go west on a side road to Brooks, California where the Cache Creek Casino is located. It’s one of the largest and most modern casinos and looks very new. However, security told us to pull out of the spot we chose and to go back up the hill to the area assigned for RV’s. We wound through several levels of parking lots and a security guy on a bike pointed further up saying “don’t worry, the bus will pick you up and bring you down to the casino”. So up and up we went, leaving the blacktop behind and onto gravel. Still no RV’s, so we drove further up onto a rough dirt track where a sign proclaimed “Overflow Parking” and there we spied a couple of parked RV’s on the side of a muddy hill. One of them had tried to level his unit and its front wheels were in the air. A construction site behind the lot meant trucks were travelling through constantly and huge industrial garbage containers sat in the middle of the pothole filled RV area. We didn’t feel the usual casino welcome, so we ventured on.

We were heading for the coast eventually so carried on through Highway 16 and 20 to the next casino – Konecti in Lakeport, which sounded so lovely in the book description. What a dump! And they CHARGED for their campsites - $30. So we ventured on.

I had promised Fernie a short drive but his temper was getting short now. I told him there was one more casino only 18 miles further near Hopland. As we entered Highway 175, we noticed a warning sign “No vehicles over 39 feet long”. Fernie said “we’re only 30 feet, so we’re ok”. I reminded him that the car and hitch would add about 15 feet and insisted we unhook and I drive the car through ahead. Thank goodness I did – the road was the most precarious I’d ever seen and there had been many washouts and slides in the days previous and the edge of the road was crumbling away in many places with precipitous drops beside it. Then it climbed over 3,000 feet and there was snow – luckily not any left on the road. The thirteen miles we travelled seemed to take forever. I would pull over every so often and wait to see Maggie appear in my rear view mirror scared that it might not. When we arrived at the casino, Fernie greeted me with “I need a drink – a strong one”. He related how the stress-filled drive had left him weak and how he almost hit a deer on descent and the deer ran up the steep slope beside the road, lost its grip and slid back down onto the road narrowly missing the motorhome again.

I ran over to the casino and asked if we could stay overnight and they said to stay as long as we wanted. We found a beautiful spot, set up and I made Fernie a very strong Margarita.