![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Murphys-300x228.jpg\")
<\/a>Murphys Hotel<\/p><\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Despie-300x245.jpg\")
<\/a>With Dennis at Murphys Hotel Bar<\/p><\/div>\n
We left Lake Tahoe<\/strong> around 8:00 a.m. on a beautiful Thursday morning heading south; we took Highway 50 to Highway 49 heading into the \u2018Gold Country\u2019.<\/strong>\u00a0 We drove through a good deal of burned forest, caused by the fire in 2021 that scorched more than 346 square miles of the Sierra Nevada Forest<\/strong>, destroying 1,000 structures, with over 50,000 residences being evacuated.\u00a0 A real blight on an otherwise gorgeous drive.<\/p>\n We eventually hit Angel’s Camp<\/strong> and Sutter’s Mill<\/strong>, the place where gold was first discovered in California, leading to the gold rush of 1849.\u00a0 We fortunately arrived one week after the famous, Calvaris County Frog Jumping Contest, made famous by Mark Twain, so the place was not overcrowded with tourists, like us!\u00a0 I had called an old friend from Yorba Linda Country Club, Dennis Despie<\/strong>, who had relocated to the Mother Lode County, and we agreed to meet him at Murphys Historic Hotel <\/strong>\u2018Queen of the Sierras since 1856\u2019<\/em>; in downtown Murphys<\/strong> for lunch.\u00a0 It is a classic old hotel, with a great bar and bartender, Kurt, where we sat and had a delicious lunch and a cold beer and heard about the history of the place.\u00a0 It was so good to see Denise again as he told us all about the area and how he and his family were doing.\u00a0 After lunch, Jack and I took a walk around this quaint little town and we had to buy a T-shirt.<\/p>\n Don & Barbara Stutzman back in the day<\/p><\/div>\n Susan (Stutzman) Scarth (Remember her from our Novato visit!) had set up another meeting for us in this area with Barbara Stutzman<\/strong>, Don Stutzman’s, second wife and widow, she owns and operates a wedding venue site that we understand to be one of the premier wedding venues in America.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Union Hill Inn<\/strong>, you can check it out online.\u00a0 We met and talked with Barbara for about 30 minutes in her cottage on the property and then she asked us if we wanted a tour, we said yes and got in a golf cart parked near by, and went about 50 feet and then the battery died.\u00a0 That was the end of the tour, so, like you, we\u2019ll have to check it out online, but it looked spectacular! \u00a0We headed into the quaint downtown of Sonora<\/strong>, where we walked down the main drag and found, of all things, a bar, The<\/strong> Iron Horse Saloon<\/strong>, where the bartender liked the story of our road trip so much that he bought us a drink, maybe two.\u00a0 We spent our last night on the road at the Hotel Lumber Jack<\/strong> in Sonora.<\/p>\n A five-hour drive the next morning got us back to Santa Maria<\/strong> and, just like our journey’s beginning, we had dinner with Sharon and Deb & Steve Rau, but this time at their newly remodeled home \u2013 beautiful!\u00a0 I spent the night at Jack & Sharon’s and drove home early the next morning.\u00a0 Happy to be back home to Linda and my own bed, but filled with some extrodiary memories.<\/p>\n Days on the road: 10<\/strong><\/p>\n Miles covered: 1,987<\/strong><\/p>\n Number of counties visited: 32<\/strong><\/p>\n Number of clouds seen during the 10-day trip: 3<\/strong><\/p>\n Spending 10 days with my brother visiting friends and some of the most beautiful and iconic places in California: Priceless!<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Sparrow We left Lake Tahoe around 8:00 a.m. on a beautiful Thursday morning heading south; we took Highway 50 to Highway 49 heading into the \u2018Gold Country\u2019.\u00a0 We drove through a good deal of burned forest, caused by … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Barbara-Don-188x300.jpg\")
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