Happy Birthday MONTH, Mom! Flowers were almost on their way because I still have it stuck in my head your birthday is in March. I changed the flower order to the right day but I thought I would send early birthday wishes anyway. Why not celebrate for a whole month!? (And no, I didn’t forget that Michele’s birthday really IS just around the corner…)

We set out for the foothills and ended up in the Delta. I love spontaneity. Always before the Central Valley has just been something to get past but, on this trip, it became the destination by default. It was a happy accident, caused by a late start and a missed turn but, none-the-less, it was perfect. Brannon Island State Recreation Area was warm, sunny and lushly green, with flat paths for biking and calm water for canoeing with dogs. And it was populated with very nice folks. We tend towards reclusiveness and I can’t remember us ever being such social campers before, at least not since Steve led river trips for hire. Ever since reading “Anne of Green Gables” as a girl, I have been searching for kindred spirits. This trip was full of them.

First it was Dick and Nancy, retirees from San José who toured us around the campground our first day, steering us to a place where we could get away with giving the dogs a little off leash time. They sort of adopted us but the dogs might have been the big attraction. They took pity on them when I was busy trying to get my homework done and took them off for little walks. They even did poop patrol. Nancy was a saint and I think Ginger would have gone anywhere with Dick, if only he would have her. When they said “good-bye” and prepared to drive off, we had to hold her back from getting in the truck with him.

Then it was Sharon and John from Alaska. After leaving careers in journalism and teaching, they now travel the country in their truck camper performing at schools, with Sharon reading passages from her Bernie Jones children’s books while “Johnny B.” accompanies on the piano. Then they come back the next day to do a book signing and sell books. They won the National 2006 James Patterson Pageturner Award for “Spreading the Joy of Reading in a Unique Way”. I was inspired … they have found a way to live their life that is adventurous and satisfying, and which puts to use their unique talents. I hope we get to visit them in Homer some not-too-far-away summer.

Next there was Gene. He’s from Dayton, Montana and we want to visit him too. He owns property in both Montana and in San Francisco, and rents it out for a living, traveling around in between with his wife, Virginia (who was in the City so we didn’t get to meet her), three dogs and a cat. One of the dogs, Bailey, was having some potentially serious health problems and Gene was back and forth between camp and the vet while we were there. I think about him and Bailey, hoping and praying that things turned out okay.

Camp got unpleasantly full on the weekend and Steve and I packed up, thinking we might as well go home. But once again, what we thought we would do, wasn’t what we did. Driving along Highway 12, we passed a sign that said “camping” and off we went to see what we could see. At the end of a dirt road surrounded by sod farm fields we found a hidden jewel in Westgate Landing Park. Available for boat-in or drive-in camping, there was only one other couple there. They camped at one end and we camped at the other, adjacent to a wonderful little vernal pond with mallards, yellowlegs, killdeer, phoebes and red-winged black-birds. And that was just in the first five minutes we were there! Before we left we added nesting pheasants, marsh hawks, finches, rails, herons, egrets, wrens, cormorants, robins, morning doves, mockingbirds, white-crowned sparrows and more to the list. And geese. Not just a couple of geese… thousands and thousands and thousands of geese. Some Canadian but mostly Snow Geese. They lifted off in mass in the morning from nearby agricultural fields. It was magnificent. The campground host, Doyle, has lived there for 10 years and knows all the birds. He’s a self-professed dog man too, and while chatting with us, his unleashed dog at his side, he gave his tacit permission to let ours have some freedom. We canoed some more on sloughs off the Mokelumne River and spent our last night of vacation feeling happy and blessed.

ps. I almost forgot about Bill. I don’t have any photos but he camped near us too. He has spent his entire life fishing the Delta waters and he taught me how to clean fish. Now if by some miracle I ever catch one, I’ll know what to do!