Power Plant Park

Howard was still getting used to towing the trailer as we drove south through California. He decided to take a state highway instead of the interstate to our next stop, a local park owned and operated by the Sacramento Power Authority. We had to take a few more local roads, and thought we were lost when we saw the cooling towers for a nuclear power station. The is in cow pasture land, rolling hills near a little town call Clay on California Highway 104. So we found this park, Rancho Seco, built around the lake used to cool to nuclear plant. It had started to rain, so we paid our money, parked and hooked it up. The park is built around the lake, and has fishing, swimming and canoe rentals. There’s lots of picnic tables, kids’ play areas, and plenty of parking for day users. It was still the middle of the week, so there were only a few other campers and one man fishing out on the lake. This campground had a laundry room, so we counted out the quarters and walked back & forth in the rain with the laundry basket. Because of the cold and rain, we stayed bundled up in the trailer the rest of the day, and set off down the road the next day.
Electrical power in our trailer is provided by two marine batteries. The batteries are charged as we drive along by a connection to the truck The lights, slide out motor and water pump are powered by the batteries when we’re not plugged in. The stove/oven and furnace (heater) are propane, and the refrigerator also runs on propane when no electricity is available. Then there is a long 30 amp electrical line for us to plug in at campgrounds. It powers the microwave, air-conditioning and all the plug-in outlets (12 volt) throughout the trailer, and everything except the stove and heat switches to the land line. We especially look for electrical hookups at camp grounds so we can use the little space heater at night. Remember, it’s March in Northern California, so the daytime temperature is in the sixties, and night times drop to forty degrees!