Our 110-night streak ends!

©2012 Lydia Hinshaw

Thursday night's lodgings

 DOWNIEVILLE, CA -- Sheets. Carpet. Cable.
 All these were ours here Thursday night when we spent our first night indoors after 110 straight nights sleeping in the Magic Bus.
 The sheets and the carpet were nice.  The private bathroom was pure luxury.  The cable?  Well, we never remembered to turn on the TV.
 We had wanted to spend some time in this tiny old mining town reincarnated as a mountain-biking destination.  We'd passed through a year ago, early one morning when nothing was open, after camping out 15 miles up the road.
 Downieville has 282 residents, a couple of restaurants, a school that graduates a handful of students each spring, a courthouse and a few lodging opportunities, but no campgrounds.
 We got a room in an 11-room motel and had our usual picnic dinner on our balcony overlooking the Downie River, right next to the one-lane bridge that crosses it.
 Breakfast was included, and we met fellow guests from Hong Kong, Holland, Santa Monica and Sacramento.
 The lady from Sacramento, upon hearing of our adventures working in National Parks, said she and her husband had wanted to do that, but that their 27-foot travel trailer just wasn't big enough to live in all summer.
 She was amazed when we told her we've spent the past two summers living in a Volkswagen van.
 Which is where we are living again starting Friday night.