Interior of WorldMark at Clear Lake in Nice, California, aka Clear Lake Lodge.

If you missed last week’s offering about Lane’s and my southerly jaunt to Clear Lake, California — why, for Pete’s sake? The redeeming news is you can find it and other past columns by scrolling through the Lifestyle section of the Rogue Valley Times. There may be a test later.

Clear Lake is a large freshwater lake situated on Highway 20 between Sacramento and Santa Rosa. Last week, I wrote about the somewhat checkered history of the Clear Lake Lodge where we stayed. I mentioned the woman who had attempted to sabotage our trip by telling us it was a sketchy area. Little did she know, she ratcheted up the curiosity factor.

The lake is surrounded by a few small hamlets, each with their own sketch potential. Plus, Lane takes his sketch pad everywhere we go. If by sketchy this woman meant economically depressed, I would say yes, the area has been hit hard by lingering effects of COVID and other factors. Many businesses had gone bust with telltale carcasses wearing dusty “For sale” signs.

We enjoy small towns afoot, so we’re able to really see the character of the town and greet the characters of the town. We encountered lots of dogs and cats that way, but the dogs had homes, such as they were. Most kitties seemed to be of the vagabond variety. Despite expecting to see people with hang-dog expressions walking around, we met friendly people on the streets who looked as if they could be down on their luck but doing OK. No one asked for money, and they all seemed to have a place to go and a kind word for obvious tourists. We felt quite comfortable — probably more so than if we’d been vacationing in a whitewashed world of expensive shops and a dress code.

We discovered a sweet breakfast spot called Mike’s in Lucerne, the “Switzerland of America.” Mike was not of Swiss lineage nor did he offer lingonberries with the pancakes. But the food was good, and locals eat there. Our server did not wear a dirndl, but she did tell one regular customer to pipe down, that it was too early for politics. His name was Joe, and he loved an excuse to share his leanings.

He entered looking like he’d just left his futon, run his hair through a coffee grinder, and sat down for chicken fried steak. He wanted to talk, maybe lonely, so he looked around trying to make eye contact. The first time we saw him, it was cool. He talked about how windy it had been. I don’t mind talking weather over an omelet, but check your politics at the door, please.

Clear Lake State Park on the south side drew us, and we spent more time there than we expected to just walking around studying western pond turtles, rocks (Lane) and checking out the tule marshes, listening for birds (me).

On our last night, we decided to make it a special dinner out. The Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake is a replica of the historic original that serves great food in a cozy atmosphere. We dined in the lit outdoor area where sits a horse trough with a fountain set-up. It worked with the atmosphere. The same people own the stately 1870s Tallman Hotel next door. Should you decide to visit the area, I would recommend the Tallman. We were treated to a tour and fell for its old style charm and testament to resilience.

Autumn is a prime time to visit the area with temperatures similar or a tad warmer than ours. Drivers were courteous and chill with us out-of-towners trying to find our way around new surroundings and roundabouts. I actually passed semis on Interstate 5 coming home until I crossed the border. Then the Oregon Grand Prix was on. I know it would have been a different track had I driven on down to say, San Pedro. But in Lake County and north, California was sane behind the wheel.

We enjoyed our stay in Clear Lake so much we plan to return next spring when we’ll meet up with some migratory birds and watch the wildflowers bloom.