As we were leaving San Francisco on Friday morning we discovered we would be missing two racy events that were taking place on Saturday. A NASCAR Pro Series race and the San Francisco gay pride parade, I’m sure both would have been entertaining!
We traveled just 70+/- miles north to a picturesque little town called Winters; it is one of the nicer places we’ve seen here in California. Both the old and newer residential neighborhoods are very tidy and the homes well cared for. The 1950’s era main street (about 2 blocks long) looked prosperous with few if any vacancies and a vibrant collection of eateries, several with outdoor dining.
Our campground is about 8 miles out of town, once again in a steep mountain valley with a river running down the center of it. We have no internet or cell service here, but we do have a dam, a really big dam just upstream from the campground. This afternoon when we drove up to the top of the dam we saw that it was a concrete structure built by the Department of the Interior back when we still had faith in the Federal government (1957). So I guess if it has been standing this long it will stay up a couple days more while we are parked under it.
On Saturday we drove to Angwin and enjoyed a visit with Millie’s niece and her family. Cathleen and her husband Robert are both employed at Pacific Union College which basically is the town of Angwin. Robert took us on a tour of the campus, Cathleen cooked a gourmet lunch, afterwards they showed us the revitalized waterfront in nearby Napa, Robert Redfords house, and Danica Patrick's vinyard, neither came out to say hello, but it was a good day anyhow!
On Sunday we got on I-5 and prepared to say goodbye to California. We drove several hundred miles, but it didn’t seem like a long day. North of Lake Shasta the California terrain changed once again. We entered a high mountain range, but unlike the southern mountains, these are tree covered. It is a very beautiful area. The highlight of the trek north today was Mount Shasta; standing over 14,000 feet tall. With I-5 passing by just a few miles west of it we had many magnificent views of the snow capped summit as we drove up the road.
Still early in the afternoon when we neared the border we decided we wanted to sleep in Oregon tonight. Once over the border we pulled off the interstate at the first campground sign we saw and are spending the night just down the road from a small mountain with a broadband antenna on it’s peak. We have internet access tonight for the first time in many days, and its pretty fast internet too!
We also have cable here in our overnight camp and are watching TV for the first time in I can’t even remember how long. One of the first things we watched was the news where we heard our once quasi-ally Egypt has been taken over by Muslim extremists and they now want financial aid from us, can you believe it! Next we saw the local weather, lows in the 30’s tonight, high’s tomorrow in the fifties with rain!
I know I said bad things about California, but I’m sorry! I miss all the electronic dead zones and your 70 degree days, we love you California!
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