We left Portland as early as humanly possible with two teenagers, and headed south towards California. A long day of driving was in our future. I took the wheel first and it was fairly clear sailing through the top half of the state. The weather was projected to be hot and steamy and it didn't look like the predictions were wrong this time. We had definitely left cool and cloudy Vancouver behind.
The farming country of the Oregon coast was beautiful, and made both of us wish that we had time to veer east and explore a bit further....not this trip unfortunately. Norbert took over at lunchtime in Roseburg, and the road climbed ever higher towards Grants Pass and the California border. Every time we hit the gas pedal on the Tacoma to climb those hills I could feel $10 going out the exhaust pipe! Oh well, best not to think about it at all! You'd drive yourself crazy for sure. It was beautiful countryside anyway, and we gradually came down the other side of the pass and beautiful Lake Shasta came into view. With lots of houseboats and motorboats spread out below us, it made us wish we were at our lovely Shuswap Lake - same beautiful sights. In fact a lot of the country we just came through made us think of \Kamloops and surrounds - deserty, scrubby, barren, but beautiful in its own way.
Redding was our overnight stop, and as Evan walked into our hotel, he pronounced it "Worst - hotel - EVER". :( Oh well, one night, how bad could it be?! The small pool was also rejected as sub-standard. Hey, it's WET! I told them, but no reaction! After supper, we took a late evening drive (NO THANKS TO MAGELLAN!! who took us down the highway away from it, turned us around again and promptly got us lost one more time) to the Sundial Bridge, the local landmark.
The bridge over the Shasta River is a marvel of architecture, designed by an Italian at great expense, with clear glass tiles underfoot over the entire pedestrian bridge, and great soaring spires that reflect the sun like a true sundial. It lights up beautifully at night, and we enjoyed the cool night air after a long days' driving heat. In a strange coincidence, we met a local guy that had spent some time in Kamloops years ago, and knew our northern Washington area very well too. Sometimes life is funny that way - if we hadn't got lost with our trusty GPS we wouldn't have met him and had a great conversation. Maybe I DO need to thank our GPS for something after all!
Heading to Pat & Dave |Hitchcock's today for our Sierra portion of the trip. It's going to be another great day!
I like the picture of the boys.
ReplyDeleteI think they are going through X Box withdrawl. Disney should give a temporary reprive before the drive home relapse.
You and Norbert look like you're having fun.