Redding - Murphy's - Day 3/4

Morning in Redding arrived way to early. Loud A/C at night, and not nearly enough blankets made for a short cold night. I beat the alarm and wandered over to the breakfast room to see what the situation was. Muscling my way in front of the kids at the waffle maker I grabbed a coffee and left for the great outdoors (parking lot) On the way back to the room, I stopped at the ice machine to fill my bottle and ended up patting a very hot Australian cattle dog. His master was loading up to head up to Whistler as it turned out, and he was looking forward to cooler temperatures. He was coaching a ski camp way up on the glacier. We talked about expensive ski towns, and he admitted he knew what that was all about, coming from Vail, Colorado as he had. We said goodbye, and wished each other good luck for the north/south trip.

We cleared out of Dodge after 9 and I took the first stint at the wheel. Miles upon miles of olive groves, corn crops, stone fruit trees and other pastures passed us by. The boys caught up on their beauty sleep, and we made it as far as Sacramento outskirts before we stopped for lunch.

We had a funny feeling that we’d barrelled too far down Highway 80 completely missing the turnoff for Highway 99 where we should have been. Sure enough we asked a senior in the Carl’s Jnr where we ate, and he verified that we’d REALLY ended up in the wrong direction. He was prepared to send us on another cross-country journey eventually ending up in Murphy’s, but luckily Norbert got on the phone to David who told him to ‘go back west, young man’! Back-tracking aways, we got to our highway and kept on driving and driving and driving. The highway turned skinnier and skinnier, and started climbing over wonderfully rolling hills. Alex said, after those, who needs Disneyland?! Great, I said! We got to Pat and Dave’s around 5, arriving at their lovely mountain home.

Dinner on the patio was wonderful, and the mosquitoes left us (almost) alone. The boys and Norbert learned the finer points of cribbage and horseshoes, and we enjoyed a nice evening together.

Today, the boys are off Frisbee golfing with Chris, Pat and Dave’s son-in-law, up at the local ski resort where Chris works. No camera went along on the trip, since Chris told Norbert that they’d be moving that fast, they wouldn’t want anything around their necks annoying them. I’m hoping that one of the boys will get a shot from their phones at least! It sounds like another adventure. Pat and I will join Ashley, her daughter who works part-time at one of the local wineries for some wine-tasting. We’ll join the boys later for lunch, and then a big family/friends dinner is on the agenda.

We’re encouraging the boys to join in and get engaged with everyone - hopefully this will happen as the days go by. I’m thinking that they’re not really sure yet what to make of everything they’ve found themselves in the middle of!