California, here we are.

April 21st, 2009

Mount Shasta

We are sitting in Woodland, CA which is just about 20 miles north of Sacramento. The hotel rooms were cheaper so we stopped here.

So far the music on the trip has been pretty good, but then, I was the one who picked most of it. We left Cottage Grove at 9:30 this morning and rocked on down the road with a couple of old Creedence Clearwater Revival albums blasting. What a great way to start a beautiful day on Interstate 5. The sky was clear and blue as we rolled into the mountains of southern Oregon.  After a couple of hundred miles we stopped in the town of Weed, California for lunch.

Weed was really cool.

Welcome to Weed, CA

Apparently there was a little bit of a controversy a few years back in Weed. Someone wanted to change the name to Shastina or some such thing. A number of the residents got quite stirred up about it and nipped that whole plan in the bud, so to speak.

My theory is that it was the folks who had invested all of their money in the ball caps, t-shirts and coffee mugs that said “I got high in Weed” who put an end to that crazy idea. But maybe that’s not the whole truth.

Mary Pat in front of the Hi-Lo Cafe

There are a little over 3000 residents of Weed and the town was formed in 1901 and named after its founder, Abner Weed. After filling up the gas tank we had lunch at the Hi-Lo Café beautifully situated in the shadow of Mt. Shasta. The portions were huge. MP got some eggs and French toast and I got the Hungry Man breakfast of eggs, hash browns, ham, biscuits and gravy. Check out the picture and you’ll see what I mean.

A huge breakfast

I showed more discretion than usual and only ate half of the meal but that did not stop me from ordering the peanut butter pie and coffee. Everything was delicious even though I was unable to eat all of the dessert either.

We got back on the road about 2:00 and rolled into California while listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Soon we began descending out of the mountains. As we rolled into the upper portion of the San Joaquin Valley MP turned the iPod to a greatest hits collection of the Turtles.

The San Joaquin Valley is the bread basket of America. It is here that they grow a tremendous amount of the fruits and vegetables we eat in this country. We saw olive and orange trees and many more bushes and plants that we had no idea what grew on them. It was a perfect day for traveling and after 450 miles we stopped for the night.

Thanks for all the comments and emails from our friends and family. We will miss all the friends we made in Washington and of course the folks in Oregon as well. A special farewell to the Kerner family who will always be close to us and I want to give a shout out to that old goat of a friend of mine who turned me on to the Oregon Country Fair, the indubitable, Randolph. I love you man.

Once again, I would point you towards my wife’s version of this day. She has been known to tell the truth. Check out, http://www.managemypractice.com/road-trip/.

Entry Filed under: A Piece of Pie, Cruising With Bob, General, What's Bob Listening To?