SHAsta!

It was a long day, dear blog. Somehow what Google predicted would be a 5.5 hour drive was actually a 7.5 hour drive, including a few very brief food & rest stops. I got on the road at 12:45 PM, and arrived at the hotel at 8:15 PM. The scenery was breathtaking...I drove through mountains nearly the whole way...up and down and up and down again. At one point I was 20,000 feet above sea level! There was even snow on the ground for a short portion of the journey. The roads were good the whole way, and the temperature got as high as 60 degrees at one point, and the sun was out for most of the ride. I have been blessed with great weather this entire trip (knocking on the wooden desk now). I snapped a few shots of the landscape from my cell phone, but that was about the best I could do as I-5 in Oregon didn't offer a single scenic view to pull over at. It was hard to believe what I was looking at wasn't considered scenic enough! The grass is literally greener over here. There were all manner of farm animals grazing along the drive...even a few llamas.

I reached the California border around 5:30 PM, just as it was getting dark. The sunset was completely different from an East Coast winter sunset. Usually at home it goes from light to dark within about 30 minutes during the winter. Here the light lingered a good 1.5 hours after the sun had sunk below the horizon.

To help pass the time I started listening to Stephen King's latest epic, Under the Dome. It's great so far. King, being true to his usual form, pumped out another giant novel, and although I listened the entire way I'm probably only 1/5 through the story at best.

It seems I booked a hotel a bit too far from the great scenic area of Shasta National Park. I left the park about 20 miles ago, and I'm not sure I'll have the time to backtrack in the morning. I'm supposed to have the car in San Fran around noon tomorrow, and that's another 200 miles away. I'll play it by ear...right now I'm just glad I had the foresight to break this drive up over two days.

I hear the weather is downright miserable at home, and although I should be feeling great about missing it I can't help but feel bad for my loved ones back east, enduring another craptastic winter.

I'm putting myself to bed early in the hopes of rising early for more photo ops...night night.