Holiday Inn Redding,Ca

(With apologies to Carly Simon!) Well, it's not ALL just waiting. There's obsessively checking the weather in Rome; revising the packing list; dithering about which luggage to use; shopping for must-haves, and then returning them...Very important step today: got my husband set up to use Skype! Only one big hurdle remains: SHOES!

... raindrops on the drive back to our trailer, but nothing major. In fact, we were able to stop in Redding and visit the Sundial Bridge, a unique pedestrian bridge that leads to Turtle Bay Gardens and other attractions. Although it is past the prime for blooming, we enjoyed Turtle Bay gardens due to the art throughout the park.

By dinnertime, rain, thunder and lightning started and continued all ...

... started to snow, but then the sun broke through the clouds and we really did get to see the lake as a brilliant blue--awesome!

We had thought to stop for the night in Medford, but we decided to push on to Red Bluff instead. For a late lunch we stopped in the lovely town of Ashland--it was touristy, but in a fun way. The big draw was the annual Shakespeare ...

Last night was hectic and scary. I laid out my new outfit for today, made my lunch and set the alarm for earlier than I thought I would need (just in case).

I felt like I was back in my youth, getting ready for the first day of school LOL. What was I thinking? 57+ and starting a new direction in my life (again).

Well this morning went smooth, I got there 30 minutes early and met one of the other two new people. Soon Diane ...

... way back to Whiskeytown I drove and the roads felt very much like a video game Drivin’ USA or something. The roads were very windy with treacherous cliffs.

Mount Shasta: We began at 1 am from Bunny Flat camp which is about 6,800 feet. From there we hiked on rocks, lots of switchbacks, snow with crampons and ice picks, red bluff rocks, misery hill (no snow, but that is when exhaustion hit), a snowy plateau, and finally the summit. We made ...

... die all the time. In Whiskeytown, they have a really bad problem with Mexican drug cartels growing marijuana in the remote areas of the park. Last year there were some really bad forest fires that happened and these Mexicans guarding their marijuana cropped stayed to protect it and got burned over. They finally called 911 to save themselves and they found all of these assault ...

... Then, suddenly, you see snow and, with binocs, the cratered mountain.  After entering the park it's a couple more miles -- then you crest a hill, see an overlook, and when you pull off and get out of the car there's nothing to say but "Wow!"  The water -- rainwater and snow melt only; no springs flow into the lake nor do any streams or rivers run into it -- is the deepest blue you've ever seen, and clear but there seems to be no bottom.  Even in mid-June the crater is snow-lined ...

... of mountains, forests, pastures, and wetlands, so it was all the more jarring as we came into sight of a recent large clear-cut that had denuded an entire mountainside of second-growth trees. Many trucks loaded with logs from these kinds of tall, slender evergreens have passed us on the road during our journey, so we appreciate how important logging is to the Northwest's economy. But we can't appreciate the use of such a crude method of harvesting, which increases erosion ...

... Appenzell. Here we arrived on the weekend when the farmers, separated by their dispersion into upper elevation pastures for the summer, come together for a traditional "Stubte". Farmers from far and near, young and old, gathered to socialize in the middle of their summer dispersion. We were invited to attend, and we did! Traditional dress and dance and food and music, including a type of Appenzell yodeling that we'd ...

... Sacramento. We planned to get as far as we could before we needed sleep. We passed through several farming towns & drove about 5 hours before needing a motel at Redding. Nath & I checked out the local TJ Max store & bought some cheap clothes before we all crashed after our long night on a plane.