Title: December 1, 2024 - Go to Fresno
Last night was the last night at Andrea and Lawrence's place. I do not think I have gotten used to the light in the northern latitude. I slept well, but woke up at 7:18-I was hoping to get up about 6:30 for a relaxing morning. Not that this morning was rushed.
Steven and I got most of the car packed by a quarter to eight, then we had breakfast. Mine was left over pancakes from yesterday. Then we got the rest of the stuff into the car. For having a lot less than we brought up, the back is still packed to the brim. But we have four people going back with us as well as the two dogs. Plus we have the third seat up.
We say our goodbyes, which when you have had a good visit, there is a bit of sadness in parting,a good deal of gladness in being there, and the profound hope that our next time together is soon.
Rachel starts us driving about 8:40. But we quickly stop at Bentley’s which at least Rachel prefers to Starbucks or Dutch Brothers. Then another short drive to Costco to fill up with gas. The $3.10 is a lot cheaper than California. By 9, Rachel has gotten us onto I-5 and we are on our way home.
One thing about traveling with Rachel is that it is not boring.She brings on the soundtrack of Wicked. Then sings along with it-the singing non-Uber driver. She drives about two hours when we get to the Cabin Creek rest stop.
Steven takes over driving. The road is a bit more mountain-ish. But so far no ice on the road. We hit some fog or maybe clouds. This is a lot better than I feared. Maybe a combination of leaving a bit later along with conditions having improved.
Steven drove to Medford to get gas at Costco and then I took over driving. My destination is Yaks in Dunsmuir. This is about an hour and a half drive. This goes over some of the more hilly parts of our route, even though both Rachel and Steven would say they also drove through the mountains of Oregon. On my drive, we got into California. Not much really happens. Some of that is because there is a cloud cover which blocks the views, particularly of Mt Shasta. There is one place where the clouds part and we get a glorious view of Shasta.
It seems like Yaks has become a sought-after place for us. It is a burger place where the burgers almost exceed the size of one’s mouth. And you get a load of fries. If you order garlic fries, you may not be able to go on a date for a week because there is that much garlic on them. Steven ordered the Smiley Riley, Rachel the VA VA Voom, and Sherri and I had a couple sliders of an Arnold Alfa. All brought smiles to our faces.
We get on the road again about 3:30 with Rachel driving. The first part of her drive is the last of the mountains. The highway slopes down with some pretty decent turns before crossing Lake Shasta. Shortly afterwards, the road enters the Valley and goes more level, even though there are some curves. She drives until we reach the Dunningon Rest Area.
There we change drivers with me taking over. I go through Sacramento and on to Elk Grove. There we cut over to Costco where we fill up with gas and then are on. My drive is uneventful. I take us to the Turlock Rest Stop.
There Steven takes over and drives us home.We get there at 9:30, a bit tired. But all in one day, about 13 hours of driving.It takes us a half an hour to unload the car-not that we got things cleaned up. I am in bed by 10:30 and ready for sleep.
