Warmer Weather

What a difference sunshine makes.  We woke to clear skies but left Grants Pass with the usual morning fog on the hills.  It was good to be on the road.

Then it was up and over Siskiyou Pass and down into California.

There was the obligatory picture of Mount Shasta.  I am a little troubled there is so little snow on it in late February.

And down along the Sacramento River to overnight in West Sacramento.  It seems that West Sacramento was the dump for Sacramento, with the associated poorer houses nearby.  Although the dump is gone, there are remnants of its old status. But there are also some good restaurants now.

We managed to get to our hotel Friday night with only one freeway interchange mistake, soon corrected.  On Saturday we had two separate freeway interchange mistakes – one in Sacramento and one in Fresno.  The car’s navigation system is pretty good, but either it is not perfect or our interpretation of what it is telling us has some flaws – probably the latter.

Today was a supercharger day.  We drove south through Stockton, Modesto, Merced, and Fresno, visiting superchargers that we haven’t been to before.  But driving down highway 99 is work.  Most of the traffic drives faster than I like, especially in work areas.  And then there are always some who want to go another 10 or so miles per hour faster than that, weaving in and out.  We were almost rammed from behind at one point.  I spent a lot more time looking in the rearview mirror than I usually do.

It was warm enough to eat lunch outside comfortably, and the fruit and nut trees are blooming, and the redbud are in flower, but the area does not look prosperous.  At lunch in Merced and later at a stop in Traver, I noticed the wide range of people’s heritage.  Not just European (aka white) and African (aka black) and Latin American, but Middle Eastern and Native American and south Asian and East Asian.  It’s a richer mix than what we commonly see in the Portland area.

We’re overnight in Bakersfield, in an area with at least a half-dozen motels.  Lots of Harleys are in the area, and I can hear them as I write.  I took almost no pictures today.  Here’s one of a (to me) typical California street:

Tomorrow we head east across the Mojave Desert.  We’re hoping the traffic will be less dense and a bit more orderly.