On Sunday afternoon we crossed into Arizona on Interstate 40. I can’t say I was sorry to say good-bye to California. I WON’T say I was sorry to say good-bye to California. I have a love/hate relationship with what we used to call, even 40 years ago when we lived there, the Land of Fruits and Nuts. And I’m really glad we don’t live there anymore, even though so much of it is so beautiful.
When we crossed into the state a week ago Monday (September 29 for those of you keeping track) the weather was cold, wet and miserable. We drove south on Highway 97 from Klamath Falls, Oregon in the afternoon. Highway 97 intersects with I-5 in Weed, California. We’d heard there was a major commercial fire in Weed the night before and Google Maps warned us to expect delays. Thankfully, there were none. We couldn’t even tell there had been a fire there as we went through the town. That area in northern California is notorious for wildfires so it may have been fortunate that the cold, wet, miserable weather seriously put a dent in the wildfire danger.
We stayed that night in Mt Shasta and as I said in my short post last Friday, we never saw any of that mountain’s majesty in the I-5 northern California corridor because of the fog and rain. But just because we didn’t see that mountain doesn’t mean the scenery wasn’t majestic. That drive through the tree covered Cascade Mountains is so pretty.
The next day we veered off of I-5 onto Hwy 99 at Red Bluff. We detoured a bit to visit Beale AFB near Maryville, CA, and then took a back road to Grass Valley. North of Sacramento, Hwy 99 is primarily a 2-lane rural road that goes through a lot of nut orchards and little towns. It’s very different from the mountainous interstate we’d just traveled and was a bit of a welcome change as the skies were blue and it was mostly sunny. The back road (Hwy 20) from Beale AFB to Grass Valley is fairly desolate. I’m glad we went that way though because we were able to get gas on base for under $4 a gallon which is almost unheard of in California.
After spending 3 days with our friends Don and Ina, we made a relatively unplanned spur of the moment decision to drive through Yosemite National Park when we left their house. Though we lived in the Sacramento area for 12 years, as I said in my last post, we never did visit Yosemite.
Between leaving Grass Valley and driving through the (unmanned, presumably because of the government shutdown) entrance to Yosemite via Hwy 140, Randy and I drove into Sacramento and visited what used to be McClellan AFB where we spent 12 years of his career (and half of my 4-year enlistment). The former base is now known as McClellan Park, and it’s said to be a model for how communities can redevelop facilities after integrating them back to civilian use.
We lived in 3 different houses while we were stationed at McClellan and it was a little surprising to both of us that though some street names were familiar, we remembered almost nothing of either the base or where we lived in relation to it. Except for Folsom. We definitely remembered our house in Folsom. I had to Google Map the other 2 houses we lived in to see where they were. And it was nice to get the Google street views so we could see what they look like today.
We ate lunch at The Officer’s Club at McClellan. It made us feel a little like we were cheating the system since we were enlisted in the Air Force. The Officer’s Club has been turned into a public restaurant. It’s a little shabby and had a fairly limited menu, but the food was good and not terribly expensive.
We spent that night near Modesto. The traffic all the way from Don and Ina’s in Grass Valley, down I-80 into Sacramento, and then down Hwy 99 to our hotel was a nightmare. We commented, repeatedly, that we were so glad we didn’t live here anymore. I read, while researching for this post, that Hwy 99 is frequently cited, in various studies, as the deadliest highway in the US. I didn’t follow up on whether that’s actually true, but actually driving it on a Friday afternoon, it sure seemed like it could be.
On Saturday morning we had an easy hour’s drive south to Merced where, on the advice of our Yosemite experienced friend, Don, we took Hwy 140 (rather than the longer and windier Hwy 120) into the park. At the park entrance, there was no one collecting entrance fees or checking passes. It didn’t seem like there were a lot of people coming into the park, but once we got to the Yosemite Valley Loop, we crept along in heavy traffic for a long time and were completely unsuccessful at finding an empty space anywhere in any parking lot. When we found ourselves on a one-way road going out of the loop, we just gave up and decided to leave.
Take note. Yosemite is spectacular and a worthy place to see and visit. But don’t do it on a Saturday morning in early October when the sun is shining and the day’s weather is predicted to be picture perfect. AND, oh yeah, during a government shutdown when there’s no one collecting the park entrance fees…at either end.
The drive out toward the east is windy and steep and slow, and you have to go through Tioga Pass (elevation 9,945 ft). But it’s worth it. The road crosses the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Yosemite National Park and the peaks and valleys are visually astonishing. I often think about people our friend Brian calls 50-milers—folks who never venture more than 50 miles or so from the place they were born. We’ve seen a lot of mountainous topography before, but a person forgets the magnificence and diversity of the planet. I think about the pioneers too, who trekked over the same mountains but without modern roads. Truly they were much hardier people than me and Randy.
We continued our drive south down the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains on Hwy 395 for hours that day before stopping for the night in Ridgecrest, CA. We’d never been on that road or in that part of California before. The entire day (we were in the car for about 10 hours) was nothing but eye candy.
Unbeknownst to me when I made the hotel reservation in Ridgecrest, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station is located there. It was great because we were able to get less expensive gas again in California, and Randy got to see a lot of aircraft he doesn’t often get close to. All the planes on display are small, unlike some of the monsters the Air Force flies. They have to fit comfortably on aircraft carriers, after all.
We spent almost another full driving day plodding through the Mojave Desert before we were actually out of the state of California near its southern end. That’s a long, long, long, state, about 700 miles of north/south length. We added a whole lot more miles zigzagging east/west too. In the trip recap I do after twe get home, I’ll let you know just how far we drove in California.
Though it’ll be more than a week before we’re home again, I feel like we’re finally headed that way. On the morning of this post, we’re traveling east from Tucson, AZ. We plan to spend tonight in Roswell, NM where I hope to get a real interesting post (👽) from that stop. Stay tuned!
P.S. Our neighbors called early yesterday morning telling us the company installing fiber optic cable in our neighborhood cut a water main right next to our house. The water was flooding the neighborhood and the power pole next to our mailbox was in danger of falling down. Just what you want to hear when you’re thousands of miles away. Thankfully, all is well now. And the power pole, which, honestly, had been leaning since Hurricane Ian 3 years ago, is nice and straight and sturdy.
Leave a Reply