1 post tagged “bumps ahead”
So I left San Diego and got in the Prius with too much stuff and my dog and drove. Sarah is not the best of travelers on her good days. We stopped frequently. The first stop was at the Dog Park in Griffith Park in LA. I'll give it an eh it was ok, small with not much grass and a very high fence all around. I felt like I was in a Prison. After about an hour, we loaded back into the car, hooking Sarah into her seat belt and drove on, down I-5.
We stopped again after the Grapevine and I walked Sarah around on the side of the street for a while. Driving through the San Joaquin Valley lengthwise is tedious at best and Sara and I took frequent rest stop breaks. From just after the steep descent of the Grapevine north of LA to Redding it's flat and dull with mostly two lane driving. It doesn't help that the worst accident Phil and I saw was around Coalinga (named because it was Coaling Station A during the railroad times). I was so glad to get to the Residence Inn in Sacramento that evening. I was tired and ready to relax. Sarah was ready to never see my car again. We made ourselves at home for the evening and after relaxing a bit had a good night's sleep.
We left not so early in the morning and went to a dog park a few miles away. While trying to find this place, I came across a sign that cracked me up. I really wish I had taken a picture of it. The sign read "undulations ahead". I looked for undulations and all I saw were bumps. Sheesh what jumped-up lingo. I suppose the sign was made by some poor soul who firmly believes that the more syllables a word has the more classy it is. Language to these boobs is a no a way to communicate but rather a way to show off. Unfortunately for those who do not understand that language is best when it is clear and precise, polysyllabic words can instead of making one look erudite and sophisticated make them look like an utter ass.
But I digressed, and my story was derailed, probably by some penny left on the tracks. Although there was a dog park within a few blocks of my hotel, I went to one a bit farther off. Lured but promises of 2 acres by the website, I arrived to find that although indeed this was a relatively easy park to find the Dog park was about the size of my backyard.
I really should have gone to the one around the corner from my hotel. I must have zigged when I should have zagged on the way home. I was a bit lost. I had a map on my computer of the area so I was not horribly lost and I did find my way back to the hotel only to find the exits only came from the northbound and exited to the southbound lanes. So I wandered around a bit longer until I found an exit going north. It took about 1/2 an hour all told.
But then we were flying down the freeway. Of course Sarah was still not too happy about the idea. We made it all the way to Redding though before we stopped. My sister's house was only 2 1/2 hours away. So we stopped to gas up and then we went to the local Dog Park. Redding Dog Park is pretty nice. The people who go there are very friendly as well. We stayed there an hour.
The next leg of the journey was up the Shasta-Cascades. Mount Shasta was covered in snow. It was beautiful. In the higher elevations the ground was covered in snow along the freeway but the road was dry. It really is a beautiful drive. I wished I could take pictures of the drive every 20 feet. I would really like to visit Castle Crags in the summer at some point. Finally we were driving down the steep descent into Medford aka Deadford aka Methford. We were happy to be there. We have been here over a week but I will write about that tomorrow.