Day 26, Mr Sun, Won't You Shine on Me?

It rained during the night but in the morning there was blue sky and clouds. We hoped it would be the perfect day for driving. We said goodbye for now to Jim and Ardith. We have another trip planned in July.

We were able to drive over the Sysque Pass without rain. It was pretty amazing to see how the green hills turned to brown as we came down on the California side.

We stopped at the Weed rest stop to get a beautiful view of Mount Shasta. At one point, Denis had hoped we could add a visit to Mount Shasta or Lassen to our trip. I found out that many of the campgrounds were closed until later in the season. Seeing the snow in the mountains made it evident why.

We decided to stop in Redding to have our picnic lunch. Before we got there, the rains came down. We ended up eating in the SUV at Turtle Bay Exploration Park. We had a break in the rain so we decided to take a short walk. The park in connected by the Sundial Pedestrian Bridge/art installation that crosses the Sacramento River. When it is sunny, the bridge is said to tell time in 15 minute increments. Another feature is that it is glass-bottomed, so you can see the river as you walk over it.

On the other side of the bridge is the McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens. We wandered for a short time before it began to rain again. Luckily, we'd worn our raincoats. My favorite part of the park was the Children's Garden which looked like it would be fun to explore with a kid. I also really enjoyed the art installations scattered throughout the park. My favorite piece was the large "Sounds of Water." Water trickles and gurgles and flows down a "creek" so it is not only nice to look at, it is also nice to listen to.

While it rained off and on the entire walk, we got back to the SUV just as it decided to really come down again.

We made a second stop at Olive Pit. It is a store with many different kinds of olives, olive oils, kinds of vinegar, and treats. It was a bit of a disappointment since they have suspended all sampling. I found red walnuts. They were developed by UC Davis about 20 years ago but are only just coming to market. They are a combination of red Persian and the brown English walnut we know. I was intrigued so I bought some. They taste pretty much like walnuts without the bitter bite. Since they are rare and, therefore, more expensive, I won't be using them instead of the traditional walnuts anytime soon.

We are spending our last night of this trip the same place we spent our first night of our big trip last summer, Rolling Hills Casino RV Park. When it is filled, it is row after row of RVs. There are bushes between the sites but the sites are close enough to each other that there are no picnic tables. They much prefer you eat at the casino :-)  We, however, are eating "at home" complete baking off with the last our frozen cookie dough for dessert. Being on Indian lands, they have inexpensive gas. Still, it was $4.79/gal which might not sound like a deal if you aren't from California.

We are hoping for a sunset to finish our trip. It would be only the second one in the 26 days we've been gone. One thing we are expecting is warmer weather tomorrow than we had. While we are told it has been an unusually cold and rainy PNW spring, we have watched the weather in San Jose be unseasonally warm. Now, if there could only be some way to average it all out.