July 9, 2017 Sunday Day 22 Eugene OR to Sacramento CA

On the road by 8:00, we were driving through the remainder of Oregon and half of California today.

We drove through a couple hundred miles in Oregon, enjoying the scenery. We had been driving in the Willamette Valley which had been the destination for the pioneers driving by wagon across the Oregon Trail.  Having crossed the country ourselves a number of times, we are also amazed at the thought of going so far by wagon, horseback or walking.  This is a big country.   The drive south towards to Siskiyou Mountains along the border with California was flush with such a wide range of greens: trees, grasses, and other plants.

But, nearly as soon as we crossed the mountains into California the color changed.  Everything here look very dry.  What a change to now see sage brush and brown clay soil.

We were so pleased when we started to get glimpses of Mt. Shasta in northern California.  That formerly active volcanic mountain grew larger and larger as we drove nearer and then around it.

Stopping for gas, we realized we were back in the extreme heart with the temperature being 105 F.  Hot!!!! We didn’t realize how hot it had gotten because we were in the air conditioned car.  It was 30 degree difference between the car and getting outside.

We stopped outside of Corning Capital, self-proclaimed “Olive Capital of California.” A company there is the second largest olive oil producer in the world.  They created a giant olive several miles outside of town, on the edge of olive groves.  Of course we had to go visit it.

We arrived in Sacramento at about 3:30.  There we spent a lovely evening with friends, Gere and Betty.  They are from Pennsylvania, and are out in Sacramento for a 1-3 year job that Gere has accepted with the Unite Methodist church conference in Northern CA and Northern Nevada.  We were glad to see their new apartment, gradually taking shape as a home.

We enjoyed a walk around the neighborhood seeing the canals.  They also have Redwood trees planted all around their apartment complex with water birds nesting in them.  We saw egrets, herons, and possibly some other birds.  They were gorgeous seeing them fly, and were surprisingly noisy as they fed their babies and sat n the nests.  They made sounds nearly all night long.

We had a lovely hot weather dinner of Nappa cabbage salad with watermelon for dessert.

So nice to catch up with old friends. Dick and Gere were in a men’s group together and worked together some 40 years ago in Dayton OH.  We are so happy to have them much closer in the same state rather than nearly 3000 miles away.