Sunday, July 22, 2018
Day 5
I'm sorry this is late getting posted. I'm on Pacific time so forget that it's already 11:45pm in TN.  I arrived in Orland about 2 this afternoon.  Have had a good visit with Dick, reminiscing about Dee and life in general. I left Sparks, NV close to 9am this morning. It was a beautiful drive and I took lots of pictures. Was kind of hard to decide which ones to include on here without overloading the system!
This is a picture of the countryside in Doyle, Calif. (A wide spot in the road)

I went to Susanville from here, high desert, lots of sage brush. Everything is really dry. High fire danger. The next 4 pictures are the area around Almanor - my favorite place in the world!!! 

Mt. Lassen (a volcano). I hiked to the top of it when I was young and fit!! 

Lake Almanor

Lake Almanor

My kid's dad, Jim Peterson, was raised in Chester, Calif. It sits at one end of Lake Almanor. A beautiful mountain town. The Methodist Church on Main Street. 

There are two highways from Chester that go to Chico. I took the curvy scenic route. A road my family and I have been traveling since 1956. The road is much straighter now than it was 50+ years ago and even today they were doing road construction making it wider and straighter. It's called the Deer Creek Highway because Deer Creek runs along side for a good part of the way. The water pump and creek were at Elam Creek Campground. Have camped there a couple of times. Then a section of the roadway and the water fountain at Potato Patch. When we were kids we couldn't wait to get to Potato Patch to get a drink of water. It was so cold and such good mountain water. In those days it took about 2 hours to get to our cabin. Now its doable in just over an hour (minus road controls for construction). 

It was such a beautiful drive. Recharges ones batteries! The next picture is coming out of the mountains and dropping down into the Sacramento Valley. It's hazy so can't really see the Sutter Buttes (a small circular complex of eroded volcanic lava domes).  They sit right in the middle of the valley floor. If you google Sutter Buttes you can read more about them. (Actually they wouldn't be in this picture. They are more to the left. the Coast Range of mountains are faintly visible in distance. )

When I stopped at Elam Creek to take pictures, a message came up on my dash board saying "Key battery low". Oh great. I have a keyless pushbutton start for car. Not good to get stranded up there especially since there was NO SERVICE on my phone! So first stop in Chico was to use restroom and then to Batteries Plus store. They fixed me up quickly. So now I'm good to go. When I drove out of there I saw the cloud formation to the east. Was so beautiful. It was over where I had just come from. don't know if they had a storm or not. A lightning storm would not be good with all the dry vegetation. 

For those of you who have not seen almond orchards, I am including a photo. Several of the old orchards have been pulled out on the road from Chico to Orland. Haven't talked to anyone to find out if they are being replaced or if construction is going on. 

It feels good to be here. I miss the mountains and family. Tomorrow I'm going to Woodland to my sister's home. Will be there a few days and then spend the weekend at Lake Almanor. Yay!!! Plans from there are not plans yet. Will spend some time in Chico. Also want to go to visit Lon outside of Orland. 

Almonds

It's late here so even later in TN. Will have something to read with your am coffee!!  Nite to all. Hugs.