Off we go..........

Trip 2 of 2005 - so off we went filled the tank at $2.09 at the AM/PM and entered Interstate 5 at exit (on the entrance side) 182. It was just getting light when we left. We decided to leave a couple of days early because the weather over the passes looked clear and nice. It was a little foggy up to Grants Pass but we did fine.

Of course when in Medford the Harry and David store is a must so we stopped off there for a little shopping (actually Scrabble Queen shopped and I called Verizon). Last trip it took a month of huge bills before we figured out upping the service plan for the cell phone saved about 300%. So I got that all fixed up and waited........and waited..........and waited. At wits end after 45 minutes I just had to make a one-man search party. Of course as I got out Scrabble Queen was just walking out........ Special wrapping took all the time.




Well, of course, going up the Ashland grade to the summit was a mess the fog was very thick and it looked pretty bad but about halfway up with deep snow all around we finally saw blue sky and clear roads. I think a day earlier and we would have been in the deep stuff - like this guy.


The car was at a little convenience store near the summit in a place called Castella, California. The town is near Castle Creek a little meandering creek in the Shasta National forest. This is NOT the castle the town is named after.



My artsy shot of the day was the vent pipes on top of the store.



Now the real castle isn't a home or building made by man bit this magnificent rock outcropping on the mountain. I just wish I could display the larger version of the pictures here. I've been wanting to get a picture for years and my able navigator remembered the store and a funny story of Ed making a pit stop there on their way to San Diego and how he ventured into the Ameigas room instead of the Amigos room.......


Last is the distant view but,again, the larger version is breathtaking.


All in all it was a very nice day. Tomorrow we are off to San Juan Bautista, the largest of the California Missions.

Scrabble Score Scrabble Queen 327 the contender 334 Yahoo - great start..... She would have won but missed a chance to double then triple her "X"


Quote of the day

"There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds." ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton produced nearly a hundred books, including the classics Orthodoxy and The Man Who Was Thursday, and biographies of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Francis of Assisi. He wrote articles for about 125 periodicals, and was also a talented literary critic, mystery writer, economic and political analyst, social commentator, orator, humorist and poet.