Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Still Raining

It rained all night and continued to rain all day so we just drove south.  It had snowed at the Siskyou summit,



But the road was bare and wet by the time we got there.  We overnighted at the Yreka Walmart, a rainy, windy night.  In the morning Leo went for a run, the sun came out, and he saw his first scrub jay of the trip.


First portrait of spiffy new Ram pickup
The sun did not last, however, and it rained all day, torrentially through Shasta Lake. On the bright side, Shasta Lake is close to full storage after years of drought.  On the negative side, Lake Oroville.  Rivers were overflowing and there were warnings that highways were closed, but the I-5 was fine.  The almond orchards were in bloom; we wondered if there would be pollination problems with all the rain.


Sacramento's riverside park was completely flooded out.  So we just kept driving south, stopping for the night at the Los Banos Walmart.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Arizona Bound

We have made it to the Walmart parking lot in Centralia, Washington, without incident.

We were planning to get on the road Saturday morning, but the weather forecast changed Friday to periods of snow starting midnight, so we hit the road Friday evening, and made it to Cache Creek.  Begbie Summit was bare so we made the right decision.  Here's the highway webcam now .  Course that will only work if you click on it right now, by tomorrow it may be cleared or melted.

In the morning it was snowing lightly near Spencer Bridge, but it wasn't sticking, and then it turned to rain for the rest of the day.  Both the rock slides in the Canyon had been cleared.

The customs agent at the border must not have gotten the memo that there was a new xenophobic Republican government because he was the friendliest customs agent ever!

Here in big box land we accidently happened to eat supper in "the healthiest rated fast food restaurant" in the US, Taco del Mar, which is like a Subway with tortillas, and actually there was a fair amount of vegetables with meal.

No photos today because a) rain, and b) my new camera battery runs down when it's not turned on, and I can't charge it up till I get to an actual outlet.

Bird of the day:  hundreds of trumpeter swans in a field S of Bellingham