Vallejo, Smith River, & Sacramento.

I recently made a trip to the Northern California and no that isn’t San Francisco. Actually, SF is the lower part of Nor Cal. I haven’t been past Truckee since I was 12 years old and I had forgotten just how beautiful California really is. We drove through the Redwood National Forest for goodness sake. You can’t imagine the scenery I had driving all those miles. Now the return trip was nuts. Highway 101 was shutdown at Garberville due to a mud slide and the road buckled. We had to drive up to Grants Pass (above Medford Oregon) and then drive south on the I5. However, if you are ever lucky enough to make this drive you will be able to enjoy Mt. Shasta. That mountain/volcano is huge. Monday, we drove from Vallejo to Smith River (5 miles from the Oregon boarder).

My grandparents RV park sits right on the Smith River and ocean. It’s an amazing location and I’m thrilled I was able to get up there even under the circumstances. Grand-Mary would have loved seeing every one and I’m sure she did look in on us from time to time. I can’t name everyone who came to the celebration but Uncle Johnny, Janet, Brenda, Scarlett, Bonnie, Dan, my family, and the Hawaii family all came to support Grandpa Ned.

Thursday, we drove back to Vallejo but not before going to Martinez to drop Keith off at the Amtrak station. We drove up over Grants Pass, down past Medford, Mt. Shasta, and Redding. That was one long drive. The 199 (Grants Pass) is a really windy road that goes through the northern part of the Redwood National Forest. Gorgeous and scary; I was white knuckled the entire time. We left at 9:15am and got to Martinez at 5:30pm. We only stopped for bio breaks, gas, and a quick bite of lunch. Maybe 45 minutes total of non-driving. Friday, I drove from Vallejo to Sacramento; not a bad drive and only 50 miles or so. I spent Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday there with CeCe. Terri, Tammy and Tina were there as well. Even Cody made it for the memorial. It was a beautiful service and the slide show almost did me in; I cried almost the entire time. I also caught a friend who fainted and kept her from cracking her head on the wood table.

Sunday, Nat and I met up in Old Town Sacramento. I haven’t seen Nat since she left Guam in Oct 2008. It was wonderful to see her again and just laugh like we always did.

Grand total for driving came out too: 1380 miles for the entire week. Hertz rental won’t let me rent again. My eyes were swollen from crying all week and my entire body is sore from all the driving. Every picture I should have had glasses on; no makeup, hair a mess, and swollen eyes.