Driving up to Oregon
Tuesday morning I left the beach house in Malibu again. I'm moving to Ashland, Oregon, and plan to stay there until Burning Man in August. After Burning Man? who knows where I'll go.
The debate was to take the 101 up to San Francisco or just to take Interstate 5 all the way up. I've done both up to San Francisco, and considering that I was getting pretty anxious to get to Ashland I decided to take the 5.
Every time I drive through California's central valley the immensity of the economics takes my breath away. Miles and miles and miles of orchards, vineyards, vegetable fields, cattle, and dairies. Each day, each week, each month, and each year the people here grow food that feeds a large part of the United States and the perhaps the world. The internet may be the most amazing economic engine ever invented by humans, but as far as I know someone still has to grow food. What's in your fridge?
The miles rolled by and Southern California became Northern California. I dub Sacramento the halfway point of the trip. The Mason Dixon line of California where the south becomes the north and everything changes. Desert gives way to grassland. Hot dry air is replaced by a cool breeze. The snowline in the mountains is more apparent.
Passing through Redding, California I'm getting close. I can feel the warmth of home just a couple of hours away. It's getting late. It's 6:30 PM and I'm looking for sight of Mt Shasta. I'm hoping to catch a glimpse of this sacred mountain before the light fails.
Shasta's heavy snow covered shoulders loom quietly out of the fading light. My first glimpse is a white shining massif that I almost mistake for a cloud. There is something heavy and brooding about the white giant up in the sky that gives away the mountains mass. The evening sun is shining on the snow reflected brightly as dusk begins to fall. A few miles up the road and there's an exit where I pull over for a decent photograph. Not one snapped through the windshield while driving. A whole bunch of them from the middle of an unknown overpass on Interstate 5. The sun is well below the jagged horizon. Shadows lurk within the forrest on the edges of the highway. Shasta watches over all. It is 7:15 PM. After this the remainder of my day is spent in the darkness of the northern night. I arrived in Ashland at 9:00 PM. It has taken me just 12 hours to drive 675 miles. A journey which would have taken 6 to 10 weeks just a short time ago. The miles slip by and we peer out the windows at a landscape and climate unknown to us. All the wonderful sights and experience of the journey surrendered for the convenience of time. What unknown adventures have I missed because of the wonders of modern automotive technology? What great adventures await because of the wonders of modern automotive technology?
