So much for taking this thing to Italy! Not if it’s only going to run for 10 minutes. I’d rather take a pen and notebook and just get an MP3 player that’ll last longer to drown out all the screaming if they haven’t made baby Benadryl mandatory or do something to control the chorus of screaming by then. Anyway, I ended up taking notes so I wouldn’t forget things.

Before I get behind, let me go back to the trip down here. The scenery was gorgeous, but by the time we got to flatter lands, most of which contained farms, it was too dark to see much. It’s amazing how fast the climate/terrain can change! One minute we were winding our way through the Cascade Mountains and pines, the next we were on straight roads dotted with oaks and palms. I swear the temperature went up 10º in a second, too! It was so exciting seeing the first of the palms again, along with the oleanders and bougies. I missed them. I will never again live in a cold climate! There are definitely not as many palms here, though, as opposed to Phoenix and Florida, where they don’t have much choice as far as trees and plants go. I was surprised to see prickly pears here. I thought they’d drown in this place.

Both of us agree K-Falls sucked. It was just a nothing town with so little variety, stores, and the restrictive hours sucked, too. The same mailman I asked about Randy asked where we were going, saying he noticed that morning that we forwarded our address. Other than the mild summers, all I’ll miss is how everybody knows everybody. No other place that I can remember had such friendly mail carriers that’d stop to chat with you.

Like most of the west, we drove through nothing, then entered towns, and back and forth. Just under the border was Dorris, which looked like it could be K-Falls with their older, dumpier houses. They get just as much snow, too. Then in between nowhere land, we drove through other places like MacDoel, Anderson, Gunnison, Chico, and Yreka, where a couple of blacks were arguing by the street. It was neat seeing signs for San Francisco and even Los Angeles.

We stopped in Redding where it was well in the 90s and grabbed a bite at Burger King.

It got a little stressful when we smelled smoke and saw a handful of fire trucks while still up in the Cascades. Wildfires are common this time of year.

The farms we could see consisted of many olive groves, and those same melons they’d grow down in Arizona that attract all kinds of bugs at night. I thought it was raining for a minute, till I realized it was raining bugs on the windshield.

By nightfall, there were fewer cars and more truck convoys on the freeway.