A day of driving in the dessert had left us spent, but we felt refreshed after a night in Fallon, “The Oasis of Nevada.” After resupplying at Wal-Mart, we pointed our car to the west toward Reno, about thirty miles away. We had a little trouble syncing road signs with our windshield mounted GPS and soon found ourselves off course in Reno, but after a few corrections, we were back on track and on our way to Susanville, CA to hit Hwy 44 to Shingletown and Redding.Ah, the sight of green trees in the mountains thrilled us, as we entered the foothills of the Rockies in northern California. Near noon we found a rest area (rare on a two-lane road) and pulled off to take a break from riding and to grab a snack.
Barbara had brought along several shelf-stable Jenny Craig meals, thinking these would provide a nice portion-controlled lunch as opposed to what we might find in fast-food restaurants on our trip. She had both ready-to-eat tuna salad and ready-to-eat chicken salad. I don’t like either one, but, when I’m hungry, I can eat the chicken salad and the wheat crackers and applesauce (naturally sweet) that are included in the kit. So, we found a vacant picnic table, grabbed a couple of bottles of water from our cooler, and enjoyed a healthy lunch along the trail.
In the early afternoon, we arrived in Shingletown, one of the places we made time to visit on our Out West trip. I had phoned Karyn Lamb earlier in the day to let her know we were in California. Karyn once owned Ridge Rider News, the local paper in Shingletown, but is now a realtor. Because, my newsletter in 1996 had the same name, I phoned her when I put mine on the web in ’98 to make sure I wasn’t violating a trademark or copyright. We became friends and shared our respective publications with each other for about ten years until she sold the newspaper and I stopped writing my newsletter. Karyn had a prior commitment on Friday afternoon, but offered to meet us Saturday morning.
Several years ago, Barbara met a woman from Redding, California, who was affiliated with Habitat for Humanity. She has since become CEO for the Medical Clinic in Shingletown. So, we dropped in to see Carolyn Hopkins, who was delighted to see us and invited us to dine with her and her husband in Redding that evening.
Carolyn’s husband of a couple of years is a biker, and with shaved head and goatee, he certainly looks the part. He’s a delightful individual with a heart of gold. It didn’t take Lou and me long to realize we are kindred spirits with regard to politics, and both of us are anchored in the Rock of our salvation.
Lou and Carolyn have their eye on a piece of property in Montana, and I won’t be surprised if they land there one day. Barbara and I didn’t venture into Montana on this road trip, but maybe we’ll have opportunity to do so one day in the not too distant future.
Pics and comments at http://rrnews.org/Day5/
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