Before I even begin here, I have a huge correction to make..that beautiful mountain yesterday was not Mount Ashland, but Mount Shasta, with its own lake and town and district even- this mountain has hand!But I'm miffed that its true name still doesn't do it justice, naming it after a soda pop and all..
Today's drive from Medford, Oregon to Monterey, California was nothing short of SPECTACULAR (well except for a stretch around Sacramento) . And a good part of it got served up on I-5, a highway I have previously made a habit of complaining about how straight and boring it is, knowing only the Washington/Oregon segment....but this, THIS I-5 was full of winding roads around those bright slurpee-green mountains dotted with gnarled and twisted black trees, and through golden desert hills with sunshadows graffitied across their adolescent shoulders, then spiralled us up to viewpoints to see emerald lakes waaay down below. .I know, this sounds like a historical romance novel, setting the stage for the handsome -if tormented- male lead to stumble into the scene out of one of these topographical settings. But the only thing close to a male lead was the Calfornia Border Crossing Info Guy who stepped out of his booth, huge grin on his tanned and white mustachioed (is that a word?) face, asking if there was anything I needed help with . I asked him how much time he had. Well, I thought it, anyway. I also noted how guys from California can look old and craggy, but the moment they start talking, their California drawl makes them sound exactly like young surfers , and they immediately become ageless. Try closing your eyes the next time you speak to an older guy from California, it's abit disconcerting for them, but it'll be worth it to see I have a point here..Anyway,he gave me the best advice I will probably get on this entire adventure.." Your best bet is to drive down to Santa Nella and take 152 out to the coast".
I could go on and on about what an amazingly beautiful, even magical road that was..it had huge rolling blonde hills with cottonwood trees all over them, all mirrored in an enormous lake- the San Luis Reserve Rec area-before taking a totally fun ride through flat, curving and fast roads, narrow at times, but always with incredibly beautiful changing hills , it made me speechless, a good thing , since Bonnie has stopped talking to me too,sulking after repeatedly asking me to take every turnoff to San Fran after Sacramento,but I hung tough and followed Calif Border Guy's directions. And one of the best things, in this end of day sun, was the wafting of garlic as we sped past the fields..I thought everyone must be barbecuing, but it was actual field upon field of garlic..Heaven. Well , it would have been Heaven except for the pair of blue latex rubber gloves that were flung out of the pickup truck in front of me..now a rubber glove in an odd place is never a good thing..you don't even want to let your mind get started on figuring out what those gloves' short life involved...ah if we could only talk to the hand, or in their case, the glove..
THE MOMENT OF THE DAY-it's a toss-up, after 8 hrs of driving before I hit this 152, I didn't want its ride to end, it was exhilaratingly beautiful..tied with the sudden WOW moment when , without warning,the road rose up higher for a moment, sand dunes suddenly appeared outta nowhere, and behind them, in our face, there it was- the power and beauty and blinding sparkle of our magnificent ,immense Pacific Ocean as it rolled in for the 5 pm show, alternately slapping and crashing into the happily confused beaches of the Monterey Peninsula.
Ok so this has sounded alot like a geography paper, you may well think how could she be so into what really just amounts to a bunch of..scenery? Well, just keep in mind I am from Vancouver and it was a sunny day. A completely sunny day from start to finish. Now I could have been sitting in a dumpster all day, but truthfully written about how wonderful it was, if it was sunny. An interesting reference, because at the 'inn' where i am staying tonight in Monterey, ending up in that dumpster could be a distinct possibility..in a nutshell, it's cheap, not so clean (I've placed a towel on the chair for me to sit on while typing here and I'm not up to date on my vaccinations to use the shower).The 'innkeeper' is kinda grumpy, a man of few words and transparent skin ..he may well have been shortlisted to be casted in The Addams Famiy. Oh and the cars in the parking lot look hot (but not in a good way). One has more than two different types of registrations in the back seat. I hear someone yelling next door. Maybe there is a good hockey game on.
But guess what? My bathroom has an actual window, which opens to the outside! Now that could be a bad or a good thing. I remembered that I am currently taking a vacation from me [to find me-paradoxically] and that Eyore Me would not open the window because I might be afraid of whatever the situation is out there in the alley/dumpster or whatever, setting myself up to not feel so safe here tonight.
So I had no choice. I had to open the window. And THIS IS WHAT I SAW:
PHOTO OF THE DAY-scroll to the top of this page...
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