Eats, Writes, and Leaves

Taking off on a road trip the Tuesday following Labor Day–Halle-bleeping-lujah! Least traffic EVER! I’m feeling transformed by this trip already.

All intrepid eagerness, my long suffering boyfriend and I set off bright and late this afternoon to drive up the center of California.

Our goal: a humble, yet transformative travel experience based in the mundane municipality of Redding, California. He fiddled with Lee, my GPS navigator with the sexy Aussie voice. I dreamed up pithy two-word descriptors to use in the blog posts about this trip, and drove the truck.

Getting out of the San Francisco Bay Area is a notable journey in itself. I took the CA-17 to I-880 to CA-238 to I-680 to I-80 to I-505 to I-5 route. It’s the simplest way out from my home in San Jose. Seriously. The CA-101 to I-80 to I-505 to I-5 route is a big fat pain even if it has less numbers in it, especially getting through the City and over the newly re-routed Bay Bridge, then dashing through Berkeley as fast as possible.

Out on I-5, all becomes simple. And flat. And straight.  And brown. And dull. Even the dead grass looks bored. (Yes, that’s dead bug splatter on the windshield.)

What might once have been a dignified small town is reduced to “that truck stop at the 505-5 interchange.”

The one with the greasy parking lot and the uninspired views.

A mere four hours and twenty minutes after backing out of the driveway, we fronted into the parking lot at the Motel 6 Redding South.  

To be continued…