Day 1: CA, OR

I set off sharing a quiet moment with Jaya. By then, Jana had left for school, shouting good bye to us as she left. Kavya left yesterday for a 3 day science camp. So, it was just a quiet moment with Jaya before leaving. By then, she had loaded me up with enough food for a week!

The first storm of this season had passed us by the night. Just as I started driving, it started drizzling and at the same time, the sun was shining bright. I thought that in itself was a beautiful message. Good and bad, positive and negative are just two sides of a coin - that it is best to be prepared to take them all in the stride. Little did I realize even the first day itself was going to reasonably packed with excitement.

At the first rest stop, I did what all good dog owners do - let Apollo do his thing and stretch his legs before deciding to go the restroom myself. I took Apollo in - after all, he is a boy :). And when I was in, Apollo decided that he hated the smell - and started pulling back, got out of the collar and ran out - while I was still "standing" there :) I hurried out and thankfully, he was happily sniffing around, sans a collar and leash.

I know one should be prepared for vagaries of the weather when taking a long drive like this, but this much variation? When I was driving across Mt. Shasta on I-5, it was raining like crazy; turned on US-97 and at a vista point overlooking Mt. Shasta, it was cold - 40 degrees. As I drove into Oregon, there was a hail storm - I hadn't been in a hail storm in ages! Just when I thought that was it for the day, up ahead in Oregon, the temperature dipped to 34 degrees and there were some snow flurries at the 6000 ft level. The roadside signs, "do not pass snow ploughs on the right" was ominous from my perspective - you see, I was expecting fall weather, not snow, not when I am driving my Saab 9-3 Viggen which is quite ill-equipped to deal with snow. Anyways, the flurries stayed just so and I was delighted when the temperature climbed above 40 degrees again.

Mt. Shasta was beautiful - with the snow capped peaks that was getting covered by clouds on and off. Klamath lake was outstanding - it was quite large, very much like Hwy 1 drive, except it was lake on one side and mountains on the other.

Apollo was great. He slept through most of the journey. And was quite his beagle self when we reached the motel. He had a field day sniffing around and he just settled down.

Day 1 photos