Southern California revisited

It was a day of many trucks, huge pistachio orchards, cotton fields (neither of us realized they grew cotton in California), giant salad bars on both sides of the freeway, and my favorite: eucalyptus trees. We arrived in Ventura about 4:30 this afternoon and it was warm and sunny, but the fog was just beginning to creep ashore from the ocean. Rusti was scared because she'd recently watched "The Fog", but I think she's going to be OK.

We had a nice Mexican dinner with my aunt, then re-addressed all our boxes to ship via UPS tomorrow. We'll be heading on to Palmdale as soon as we get our shipping done.

Our motel room tonight is near the railroad tracks, which is exciting every hour or so. But at least it takes Rusti's mind off the fog for a couple of minutes.

I hope tomorrow will be better for taking pictures. Today we didn't see any sunshine until we were within about 100 miles of Ventura. I hope you all enjoy today's exciting photo of Interstate 5.

On the road again....

Tonight finds us in Willows, California, on our way back to Ventura to pick up (or ship) all the STUFF we originally shipped there from North Carolina. Despite the fact that we sold, gave away, or threw out almost everything we owned prior to the move, we still ended up shipping many boxes to California, and now we need to get them up to Oregon. We're going to combine this "business" with a short visit to Rusti's other sister, Jill, and her family in Palmdale.

Malcolm decided to stay in Salem rather than accompany us on this trip, and we missed him during the drive today. Somehow it just doesn't seem right stopping at a motel for the night without a cat box.

Things are about halfway settled in Salem, and when we return from this trip we plan to stay put there for a few months. Probably. Maybe. Rusti likes the new digs because she just got a new 57" high-definition TV (man, those football players are BIG!) as well as a very comfortable couch and recliner. (Rusti's title in retirement is C.P.A. - Couch Potato Ace). I'm happy with the new digs because I have a fast internet connection and a nice office. I'm sure there's something wrong with both of our priorities, but I'm not going to worry about it at the moment. Anyway, everything is working out well, even if not as expected.

Both Rusti and I have much personal emailing to do, but that probably won't happen until after this trip is over. For those of you who have written to us, we have not forgotten you - we're just a little overwhelmed at the moment. At least that's our excuse and we're sticking to it.

Below are a few pictures from our previous trip from California to Oregon, the route we are now traveling in reverse. Well, actually we're going forward, not in reverse. That would take too long.

Malcolm on his way to Oregon.

Mt. Shasta didn't have much snow on it when we first drove up to Salem. (Now it does, but we have no pictures to prove it.)

The forest primeval. The northwest really is beautiful. It smells great too.