I dislike burning my daylight on my road trips, therefore I was up early and ready to roll in the morning. While tossing my bag into the back of my SUV, I found a stowaway in my, a field mouse from WA had been living in my vehicle and took a ride with me. I brushed her out and wished her well, having trapped 18 of her family already over the past few months in my root cellar at The Pilchuck. The field mouse now lives in exile next to the Great American Pizza Company in Ashland.
Over the highest elevation pass on I-5 and across the border into my natal state of California. Mt. Shasta was covered with snow as I passed through Weed, CA with plenty of snow still on the shoulder of the highway as well. Pleased to see Lake Shasta with some water in the reservoir, unlike the dry lake bottom the last several times I've passed along that way. The fruit and nut trees of the Sacramento Valley were in bloom and lots of wild flowers visible at the edge of the fields as I swept down toward Sacramento, passing exits to Marysville and Yuba City - where it all began for me. March is a spectacular time to be in California. I put the Beach Boys CD into my audio player for some old times sake.
I had arrange to see Pam and Carol, a couple of High School friends in Madera. At the last minute, Carol offered me a bed at her place, insisting that I should not rent a cheap room on A Street in Madera, otherwise I might not live to see the next day she thought. Carol is a bit of a catastrophist. But I was grateful for her invitation and spacious digs offered by Carol in my old home town.
We three had dinner together at Carol's, caught up a bit on each other's lives and doings and a few glances back to old times nearly 50 years ago. Madera was a place of 16,000 souls when I was there in High School, now the sign says 61,000. By all accounts, it is not the same, and it is worse.
Life moves on. But it was good to reconnect with a few people from my past.
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