Romeo,Romeo,Where Art Thou (In Thy R/V)?

When I got my pre-trip haircut earlier this month, my barber told me he had heard a report that 50-60 percent of Americans planned to forego summer driving vacations due to high prices at the pump. Like all good barbers of his (60+ years of) age, he is part hair stylist and part philosopher, and he opined that we would see far fewer R/Vs on the road during our trip to Oregon this year than we have typically encountered in the past. His prognostication proved accurate --- I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of those gas-guzling tin boxes that we passed between Vacaville and McCloud.

After checking into our room (very nice, by the way) at the McCloud Hotel, we took a stroll around this former logging town. Most of the commerical buildings (including the hotel) were once owned by the logging company, as were many of the homes that exist today. During our walk, we struck up a conversation with a local couple who had bought one of these "company houses" about 30 years ago and renovated it. Turns out they had sold their home in San Rafael in 1972 for $28,500 in order to buy the building supply business in McCloud. Small world.

Regarding the weather, the National Weather Service underplayed the heat in the Northern Sacramento Valley on Thursday with the temperature on our car's external thermometer topping out at 105 as we as approached Redding before dropping back down into double digits after we crossed Lake Shasta and we climbed into the mountains, finally settling at 84 when we pulled into McCloud about 5 hours after leaving San Rafael.

As far as food goes,those of you who remember the Nut Tree in Vacaville during its heyday in the 1980's and 1990's will find the site has been pretty much scraped clean and reincarnated as a 21st century shopping mall with all of the chain stores you find everywhere else in the Bay Area. Due to our late start from home, we opted to lunch in Vacaville rather than making our usual stop for a midday repast in Williams or Willows farther north on I-5, so we decided to check out the eateries in what is now called the "Nut Tree Village". (It takes a village to feed America fast food). At least the place we picked offered some organic food choices and showed more imagination with its menu than Appleby's, but folks, you can probably skip adding this place to your 'Must do" dining list.

Fortunately, our day ended with a pleasant meal of Mediterranean food and wine at Maddalena's in Dunsmuir and the full moon rose over the Sacramento River canyon and dusk fell on Mt. Shasta.

Tomorrow: The Play's The Thing!