Well, we were going to take three days to get from Zion to Redding. But then we decided to keep on trucking and get all the way to Reno (585 miles / 942 km) in one day. We were really glad that we did. The two towns we picked out for halfway points were slightly depressing. Plus, one of our friends, Scott, happened to be in Reno staying at his parents house. So he invited us to park the RV there, eat BBQ and drink free beer. Free RV spot, free bbq and free beer? There was no way we were going to miss out on that. It took us most of the day, and we ended up missing the bbq but that just left us more room for beer. Scott's parents were so nice, and so were his friends and his dogs. We had a blast! It was really nice interacting with real people again. The last time we had a conversation with real humans besides the basic niceties was with a couple we met way back in Bryce Canyon, Matt and Nancy. They're a really nice couple from Connecticut who've been doing the same thing we're doing.. but for 15 months so far!
This morning we got up and said goodbye to Scott as he was heading off back to LA and then we went and met up with my cousins Jeff and Emily who go to school at UNR. Jeff suggested we go to a local place for breakfast called Peg's. It was really really good food and it was great catching up with them. I mentioned needing a new battery kit for my Suunto watch, they told us about an outdoor store called Scheels and then gave us a personal escort to the store. They didn't have the watch kit but they did have.. a ferris wheel, animatronic talking presidents (kind of weird for an outdoor store), a $6k shotgun, a sword with a dragon on the handle and this HUGE mountain thing that had staged taxidermic animals all over it. This was the most awesome outdoor store I've ever seen. They had so much stuff (besides my watch kit). If you're in Reno, eat at Peg's and go to Scheels, you'll thank us.
After our shopping trip we decided it was time to get down to business and hightail it to Redding, CA. My hometown. We had 200 mi (320 km) of driving to do. All was going great, we were making good time and then.. we got a flat tire on the RV. One of the rear dually tires had indeed perished. Luckily we were close to Susanville which has three tire shops, luckily one of the three was still open on a Sunday afternoon, luckily they said they had our tire in stock and could drive down the 16 miles to us and fix it. Which they did! Lassen Tire, we owe you.. at the very least we owe you a positive review on Yelp. 'Onward to Redding!' we screamed as we peeled back onto the highway.
Once we got through Susanville we got onto the 44 which takes you straight through Lassen National Park. Oh man, that was breathtaking. With all the recent rain and the snow melt off the streams and lakes were swollen thick. It was so different from what we've seen the past month. Out with the red rocks and in with the wet, misty, crisp pine forests.
We finally got to our new RV park around 7pm tonight. It's only a few miles from Shasta Lake and we've got some beautiful scenery outside our bedroom window. We ate dinner and then went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's, which we've been missing since LA. Then I took Danielle on a quick tour of Redding where I showed her where I played little league baseball, my old elementary school, our old house, the houses of my old friends, the place where I ran over a kid with my go-kart and the tree in the play yard where I got in a fight with this other kid named Logan who then became my best friend. It was a really good day. I'm glad we've got a few days to see things here. I do miss Redding from time to time, it's just slower here.
- Tommy
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