Sacramento, California

We spent last night in Sacramento, and were able to meet up with Bruce Webb and his wife, Gale.  Bruce is an old and dear friend from high school that neither of us had seen literally in decades.  Mike and Bruce grew up together.  I didn't meet either of them until high school, but back then, we saw one another almost every day.  We've kept in touch with Bruce over the years, but only occasionally.  Since we knew he was in Sacramento, we took a chance and tried contacting him. 

I had an old email address, which turned out to be good, but I couldn't be sure.  (And in any case, not everybody checks their email on a daily basis.)  I did a search for "Sacramento Phone Directory" on Mike's iPhone, and came up with Bruce's home telephone number, which was still good as well.  We were able to get together for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant, talk about old times, and catch up on our lives.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

The drive yesterday was pretty uneventful, but the scenery coming through Northern California and the Siskyou mountain range is spectacular.  We got a good shot of Mt. Shasta out the window of the truck, which I'll use on Foto Finish tomorrow.  (You'll have to check back!)  Also, I managed to get this shot of the foothills. 

At the higher elevations, it was quite cold and all the trees were coated with a sheen of frost.  It was just beautiful.  As soon as we broke out of the fog into the sunshine, the weather warmed up.  It was the warmest weather we'd seen in weeks.

Today we're heading east either from here, in Sacramento, or else in Bakersfield.  We want to avoid getting into the Los Angeles traffic, which is what will happen if we don't cross over soon.  We should be in Death Valley sometime tomorrow.  For tonight, we're probably headed for Fresno, but we haven't made that decision as I write this.  More later.