Three States

Good morning, my friends. We find ourselves in Klamath Falls, Oregon, this morning. And YAY! We're not home yet, but at least we're in our home state. And forget everything I said yesterday. We had to spend a couple of hours yesterday morning rerouting ourselves when we heard there was a winter weather advisory for the Cascades and the Siskiyous. It will be hazardous trying to get across the mountain passes with that kind of weather, and so we've rerouted ourselves to head north to the Columbia Gorge and then head west toward home from there.

So, let's talk about yesterday's drive. As you might guess, there were lots of barns in all levels of disrepair.

Just about 20 minutes into our drive, we crossed the border from Nevada into California. We would spend all but about the last half hour of our day in California.

And there were more barns.

 

Here, we stopped at a rest stop. On one side of the rest stop, I noticed these two cinder cones. We were not far from Lassen Volcanic National Park, and so seeing this sort of volcanic formation wasn’t at all surprising.

On the other side of the rest area, we could see Honey Lake, a shallow, endorheic (terminal) lake that often dries into alkali flats during summer. As a key remnant of Lake Lahontan, it serves as a crucial birdwatching site for migrating species like cranes and geese, supported by the 7,600+ acre Honey Lake Wildlife Area.

Turning just a bit to the left, we could see a town across the way. Not sure what that is. We were headed in the opposite direction.

There were birds singing here. I couldn’t see the birds, but I noticed this bird house on one of the trees.

Moving on…more barns.

This one tried to hide behind that tree, but it was one of my favorites for the day, and so I’ve included it.

As we left the town of Susanville, we drove up, up, up a hillside. Below, we could see another barn.

At the top of the hill, we had an expansive view of the valley below. That’s Leavitt Lake you see there… a high-altitude alpine lake (approx. 9,500–9,570 ft), known for its rugged beauty, fishing, and camping. Accessible by a 4x4 trail or hiking, it features stunning, glacier-fed scenery, with the best access from July through early fall. 

On down the road, we happened on Eagle Lake. It sits 5100 feet above sea level in northeastern California about 16 miles north of Susanville in Lassen County. It is the second largest natural freshwater lake wholly in California. Having no natural surface outlet, Eagle Lake is a closed basin lake with its water levels fluctuating with variations of inflow. Water surface areas have fluctuated between 16,000 to 29,000 acres with a present area of 26,000 acres. You can see it is shallow at the edges, with tufts of grass poking up through the surface of the water.

Turning more westward, we were treated to this pretty view of Mt. Shasta.

And then…more barns.

Just a few miles from the California-Oregon border, we passed through the little town of Tulelake, California. Having driven this road several times, I was ready with my camera for the structure you see below. It has quilt blocks.

And, I can never get a picture of the whole thing. One of these days, we should park. There might be more quilt blocks on the other side, although I only just now thought of that as I was writing. In any case, I tried to get the quilt blocks on the left side…

I’ve yet to get a good picture. Below is one I took in September of 2024. You can see the whole of the quilt block on the far left

Okay, and then it was just a few more miles until we reached…

Home, sweet home! Here’s the thing: I have lived in seven states, and I have visited all fifty. There’s no place else I’d rather live than Oregon. I realize probably everyone feels that way about their home, and if you don’t, then I wish that for you someday.  

It’s a little different for me since I never had a place to call home when I was growing up. I was born in California, but we moved away before I can even remember. We lived all over. There was a time when someone might ask me where I was from, and I had no good answer. My answer usually was something like, “I’m from everywhere, and nowhere.” 

Many years ago (before Facebook), I joined up with an email group called Military Brats of America. The question of where someone is from came up over and over again until one of the members suggested saying we were from “Samuelsville.” It was a made up place, but I liked that idea. Having lived in Oregon since 1978, I call Oregon home now. When I’m asked where I’m from, the answer is Oregon.

Okay, so the first town one comes to after crossing the border where we did is the little town of Merrill, Oregon.

There’s a good quilt shop in Merrill, called Tater Patch Quilts. I’ve visited a couple of times, and I’m always happy to see they’re still in business, as they were when we passed through yesterday.

You can read my blog post about Tater Patch Quilts right here.

So we're back to reaching home on Thursday, as originally planned. Our next stop will be in Grass Valley, Oregon (not to be confused with Grass Valley, California). Neither of us has been to there, and so we'll be traveling through a part of Oregon where we've never been before. Originally, we'd planned to spend a night in Bend, Oregon, and have dinner with some long-time friends there. That part of the trip is off. Instead, we'll spend tonight in Grass Valley, and then head for home through the Columbia River Gorge. By driving north and heading west through the Gorge, we can avoid all mountain passes.

That’s all I have for you this morning. It’s raining as I’m writing. We’ll be heading out soon, hoping to get an early start. We have about 260 miles to drive today…farther than we like, but it will make for a much shorter drive for the last leg of our journey on Thursday.