The Grand Trip - The Beginning

Early this spring my sweetheart and I embarked on a grand trip - a trip we had long dreamed of. Plans were made and we were off for adventures far from home.  This was my view through the passenger side rear view mirror.  You can see our home-away-from-home coming along behind, especially in the little section at the bottom corner of the mirror.

I shared a bit of our trip here.  We were away from home for seven-and-a-half weeks - that's almost two months!  We met new friends, visited family and dear friends along the way, experienced life in other parts of the Western United States and took millions of photos.  I probably didn't take millions of photos but there are a lot of them. I will do a series of posts to give you an idea of the scope of our travels and the places we enjoyed along the way.

We left home on Sunday afternoon - my sweetheart, my little dog, Joey, and I. Off we went with our home-away-from-home following behind.  Our route was carefully planned and stops along the way had been thoughtfully 'mapped' out on our calendars and our road maps.  Our first destination that evening was on the southern end of Oregon a few hours south of home.  We spent the night in a beautiful state park along the banks of a beautiful river.

Not long after breakfast the next morning we crossed the southern Oregon border into California.  We made the required stop at the California Agricultural Inspection Station to be sure we didn't have certain fruits and vegetables that could spread disease to the vast agricultural crops of California. The inspector asked if we had any citrus fruits. We smiled and said, 'no', but I chuckled as we drove away because a few miles back, just before we came to the inspection station, we had eaten the two oranges we had on-board.  I told my sweetheart it was a good thing we didn't have to report the citrus fruit in our tummies!

We drove for many hours over miles and miles of freeway. We passed by Northern California's Mount Shasta. . .

And crossed over Lake Shasta which is beautiful and full after many long years of drought in California.

Nearing our stop for the next couple of days, we turned off the freeway and drove through farmland on back roads. . .

 On straight roads. . .

And roads that took a turn.

We drove through the countryside and a few small towns until we came to the place where we would spend the next two nights. We are members of Thousand Trails RV Resorts and Lake Minden was one of the locations we wanted to experience.  We checked in and found our spot near the corner of the lane beside the lake.

The big back windows of our home-away-from-home looked out on the lake behind us. It was still and quiet as evening approached.

But the next morning was a totally different scene!  The early morning sun shone on the trees across the lake. Green trees became gold. Pure gold, so it seemed.

We drove from the lake to the nearby home of a very dear friend - a friend I met through our blogs. She had dinner waiting for us when we arrived and lunch again the next day. She and I spent time together - chatting and thrifting and antiquing - and just enjoying being together again.

Our time together went fast - too fast - and soon it was time to say goodbye.  My sweetheart and I had places to go and more dear people to see!  Our travels took us just a short distance where family was waiting for our arrival. Our grand trip had begun just as we had hoped - with precious people who were helping us make precious memories!