I remember little from reading Howard’s End except for the famous ending line, “Only connect.” We will be seeing very little new on this trip; instead, it will be offering us the delight of connecting with people we know and love but do not see often enough. When I was younger I did not quite understand why people went to visit friends and relatives on vacation. I suppose I thought that they were just too timid or cheap to go off and see the sights of Europe or South America. But now that I am older I understand more the importance of keeping connected to people, and I also find that this works best when it happens in person. Without becoming too theological, maybe that is the meaning of “real presence.”
It had been a couple years at least since we had seen Rick and Kathi. When we lived in Long Beach and they lived in Irvine, we used to see them frequently. When we moved up to Los Angeles, the distance was a little too much. They renovated a ranch house on the outskirts of Atascadero a few years ago as a retirement home. Kathi moved there full-time a couple years ago while Rick split his time between work in Orange County and their new house in San Luis County. I am not sure how much land they have – a couple acres at least. Most of the property is beautifully landscaped with native plants and they have a large vegetable garden and fruit trees. There are also a lot of deer in the area, so everything has to be fenced or it will be breakfast for Bambi!
Kathi is an accomplished cook, and now that she lives in the country she spends her time canning (that is, when she isn’t busy with her quilting ladies!) She gave us a dozen strawberry and plum preserves and they are astonishingly good.
The Derevans had had Shelties for years, and their current dogs, Barkley and Brooklyn, love to jump. They’re pretty good at it, too.
Our original plan was to leave early in the morning, but since we had left the camera as the restaurant the night before, we had to wait until close to lunchtime so we could pick it up. There was a very bright side to this, since we were treated to scrambled eggs from Kathi’s chickens and her fabulous biscuits with that fresh jam.
John had no trouble getting the camera from the restaurant, and then we started driving to Sacramento. Drove across interior of San Luis County as we started toward Interstate 5. This took up on CA 46 and 41, two roads I do not think I have ever driven down. The area is still quite undeveloped, probably because it is obviously such a dry area. Highway 5, of course, is famously long and boring and hot. Fortunately, John had The Marriage Plot, one of the newer novels by Jeffrey Eugenides on his phone, so we listened to it while dodging the trucks and the highway patrol.
We made it to Sacramento in mid-afternoon. Sacramento is famously hot in the summer, but it was particularly brutal today with temperatures well over 100. We always stop in Sacrament to see our friend Dan Story. Dan lives downtown in a townhouse only a few blocks from the Capitol. He works in a restaurant much favored by politicians and lobbyists and he knows just about everybody in California politics.
We walked to restaurant to have a late lunch. We crossed Capitol Park, as you can see, and Dan found shady streets all the way to our lunch destination. Along the way, John found an interesting mannequin in front of a shop!
Before we left Sacramento, Dan introduced us to his neighbor Larry. This guy has the biggest and best collection of Mexican ceremonial masks I have ever seen!
It was fascinating to learn about the provenance and function of each of the masks. It made me nostalgic for my younger days when we would take off for a month or two to explore Mexico on a budget of just about nothing.
We arrived late in Mount Shasta. We will be picking Ellen up later tonight – technically tomorrow morning, really – from the Amtrak station in Dunsmuir.
