Susanville, CA.... High Desert Area

Brian and I bailed on the family.
as they sat waiting for coffee and Dollar menu "non" food at McD and picked up our Coke Zero, for me and Rebekah!!  (I don't drink it much, but it sure tasted good at the Sulphur pits yesterday....even if I did share 12 oz with 11 other people!  ....that's another story!)

I discovered that there were no double chocolate chip cookies out, but the Safeway worker kindly packaged up some fresh for me!  Brian stuck with his ---stale---Red Velvet, white choc chips cookies. He was amused by the cashier-customer exchange,  "You'll be the only one turning on your oven today (to bake a cake)." " Naw, I have A/C, it's freezing in my house!"

It is extremely hot down here.  Lassen 45 at night! (up in 80s today).  At least 20 degrees hotter in this "High Desert"

We are driving through farm country.  I look over and spot a few horses hidden, laying down, among the sagebrush.  Meadows of baled hay stretch their fingers toward the mountains, reaching out to grasp their refreshing breeze.  I touch the windows:  Warm.  Approaching Lassen: frigid.

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Out of the kindness of her heart, Rebekah searches for the charging station!  Argh!  I've been working on an iPad with nevermore than a 12 % charge!  I have to get in line behind 4 iphones, itouch, 2 kindles.  BTW, my iPad is at 28%, a victory which is probably a sign that I have 4g service and it's not searching, and searching in vain.

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Oh no!!! My ipad is not charging!  Brian shrieks that HIS phone is not charging either!  John thinks the alternator   has died because of the commotion!!  Chill, Dad!  Phones are a big deal!

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The scenery continues about the same, however, I notice dry wetland type grass.  Important for migrating birds.  Kirsten says the terrain looks a lot like New Mexico.  I agree...if I can barely remember!!!  Only there are more cars on this straight road, more cops, and a lower speed limit.  We just passed a Llama  farm, one of the many quint farms eeking out a living.  

I just got off the phone with Katie..nice to hear a voice from home.  We're talking about life:  her smashed finger, her cancer camp councillor experience, my thought that Tim would love fly fishing in an Oregon river.  I didn't tell her Rebekah's hair looks wet:  she hasn't washed it for several days...the first time since she was a baby and I was her caretaker. 

I have a headache.  Is it too much coffee?  Is it the altitude?  Is it the cramped quarters and too much Country music playing?  For sure, it's NOT the 4 ibuprofen I took for my fiery sunburn:  altitude will do it, even though I used sunscreen.

Only 8 hours to go today!!

Well, enough for this post...it's long enough!

Oh!  Ben has calmed down.  At the start of today's leg of the journey he perfected escaping his car seat in less than 20 seconds!  REPEATEDLY!!

Oh!  I just saw a TRADITIONAL farm windmill...as opposed to one of those monstrosities in Southern Ca (think 1000 science fiction creatures projecting from the earth, its arms ready to attack!

Oh!  You know me....I could keep going!!

Notice the train stretching through vast range...a typical site in the western flatlands.  "Eye Picture".

BTY we're in Cold Springs Valley.

I'm trying to capture a farm in the distance.