Back in California

Our unplanned stop in Redding gave us the opportunity to see this unusual bridge. It is part of a pedestrian and bike trail along the Sacramento River. The bridge is a cantilever spar cable-stay bridge with the deck connected to a single 217 foot tower with cables.

Looking skyward at the tower.
The tower is pointing north so its shadow creates the worlds largest sundial. It is only exactly accurate on the summer solstice since the tower can't be moved to adjust for the rotation of the Earth. You are able to see this movement as the shadow travels a foot a minute across the plaza that is the dial of the time piece.

We could see glacier covered Mt. Shasta for more then 150 miles from Oregon to well south of Redding. Along with Mt. Lassen they are at the south end of the Cascade Range of volcanic mountains that we have been seeing in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

A marina on Shasta Lake and the low water with exposed bottom.

We are now at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa for a couple weeks. After having the turbocharger fixed we only drove fifty miles and spent two nights at Heritage RV Park in Corning where we caught up on laundry and other chores. The drive through Northern California was very interesting with the area near Oregon being in the mountainous and 14,162 foot Mt. Shasta dominating the sky. For part of the trip we were on the side of this mountain at 4000 feet with over 10,000 feet of glacier covered peaks soaring above us. The highest pass we crossed was less than a mile high with the road slowly winding its way down over 100 miles to the start of the Central Valley in Redding. North of Redding we crossed Shasta Lake that is famous for its large number of houseboats but the water was very low exposing the bottom along narrow stretches of water. From Redding south the high mountains slowly disappear and the road straightens across miles of flat land that is the food basket of America with many fields and orchards.