Volcanoes everywhere and not a virgin in site!

I'll skip the details regarding the actual move date as they are neatly filed away under 'remove from memory as soon as possible'. (see note below) We got on the road at 5pm and headed north...ya, we're on our way to Florida via the scenic route! Ended our evening in exciting Red Bluff where the Taco Bell was quite the town gathering spot since it was still open after 9:30pm. Our roadside motel, $45 a night with some breakfast seemed reasonable...then we found old towels piled in a corner of the bathroom, the bedside light dangling from the wall. And, breakfast was cancelled due to a broken coffee pot. So, we didnt miss that town as we drove away this morning! We headed to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

I LOVE volcanoes! I can only attribute this passion to the Saturday afternoon 'b' movies I watched as a kid on TV, where there was always a virgin sacrifice as part of the story line. The fascination did not cross over to the virgin situation.

There is actually a drive from Lassen that goes north to Oregon called the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway. The actual volcano range begins at Lassen and continues up to Mt St Helens. It is part of the Ring of Fire that includes moving plates (and earthquakes), and their accompanying volcanoes. Lassen had 400 eruptions between 1914 and 1917, and it considered 'quiet' now. But that is only because the eruptions ended up plugging the volcano. The lava is still below ground and heating the water to create boiling pools called fumaroles and mud pots. You can walk around the largest grouping of these at Bumpass Hell - thus named for poor Mr. Bumpass who, while telling his exploration partner about the instability of the ground, lost his leg when it broke the crust of ground and fell into water that was several hundred degrees. Ouch! Oh, and it smells like sulfur due to the hydrogen sulfide gas.

After a vigorous hike down to Bumpass Hell and back, we scouted out the rest of the park that is quite exciting with all those volcanoes around. We then headed north - ya we're going to Florida, and stopped at Burney Falls to see an impressive falls from both a stream going over a cliff AND water that seeped through the volcanic rock (mostly porous Basalt)and is falling through the rocks to the river below. Love all those kinds of volcanic rocks. The layers remind me of the topography in Cappadocia area of Turkey known for their 'Fairy Chimneys' which I always refer to in other ways.

Food and Drink: and an important part of any trip, especially when crossing the country! Ode to you Farkel Pam. The meal of comment was dinner at the Creamery in Klamath Falls, city center. A converted creamery is now a brewery with the usual food fare - but without all the grease. We had dinner salad with tri tip beef and 1/2 lb burger. What was notable was the home made golden potato fries and potato chips. WOW! not a grease drop in site and the chips were fresh from the 'oven'..fryer? Mark's blonde belgium beer was delicious - I kept sipping tastes, but since i was driving back to the hotel I decided to just sip.

Note Below: The best/worst part about moving is saying 'goodbye'. I have to say that this is something we should do quite regularly (maybe as an exercise than as actually moving) because it gives us a chance to cut through the daily noise and activities to focus on the value of friendships and family. We often (me included) seem to get to that golden emotional level, with allocated time, mostly in dire situations - sickness, departure, grief. I hope to do some behavior adjustments - but even if I don't, thank you all for sharing your friendship with me and Mark!! Family - you had no choice- but you are also appreciated greatly.