Shasta Lake

After getting back from Lake Tahoe, I was concerned about our tires, Marcia was concerned about our struts (front) & shocks (rear).  So I asked Arny, my brother-in-law, what he thought.  Well, bottom line, we now have new tires all around, and new struts and shocks.  Lately, I like to put things into “how far could we have traveled....” when it comes to spending money.  Let’s just say, at current gas prices, we could have traveled back to Arkansas on what we spent...but the HHR should be in great shape now.

After putting the tires on Thursday after getting back to the Sacramento area, and the connections that Arny had in getting the car into the shop first thing Friday and out before noon, we left the area around 2:00 pm and headed for Shasta Lake area.  We have reservations at a KOA near Shingletown for Saturday and Sunday, which is between Redding and Mt. Lassen National Park.  For Friday we just stayed in a rest area along the Shasta Lake.  Below is where we stopped for dinner, but it did not allow “overnight parking”.  On the other side of the freeway, a few miles down the road, they did, and it was also a nice rest area, but I did not get pictures of that one.

 What a wonderful rest area...but what does that little sign say?

But they do provide the dogs a nice area (above), but they wish it had grass, as you can see Bubba and Skruffy doing what they like to do when we stop....smell for other dogs.

 There are nice tables and chairs in a half-circle around the back side which...

 

 Has this wonderful view of a portion of the lake....

And back in the parking lot....well, there are always things to remind us of Arkansas... (for those who don't know, Arkansas is the home to the Walmart headquarters, and Walmart got its start in Arkansas.

Saturday morning we made our way back to Redding for a Walmart groceries stop.  As we were driving, I got a few good pictures of Shasta Lake, below.  Shasta Lake is a very large “fingers lake”, which essentially means that if you were to follow along the shoreline, you would be going up into cove after cove after cove. Go to this Google Maps link to see what I mean.  Shasta Dam is a wonderful dam, but I did not feel like moving the motor home over along the road to the dam, so that will need to be another visit for Marcia....I have seen the dam many times.

After getting groceries, and then a quick “run into the store again” (by me) to get dog food (sorry doggies, we almost forgot...) we headed eastward up the road to the KOA near Mt. Lassen.  As we drove along Highway 44 you could see Mt. Shasta off to the left, and Mt. Lassen straight ahead.  I missed shots of Shasta, and have included a Internet shot of it below, and Mt. Lassen was far off.  As Lassen got closer, the road did not allow for views due to the hills and trees, but we will get up and close to Lassen in a few days.

Mt. Lassen in the distance above, Mt. Shasta below.

Both mountains are part of the Cascade Volcano Arc.  There are thirteen major volcanoes running from the Seattle, Washington area down to Mt. Lassen, in Northern California.  The last two volcanoes to erupt in the lower 48-states were Mt. St. Helens, near Portland, in 1980, and Mt. Lassen in 1915 (there were a series of eruptions from 1914-1921, but the big one was in 1915.)  During the up-coming week, we will get to see Lassen and the sites around it.

And did I fail to mention that one of the KEY viewing sites for Sunday's 'ring of fire' solar eclipse is right where we are?  We can view it right outside our RV, although the trees will hide it a little...but there is a clearing just a few feet away which should make for a nice picture or two.

And to family and friends...looks like we will have little to no cell phone coverage for the next week.