The temperatures most of the way back were around 93 to 97 degrees so it was nice to have air conditioning in the truck. When I grew up most people did not have air conditioning and you had to turn it off when you went uphill always or your car would boil over. So, this was before radial tires, disc brakes and anti-freeze in your radiators too. So, truckers often died going down the Grapevine then because it wasn't a freeway yet. the same for going down to Redding from the little city of Mt. Shasta. I heard the story when I was a boy of a semi-truck whose brakes went out that hung in the trees right above the train yard then in Dunsmuir almost falling down on the Railroad tracks then in Dunsmuir. So, before disc brakes on Trucks and cars brake fade and brake failure killed many many people and many people were scalded if they didn't know how to deal with an overheated car when it had boiled over from going uphill. If you didn't wait for the radiator to cool down before opening the top of the radiator people were often scalded and burned very bad by the extremely hot and steamy water then in the 1950s and 1960s.
The drive was nice and there was some traffic on the freeway but it wasn't so crowded there was a lot of traffic for a weekday. However, traveling on Weekends now is another story entirely.
My wife finally got to experience the full peace of Mt. Shasta when we had a campfire on my friend's land and walked away from the campfire to see the milky way galaxy and many star groups which were visible last night, especially from about 9 pm to midnight when we all broke up the outdoor party around the campfire singing songs and playing the guitar.
It reminded me a lot of from about 1969 to 1975 up at Horse Camp at tree line which is the most popular route to climb Mt. Shasta year around.
However, when there is no snow to stop rock slides you have to be very careful of all the climbers above you knocking loose little rocks because they dislodge bigger rocks because of the steep ness up towards Red Banks and if you are not watching carefully you could be knocked out by a fist size or bigger or smaller rock to the head this time of year without full snow covering of the rocks of all sizes on a steep slope there especially above Lake Helen.
So, be very careful from now until the first new snows of the fall to watch for falling rocks dislodged by climbers above you climbing the mountain to the top.
(Of course I'm talking about climbing Mt. Shasta which I was visiting with my wife the last week.)
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