Traveling North

I wanted to head north to see friends and my older daughter who is driving down from Portland to visit with me so we will meet sort of halfway there.

It started off cloudy in the Bay area but eventually the sky opened up and there were fluffy white clouds and clear air from the rain and there was sun in between all the fluffy white clouds so it was then a pleasure to drive. Near the SF Bay area mustard is growing 6 to 7 feet high in some places from all the rain. Here in the U.S. it grows wild all over the west coast but when I was in India they cultivate it to make Mustard Oil to cook with along with Curry and Marjoram I believe it is. So, I remember eating a lot of potatoes cooked this way for example and often I believe? Lentils in the form of Dahl or Dahl Baht in India is often a staple too along with sort of like fried potatoes with curry cooked in mustard oil and other spices.

When we were traveling the safe things to eat was Dahl Baht and potatoes, Chai tea and boiled eggs in their shells. Water wasn't safe most times then along with tomatoes, lettuce and a lot of stuff like this. However, Oranges that you buy whole and peel and eat yourself are usually safe to eat almost anywhere along with boiled hot water and tea.

However, things likely have changed a lot since I was there in 1986 and 1985. For example, all the steam trains I hear are now gone.

So, the mountain is covered with snow and I hit rain coming north from Redding so this likely means a new layer of snow up on the mountain as well. I sent pictures to friends in South Korea and they couldn't believe Mt. Shasta looks this way this late in the year because he used to live here. It hasn't been like this much since about 1992 when it snowed 12 feet of snow in town and collapsed many roofs at 3500 and below then.

There is a cute story of a friend that almost died the winter between 1973 and 1974. No one had climbed up on my friend's roof in Mt. Shasta to clean the snow off and it had piled up about 5 to 7 feet high on the roof. But, likely he couldn't have because he weighed a lot anyhow and might have fallen through the roof. He built furniture and covered furniture with coverings then. But he wasn't the sort of person that would have been safe on any roof. So, one day he opened up his front door and the door slammed sort of by accident which dislodged the 5 to 7 feet of snow off the roof and right on his front porch he was in an avalanche and almost died there. He screamed and screamed for help because he couldn't get out. Luckily he got enough of an air pocket so he didn't suffocate before a neighbor finally came to rescue him. The neighbor was a friend of mine too that eventually climbed Shastina with me which is the little peak next to Mt. Shasta almost as tall.

So my friend always laughed when he told this story about almost dying from a snow drift from his roof avalanching down and burying him alive and almost killing him where he could not move at all.

The neighbor heard muffled sounds and came and rescued him because it felt like something was wrong and saved his life that day.