Blogs from Chico, California, United States, North America

Took 99 north to Chico, CA, after a quick stop in Sacramento to grab a lifejacket and inner tube at Big 5 Sporting Goods. My mission is to scope out the local tubing spots. Using a web page as a reference, I checked out the Sacramento River tubing spot, which is calm water, and Butte Creek up in the foothills, which is more rapid and shallow (and colder). Both locales are absent of tubers, so it must be much too early. This stuff probably starts around Memorial Day at the earliest. I have the info now though, and I will return here later in the summer. With no tubing possible at the moment, I still have to occupy myself, so the mountains beckon once again. I head off to Lassen NP. Both the drive up and ... read more

After Robert asked me for a divorce I drove to Carmel Valley from Texas. After much back and forth I ended up taking all three cats even though Q-Tip was unquestionably Robert's cat. That Christmas Roberts parents invited me back for the holidays. It was the last time I would spend Christmas with them both. When I drove back to CA after that Christmas I had packed up all of my belongings that I could sort through and pack from our stuff that had been in storage for a year since we began our cross country adventure. That was one of the longest lonliest drives I have ever made. But while it was a tough drive it also proved to me that I could make the trip with no one else around! When I got back ... read more

So it begins. I have 7 days before I board a plane to leave this continent for a year. There is so much to do and prepare for that my thoughts can't seem to organize themselves into coherent sentences. I finally got my visa, pasted into my passport behind all the stamps I collected on my jaunt through South America. My violin is fixed, so I can bring it with me in case I'm ever really hard up for cash, plus it's fun to play and might act as an ice breaker in some social circles. I'm torn between buying cheap clothes here or bringing very little with me and doing a complete style make-over in Paris, which would probably lead to me blowing all my money for the semester in a month. I guess I'm ... read more

In a few hours time Mario, Tessa, and myself will be on the road, joking with my father as he drives us to Sacramento International Airport. At twenty hundred hours we board a United flight to LAX. Once in lovely Los Angeles there is a four hour layover to look forward to. From there we catch a flight to San Salvador, El Salvador; two hours to wake up, realize we are in Central America, and find the next flight, which theoretically brings us to Mexico D.F. around twelve hundred thirty hours, Mexico City time. Wee. I'll update on the flight experiences as soon as I have internet access in the Capital.... read more

10/01 8:14PM Pacific Time (the blog dated today was actually yesterday; there are descrepancies sometimes in the dates/times). Got to Lassen Volcanic National Park by 10AM this morning to find out that our weather check from yesterday was obsolete. We had planned on summiting Mt. Lassen (over 10,000 feet, with a hike that gained approx 2,000 feet to the summit), but there was a snow storm last night that dumped a fair amount of snow, so we had to alter our plans. We did a lovely hike to Terrace Lake and Paradise Meadows. We did encounter a fair amount of snow, but it was a lovely hike. And when we returned, we found out the road had opened and we could drive through the park (could only drive 12 miles in this morning when we arrived ... read more

Hey guys ur just going to have struggle with me while im learning to use this new program!! :) im GRADUATED!! YAY!! I'm leaving for Austraila in 4 days! Let me know if you got this blog....it's suppose to send you an email everytime I add something new. Luv, Kar ... read more