Graduation and Boiling Mud Part Two

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We arrived in Chico around ten pm, after being stopped by highway patrol after Bill slowed down to let the vehicle with overly bright lights pass us...it was a state patrol officer who thought Bill had been drinking since he slowed down and pulled over...after ten minutes of questioning Bill, the officer admitted to us that perhaps the lights on his new rig were quite bright....

The next day, Garth and Val had arranged for us to tour the Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico. It is an amazing facility, where nothing is wasted.

http://www.sierranevada.com/brewery/about-us/sustainability

After the tour, Garth drove us up the Butte Creek Canyon on a narrow back road up to the town of Paradise.

We spent another night with Garth and Val at their lovely home in the hills above Chico before continuing on our trip....

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Photos

Sierra Nevada Brewery Tour
A fantastic tour of a very progressive brewery....

Solar arrays
The brewery actually produces more power than it uses...everything is recycled....

A young couple on a week long tour of California breweries...
And they were from Longview, Bill and Garth's hometown!

Memorial plaque for a suicide
It was not uncommon for people to drive their cars over the edge here to commit suicide. A fence and boulders now block access.

Morning hike up the bluff from Garth and Val's home
We couldn't find the trail when we started back down, but I remembered I had a fitness tracker app on, and it showed where we had come up!

Looks just like Italy!
View from Garth and Val's home