Destination: Love's Truck Stop off of I 5, Williams CA via Farmers Brewing Company, Princeton, CA
As we drove down the hill from the chardonnay vines, past Hummingbird Estate and onto the main road, TCB emerged from the blanket of fog hovering high on the hill. Perhaps we would see sunshine today, especially as our next destination was California.
Sure enough, the sun appeared after an hour into our trip. Soon thereafter, the peak of Mount Shasta emerged behind the foothills. Views were breathtaking and made the ride down this straight, populated interstate, very interesting.
It was time for gas as we approached Yreka, not to be confused with Eureka.
Van commented, "We are back to the land where you cannot buy a full tank of gas (because of vapor recovery systems)." Ah, we were in California, again. I was excited to be here as we would see Eric, and Emily this time, when we stayed in San Jose, tomorrow night.
We stopped at Farmers Brewing Company, a very large brewery, started by a family of farmers. The complex was a serious operation with several conical fermenters and a complete production setup, from the mill room to a canning line. We were surrounded by high palettes of empty cans, by the ten-thousands, ready to be filled. We enjoyed a bit of beer but still had some mileage to cover, before arriving at Love's Truck Stop, our free overnight stay before heading to San Jose.
The fog followed us from Oregon. I thought the stay at Love's would be uneventful. The opposite happened - the man from Maine who slept in his car next to us and the llama who was being walked by her owner. And it was not even night yet.
Why Love's Truck Stop, you ask? It was free and we wanted to experience sleeping at a truck stop in case we needed it in the future. We had many other options along the route, and in hindsight, Lake Shasta looked beautiful, but we were looking for the most direct route south, to get to warmer and sunnier places.
Thank you TCB, for your dark, zippered window shades, allowing us to block out the rest of the world. Thank you, Quinnbo, who barks, whisper-barks and growls to protect us.
