Don’t expect some wondrous camera work today — no glorious shots of slot canyons or beautiful river rapids, I have to warn you. Nope, today we simply drove away from home, up the long and uneventful I-5 and into Redding.

Here, we elected to spend our first night out in a totally unexceptional "camp", namely the parking lot at Camping World. Pretty non-special, huh?

But after all, what better location to launch an RV soiree than the mecca of all RV-ing, store of RV stores. Of course we had to buy a few items, paraphernalia of our world. A new toothbrush holder, shelf organizer, butane lighter, stuff like that. Outside, the weather is low and gray, but not a lot of rain falling. Nice night to spend indoors.

It’s always an awkward time, the first couple of days on the road. Changing focus, pace, locale and intensity all at once usually takes us more than one day’s travel. Sometime around this coming weekend, we’re likely to look at each other, grin, and say "Hey this IS cool, isn’t it?".

But tonight it’s strictly sit back, roll down the shades, and get used to relaxing. Projects and task lists are in mothballs; calendar appointments are for those other people now; our new job is to figure out where to go, and what we might feel like doing. Right now, it looks like there could be some sunshine in a few days, and we are thinking that a kayaking day on Whiskeytown reservoir is looking pretty appealing. Got some long-neglected e-books to catch up on, too.

Howie and Ralph are running great, Karin and I are healthy and happy, and in fact there is just not a sliver of anything lying around to complain about. It seems that it is time to start soaking up some of this pervasive peace that surrounds us.

later
G.