Day 51 - Yreka, California

I really hate getting up at 5.30 a.m. - specially if I then have to add another 2 hours to my day by flying to San Francisco! However, when I got there it was a gorgeous day; helped by the ease of getting to the car rental centre via the AirTrain right out of the airport.

But there was one small problem! The Bay Bridge was closed because on Tuesday night bits of cable started to fall off ... So I crossed via the Hayward-San Mateo bridge instead: the Golden Gate Bridge is always a traffic bottleneck. Eventually making my way to I-5 N, I stopped for lunch at Granzella's - this has always been a favourite of our family, since the girls (then aged 14 and 10) almost had hysterics at the size of the portions of beef ribs. As well as the restaurant and deli, there is now a very chi-chi souvenir and gift shop full of nasty frilly things, but the food is still good!

Then on through Corning (olive capital of California) and up into the mountains at Shasta Lake - I love this road, with its wide sweeping curves around the lake (currently sadly depleted of water, but I guess winter rain and snow will fix that), past Castle Crags, and through the volcanic peaks set in a wide plain. These mountains are so different from the Appalachians, where I spent a lot of time earlier in my trip. Clouds were coming in fast now, and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in as many miles. By the time I got to Yreka, an old California gold-rush town, I had driven 350 miles ... busy day!