High Adventure on Highway 99

Warning, parts of this post may confuse you since it's been well over four months since my last update. You're just going to have to wait for catch-up stuff though, because I'm feeling lazy... Which is okay, cause it's totally juicy gossip, I swear! *winks* Although, can you call it gossip if it's about you? Hmmm...

Alrighty so, we set our story laaaaast tuesday... at least I'm pretty sure it was tuesday. It was bright and sunny and very, very hot. Pretty much an average April day here in Redding. My Scholar and his brother came to pick me up at elvenish, so I could ride-along with them to Chico. Whoo! I'd never been to Chico before, so I was pretty excited.

The trip down was pretty uneventful, but interesting. Highway 99 has lots of cool stuff along it. Little towns with little businesses that all have someone's name attached like, 'Lucy's Diner', lots of really pretty trees, and some awesome spots where it looks like the grass runs right along the edge of the sky. We did some chatting, but didn't talk a lot. Clay was pretty happy in the backseat with his music or his computer, and the Scholar and I are pretty content with silence until we think of something to talk about.

Chico itself was really cool. Somehow, from hearing people talk about it I kind of got the idea that it was this huge sort of metropolitan city with huge buildings and lots of pavement and all. But that's not how it is. It is big, but I found it pretty cute... at least the parts I saw. There were trees EVERYWHERE. And I mean big, leafy, lovely trees all along the sidewalks and just everywhere. Way more than in Redding, except for places like Turtle Bay.

The three of us weary travelers (and yes, you can be weary after only about an hour and a half of driving if the temperature is over at least 70) went to a mongolian barbeque place called Hula's. Mongolian barbeque is not my favorite, I have decided. Of course, maybe I just got too much meat and noodles and not enough veggies, who knows. I am willing to give it another try certainly... definately with less noodles. They had this weird texture and taste to them... blech. Not even a quarter as good as the ones my Scholar made for me. ^-^

Anywho, we continued on to a comic store. I found some cool Dragonlance stuff there! But, they had a reeeaaally small manga section. *sigh* Not that I had any money, but it's always fun to browse around. ^-^ After that we hit the college out in Butte, which was actually the point of going to Chico, so some photos belonging to the Scholar could be retrieved from a teacher there. This involved some walking around in the oppressive heat, which I must admit I did not appreciate, and then lots of waiting around in the heavenly cold of the place of photography classes and working of photos... which I totally did appreciate.

There is just something about the heat here which makes me sort of wish I was one of those girls who could dramatically faint and have to be carried around. My problem is really that I have too much pride to just collapse. I must push myself, try to keep up, and when asked say things like, "No, really I'm okay. I can go a little bit more." until there is absolutely no other option. Which is silly I guess, and yet somehow gratifying when it's all over and done. Certainly gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Pride goeth before a fall' though, doesn't it?

But I digress, which is pretty horrible of me when I'm coming up the most exciting part of the story!

After procuring aqua goodness and icey-delicious juice pops (curtesy of Clay), we headed back towards Redding. At first it was pretty much like the before. Pleasently quiet, with much scenery gazing and a smattering of conversation... mostly centered around how many juice pops we could eat before they melted or we started feeling sick. heh. Then, I heard "What's that?" and I looked up to see what looked like a black plastic bag sort of bouncing down the road towards us. It only took a couple of seconds for us to realize that it was neither plastic, nor a bag, but a large square metal thing heading right for us! Gasp!

The Scholar tried to go around it, didn't quite manage, and then there was this horribly loud 'CLANK!', accompanied by what a seemed a very large jolt of the car. Clay thought we had hit another vehicle. I am not ashamed to admit that I totally screamed. Not like, histarically; but it was super startling and scary! You would have screamed too, if it happened to you...

We pulled over on the side of the highway and, lo and behold, we discovered that the left front tire was flat. Did I mention that it was really hot out, windy too, and Clay was feeling kind of sick from eating so many juice pops? We kind of just stood around for a little while, trying to figure out what had happened, what we'd hit, and where it had come from. Everything had that dazed 'well what now?' kind of feeling to it; which is a pretty good sign that you're having an adventure. People in adventures tend to have those moments when they haven't the slightest clue what's going on...

Eventually however, things got sorted out. The guys set about getting out the spare tire and replacing our flat with it. Meanwhile I, not wanting to be totally useless, decided to go treking along the highway to find out what was the black thing that we hit. I feel this part of the tale is best rendered in writerese.

[The warm wind whipped my hair around like a wild-thing as I set out upon my quest. Ahead of me I could see my goal: a black spot shimmering in the afternoon heatwaves radiating from the tarmak; mere echoes of the oppressive intensity of the sun beating down upon my head. My progress seemed insanely slow, each step a great effort that got me nowhere at all. Compared to the vehicles whipping by every so often, so close I actually held my breath each time I saw a new one coming, I might as well have been crawling.

Undaunted, persistant, and ignoring what sounded like omninous rustlings in the tall grass next to me, I continued on. After a while, I know not how long, the path before me began to shrink little by little, and the object I sought grew larger and larger. Finally it lay at my feet, a strange metal rectangle that burned my hand as I picked it up.

"But, what is it?"]

There now, isn't that much better than just saying that I walked back along the road, grabbed the strange metal thing we had hit, and then walked back to the boys to see if they knew what the heck it was? I thought so.

To finish off this little story that has somehow become longer than most of my other posts, I will say that the spare tire was successfully attached and we made it back to Redding in good time. None of us had a clue what the weird thing was that we hit; so we brought it back with us. I heard that it was later identified as a tie-down sort of deal off the side of one of those big semi's.

Thinking about it now, and the way it came from across the road boucning all crazy like, I have to say that it is probably a miracle, and definately a blessing that it only hit the tire. It could have easily smashed into the windshield or a side window, or hit something bad under the car. Praise the Lord for his great protection and mercy.

And that's the end of the story. Far off lands, bright new sights, near escapes, braving the dreadful heat and unknown peril, and living to tell about it... Truly, the very stuff that great adventures are made of!

(Thanks muchly for Scholarly editing notes involving names and directions. *hugs*)