Sunday, January 07, 2007

photographsky - roadtrip california (dunsmuir)

time flies. one week left...sigh.

anyway, on the day that we left san francisco, we rented a car (more on that later) to drive around the rest of california. as some of you might know, cars drive on the right hand side of the road in the states, which made the adjustment kinda weird at first...but after only one initial scare from an over-zealous and impatient truck driver (who was obviously at fault), i more or less got it...except for that other time when i nearly drove into oncoming traffic while making a left turn...but that's another story.

given the fact that there wasn't much to see on our maiden journey upstate, partly because everyone else was too paralysed by my driving skills, there weren't any pictures taken until we nearly reached our destination for the day. this is the first of the not many:



as you can see, it was raining outside. eventually, as we were driving northwards, the rain turned to...





while i was pretty excited at first, not having seen snow in a good 10 years...it soon turned to a snowy hell...my windshield wipers were damn lousy, and the windows kept fogging up (despite our best efforts to fiddle with the air conditioner), so i had to go so slow that i jammed up the entire expressway...and again, those truck drivers are one impatient bunch.

to make matters worse, when pei hwan called our place of accommodation to tell them that we'd be slightly late, she was told that there was a power failure due to the snow storm. well done.

but as things turned out, we reached safely. driving in the snow is no joke though...no wonder they make it mandatory to carry snow chains in some areas. as it was, the lights in our cabin were a welcome sight indeed (apparently the power came back when we arrived...coincidence? haha).



dunsmuir is a pretty ulu town about 40 miles north of redding (the biggest city around that region)...google it if you wanna know more. at first, we wanted to see mount shasta, this volcano just a few miles north of dunsmuir, but after the debacle with the snow on the expressway the day before, we decided not to take any more unnecessary chances, and headed for the coast. but before that, i wanted to take home some memories of my first snow in 10 years:













i love the cold weather...it makes dressing up so much more fun...and it makes you appreciate the hot baths / showers at the end of the day even more. =)

more to come...cheers. =)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One tip someone once gave me: "The driver is always closest to the centre divider".

I love dressing up in cold weather too! Haha.. So vain we all...

And er.. you look... er... rounder... ?

furfur angel said...

wei~~ u put on weight ah?!
snow! snow! how nice!
and I think u need to shave... look like an old man keekee....