We went into a Raley's in
Red Bluff on our recent RV trip and, at checkout, told the lady we were from Dixon when she asked where we were from. Then she asked, "What brings you to Red Bluff"? We said, "we just came to see Red Bluff and poke around a bit". She started laughing...."you came here just to see Red Bluff!!??"
Well, I guess that about sums up how nice it is for us to find a town and spend days just exploring. This trip we: walked around the downtown and talked to the store owners for about an hour; played 9 holes of golf at a small, local place (Kim drove the cart, I golfed); took three drives into the surrounding country (one north, one into the foothills to the east and one to the west); ate a couple of local eateries...great sandwich place called Mr. Pickles; went down to the Sacramento River where we took a hike on the paths; drove up to a small town called Bend where we had a picnic next to the fast flowing river; cleaned and organized our "coach" one rainy day; and a number of smaller drives around the outskirts to view houses, property and their values on Zillow (on my Droid phone).
That's how we've always wanted to travel. It's not necessary for us to see all the big tourist places. We're content to soak in the local flavor. The photos following show off a tiny glimpse into Red Bluff.
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| Our site on a perfect day (see Kim in the foreground on the right) |
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| We found the field of flowers by accident...just driving down a levee road. |
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| Sacramento River looking north. |
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| A 250 year old oak tree at the oldest settlement in Red Bluff (from the 1840s) |
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| These clouds came in one night and dropped rain all the next day. There were three tornadoes spotted 40 miles south in Chico. Yikes. |
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| *whispering*... he lines up his shot... |
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| What form and follow through! |
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| Wonderful local 9-hole golf course....70 degrees. |
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| ...found the rough on this tee shot. |
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| If you look closely, you'll see the golf club just above and to the right of my right arm.... this was after a gawd-awful duffed shot. |
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| Can't have a golf course without water. |
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| Kim took a sequence shot of me blasting (perfectly, of course) out of a sand trap...wait, what was I doing in there in the first place??! |
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| Kim got this bird....just as it got a tasty worm. |
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| Fore! |
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| Terrific photo with the scoreboard in the foreground and some great golfer in the background. |
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| This tower downtown reminded us of the clock tower in Back To The Future. Nice, nice people in all the stores we went in downtown. Very friendly and happy we came to visit. |
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| As you travel into the foothills to the east, the ground is loaded with lava rocks. |
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| Iron Creek Canyon path east of Red Bluff. We spent an hour looking at rock, flowers, bugs, shrubs and what we thought were BigFoot tracks...turned out to be only cows.....what a letdown. |
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| We can never take enough cow photos...especially white faced ones. |
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| Wonderfully framed photo with the wheat in the foreground. |
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| Very friendly horse we visited with. |
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| Fowl at the riverside. They expected food and were not very happy when Kim walked away without giving them any. |
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| The Sacramento River was flowing easily above 5 knots....really moving. |
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| ahhhhh....how cute...baby sheep. |
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| We were driving through this nice neighborhood when we came across what must be the world's largest guard dog! |
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| This deer seemed to adopt this abandoned home as his own. |
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| For once I did not get in the water....water temperature was too cold and, at that fast speed, too dangerous. |
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| One lane bridge crossing over the Sacramento River on a side road 15 miles NE of Red Bluff. |
Hope you all enjoyed the photos.... we sure had a good time. More photos are posted here...
https://picasaweb.google.com/stevenlstrick/Red_Bluff?authkey=Gv1sRgCMaj1YPTjdfwdw&feat=directlink
Next trip is back to Red Bluff for the Crawdad Festival !
