Today is Lassen National Park. Lassen is a volcano that last erupted in 1914 and the eruption lasted until 1921. So, we are visiting 100 years after it stopped erupting. Scientists say it will erupt again. Hopefully today isn't the day, it's already really hot out. We learn all the facts about the park from Gideon again who takes the map and leads us through each park and then provides details, history and learning for each park. It is basically like having a private tour guide throughout the parks. A really, really, cute tour guide with freckles who takes a long time to say facts and mispronounces words. I wouldn't want anyone else. Though sometimes the tourguide is off his game:
The park is just what you expect, a great view of the volcano from all sides. It took us 3 hours to get here so it's nice to get out and stretch legs, which, by the way, my leg is feeling great. So great, I keep forgetting to take it easy. I figure that's a good sign, but I'm still careful to take it easy and stay healed up. At the end of the park Adam says there are sulfer pits we can visit with bubbling mud. Sounds really weird but also cool. We did something similar on the last road trip, (see Route 66 trip - yellowstone blog) so maybe it's a new tradition? We get to the sulfer pits and they are bubbling up like little saunas out of the ground. Check out the videos to see. The smell though. Oh, the smell and it was close to 100 degrees out and you have hot volcano wind blowing sulfer pit bubble steam at you. It was a lot. I've definitely been to better spas than this, but it's still really cool. And yes, they did used to use the mud pits as spas!! We seem to escape the park without another eruption!
Like our normal trend lately, we saw more deer at the park. We are missing the bears on this roadtrip. The route 66 trip, we saw a bear family cross the road in front of us and we loved every minute of it. On this trip, everywhere we have gone have been warning signs about bears. Signs that say "speeding kills bears". Signs that say "you a-holes have gotten bears used to human food and now they associate the smell and sound of humans with food so you're ruining the parks for everyone because now bears aren't scared of humans because they know we have doritos". Signs that said "Don't be a surface pooper!" (that was unrelated to bears but still great). Signs that say "beware, high bear area". And my personal favorite: "do not leave food visible in the car". That one gets me. Are the bears window shopping? If so, what type of food are they looking for? Steak? Pop tarts? Do they really like trail mix?! Anyways, we have been waiting for bears and searching and hoping and still nothing. Might be a blessing, but still we're a little disappointed. But the deer are still gorgeous, and I still love talking to them much to Abby's dismay. Some of them listen to me for a bit and then ignore me and some listen and run. It's a natural reaction, my clients treat me the same way.
We leave the park and have a little jaunt to yet another hotel we are not looking forward to. This time it's a Best Western. It still smells gross, but not quite as moldy as the Quality Inn. We opt for dinner out to get out of the room (and smell). There are no local restaurants to go to where the reviews don't say horrible things, so we head a town over to a place that is pretty highly rated. It is a random Tuesday night so we're sure it won't be busy. We get there and we are greeted with an irritated woman who says we have to eat fast or we can come back at 8:15. We opt for eating fast. We order fast, we drink fast and the food takes quite awhile, but we get out in their allotted 1 hour and 15 minute timeframe. We head back to the hotel and finally get to watch a show some of us love - Catfish. It was a nice break to remind us of home again. Not that we're homesick yet, but we are missing our pets, Guggie, mattresses and the smell of our house (our own mold and cat litter).
Summary: Smelly hotel, smelly park, no bears anywheres. Ended the day at Best Western, Rose Quartz Inn, Chester, CA.