Suddenly my Redding case sprang to life, and Sunday I had to rush over there to make Monday morning court dates. I usually stay at the Best Western that is not the Hilltop, but when I went to the BW website, guess what? There no longer is a BW that is not the Hilltop. What's wrong with the Hilltop? Wrong location for me, and really expensive (like $120 a night). So I mess around with Orbitz or something similar and end up at the Travel Lodge. It turns out to be right next to the ex-BW which is now a Rodeway Inn. The TL boasts wi-fi. I check in, turn on, and tune in to the web. For about 5 minutes, then the Airport signal which indicates wi-fi strength goes off and my computer says I am not connected to the internet. After a few minutes it's back. This happens a few times, then it just quits.

I commented on this at the desk when I checked out. I said I have a major trial coming up, I need reliable internet, and I'm going to have to book into a different motel for 3 weeks. They said the guy is coming out to fix this this very afternoon, we're moving the motel business computers off the wi-fi setup and everything will be better. Maybe, but as President Bush said, "Fool me once, um...... " The wi-fi at the Yreka Miners Inn, a BW, is also very flakey except in the hardwired rooms - of which the TL has none.

Ate lunch at a little Chinese place in a strip mall which my client likes. It was fine. Nice green tea icecream - a fave. You can get it in Eureka's old-town at the icecream store, too. Its best if a bit bitter, sweetened up for American tastes its not so hot.

PS: This is a 6 defendant case, so no surprise that 3 of the 7 lawyers (one defendant has two) came up with motions to continue the trial. It was to start next week, but now, not until January. I like trials, but I hate starting them.

I've got a 10 am Garberville court call Friday morning, but we get a call from my sweetie's son, the punk rock star. At the club someone stole all his id and credit cards. His girlfriend is in a panic here trying to cancel cards etc. I'm late getting away. But I get to court before the session is over and take care of business.

Then its 101 to Ukiah. Only right out of Willits 101 south stops moving. I call the court and tell them my 1:30 may have to be postponed. Nothing moves. I call the court and tell them my 2pm is in trouble. Nothing moves. I call Caltrans. Everything is fine they say. I call KZYX. There's a tractor trailer wrecked on the downslope and no one knows when the road will reopen. Does that stop me. Ha. I have a Thomas guide and it shows there is a backroad way to Ukiah from Willits, so I pull out of the traffic jam and take it. Everything is relatively fine - ie two lane paved roads - until I get to Tomki Rd (or something like that). It starts as gravel but quickly starts running across a streambed repeatedly. Some of those crossings are pretty steep and sure enough a part falls off the car on one of the more extreme ones. I don't know what it is but the car runs without it, so it goes in the trunk and I keep moving. Eventually the road gets paved again and after a while I show up in Ukiah. My 1:30 was a technical appearance, no clients needed, and it was postponed. My 2pm however involved a client who came up from the Southland and its a long trip for him. I get into court by 3 and he's the last case and so we do it - only the probation report is defective according to everyone, so we decide he'll go talk with them again and postpone the hearing for a month.

By the time I'm driving back and nearing Garberville I hear Estelle on the KMUD news. Its her last night, and I'll be in Garberville about 6:25. The news is over at 6:30, so I think I'll drive by in case no one else is there, so that when she comes out of the newsroom for the last time she'll see a fan, get a hug, and not feel so bad about leaving. As I pull into the lot I see that I'm not the only one who has thought of this. There are about 60 people there, with a table of food and a table of wine, bouquets of flowers, everything but banners. When Estelle emerges with Kathleen's hands over her eyes, we all yell "Surprise!" and it was. I got great photos, but you know..... no way to post them.

Culinary note: the cheese and tomato on bread things were great, and so was the wine.

One thing I like about having cases in Yreka is that I get to drive Rt 96 up the Klamath river valley. In a time long ago I was a river guide for Whitewater Voyages and while guiding a group from the UC Extension I met my sweetheart. We got together after a while and we've been together ever since. The river trips run from Happy Camp to T-Bar and that section of the river brings back many memories for me each time I drive by it.

This trip I was returning from Yreka, so I entered the canyon of the Klamath at the eastern point where it intersects with the old highway out of Yreka. Its arid there but the river itself is full and the banks are lush which makes an impressive contrast with the dry mountains rising from it. The river is full now because it is a controlled release from upstream dams - without which it would be much higher in the winter and much lower now.

There are often fires in the mountains along the Klamath for some reason, and there are miles of burnt over forest on view. Some from this year, which killed but did not burn, quite a few trees - leaving others, mostly evergreens, standing amongst the death, green and vibrant with life. Down at the river I saw horses coming to the banks to drink. No time to stop and take a picture, I was on deadline for a meeting with a Deputy DA in Eureka, so I snapped a mental shot and kept driving. There were several gold mining outfits visible in the upper reaches of the drive. They are a kind of raft with a pump and filter on them, I think. I didn't see any rafters once I got to Happy Camp - the river is too tame east of Happy Camp, and too wild below T-Bar, for rafters. Ishi Pishi falls is supposed to be a class 5 - deadly.

Very little traffic - and a good thing as the road is two lanes and it curves around with the river for much of the time. There are a couple of the older bridges with the girder superstructure, and every now and then a small settlement with a store, or bar. I always wonder what it is like to be born into such a town, and then to spend your life there. So different from my life which has been unrooted in places - I've always traveled, - and moved quite a bit until we settled down in Alderpoint some 27 years ago. That is so astonishing. I have lived in Alderpoint longer than I've lived anywhere else in my life. Probably at least twice as long. But I am not "from" Alderpoint as are some of my neighbors whose families have been there 100 years. We see the same things but with very different eyes.

I stay at the Best Western here in Yreka. Wi-fi is a bit sketchy, but the secret is they have a few hard-wired rooms. I get one of those and have assured internet access. So I can do important things like this blog post.

I got here after a long drive. Left home at 10, met client in my Redway office, stopped in Garberville to get some cash from the bank, drove to Eureka, dropped a suit at the cleaners, filed a Claim Opposing Forfeiture with the court and served the DA (maybe for the 2nd time), got my new tires at Costco while I did some shopping (catfood and cokes. To my amazement no one at home wanted anything from Costco.)

I intended to have lunch at Hue, the SE Asia restaurant on 4th 1 block north of the Townhouse. (4th and L?) but naturally they were closed to fix up the kitchen. So I went to Stantons and got a BLT and a coke (only its a Pepsi. Is there any sadder sentence in the English language than "Will Pepsi do?" ) The BLT was great. Stanton's American menu is tops. $10 with tip.

So, off to Yreka a bit late but hey its only 4 hours from Eureka. Gas in Willow Creek and a coke- big mistake. By Happy Camp I was nodding out and had to pull over for a 10 minute cat-nap. In Yreka I ate, once again, at the Purple Plum. It's close to the Best Western, and it 's not the Dennys. It, like Stantons serves American food. I had a glass of Merlot ( the Sirah is off the menu now, which is ok since they never had any) and a meatloaf dinner. For some reason after the waitress brings dinner she asks if you'd like a dinner roll. I always would, and it seems like it would just come with the dinner. Meatloaf and mashed potatoes smothered in brown gravy. Meatloaf a bit tough (didn't know you could do that with meatloaf) but a satifying dinner. Side of carrot rounds, not very tasty but I needed a vegetable in addition to the green salad drenched in 1000 Islands dressing. No desert, I was good. $19 with tip.

Route 96 is still beautiful even in dry summer. Some forest fire damage visible at several spots. The KIamath is regulated by dam releases so it remains more or less uniform in flow all summer. Looks good.

Patronas was closed, Schats was closed. The Thai place may have been open, I couldn't tell during my drive by. I needed a paper to read during a solo dinner. I had intended to eat at the Purple Thistle, newly restored to my graces, but I picked up a hitch-hiker in Garberville and doubted that he had the money to join me there, so I drove on through to Ukiah. Bottom line, I ended up at the Safeway. Often I get sandwiches there and all goes well. Tonight however I decided to get adventurous. I got "boneless pork BBQ" and "snow peas with noodles". The boneless pork was dreadful. I'm sure its scrapings off of bones they can't sell for dog food, mashed together. They do something like that with fish now and call it sea-crab or some similar misleading name. Don't get the boneless pork. The snow peas were huge and therefore stringy. I liked the noodles. Cost about $10. Never again.