Mary Alice and I were late leaving Eureka so we had a chance to stop and have dinner at the Mateel Cafe in Redway. Its summer so the patio is open, and that's where we went. We met a couple of friends and had a good talk before they left, then settled down to enjoy dinner. The patio is very pleasant. Birds were singing in the background, a few other people were there, but we felt like we had the place to ourselves. I began reflecting on the places we've eaten round the world, and the Mateel Patio was right up in the top two for the most pleasant setting (the food, of course, is beyond compare). Mary Alice thought the Flame of the Volcano on Santorini ranked similarly for a pleasant spot to eat, and I had to agree. Still, here's a world class great place to eat hidden in Redway, unknown to all but the locals. No doubt there are similar places all round the world, but this is the one we know about, and now I'm telling you. I had a sirloin, two glasses of Cabernet, and I'm still thinking about it with pleasure hours later. Maybe my opinion is colored by the fact that its home base, I know people eating there, I know some of the staff, the paintings on the wall are by my next door neighbor. Maybe. But maybe Carla has created a really wonderful place to eat, and the rest of the world should be so lucky as to eat there. That's my bet.

Give up?

I saw it in the paper today. It is the name of a muscle disorder which people can get from playing a video game too much. The game is a Wii, pronounced "we". The condition is "wiiitis" pronounced "we-i-tis". Its like tennis elbow.

Any other English word with 3 successive "i"s?

I came back from Yreka down highway 96. I had business in Happy Camp, and Happy Camp has memories for me from my whitewater rafting days. Did I ever tell you that I met Mary Alice at the first stop on a whitewater trip. We put in at Happy Camp. I was a inflatable kyack guide and the first stop was at the head of the first significant rapid on the Happy Camp to T-Bar run. That's when I met Mary Alice, there on the sand bar on the east side of the river. It wasn't until we stopped for the evening at Clear Creek that I really got to know her. By the Ukonom Creek camp I knew she was the one for me. We've been together about 30 years. How time flies when you're having a good time.

But I was writing about cultural isolation. When you get beyond Happy Camp heading west on Rt 96, the cell phone quits working, the radio goes dead, and there's no traffic. The road is paved and its ok and all that, but you are suddenly and surprisingly cut off from the normal inputs of civilization. If you broke down and left the road seeking help you could easily end up on the front page of the paper when searchers found you, or your body, days later. There's just about nothing there but mountains, forests, and the river. Its great.

Nothing lasts forever, tho. By Weichpec KHUM is coming in again on the radio, and the cell phone picked up by the time I reached Willow Creek. Still for an hour or so there I was. And the river kept bringing up memories. I'm going back to Yreka in July. I can't wait, but I may pack in some food.

I was late for dinner so I went to the Purple Plum, opposite Dennys by the Best Western Miner's Inn in Yreka. It advertises as a family restaurant, and of course any place called the Purple Plum is not an old place. I think its a solo restaurant disguised as a chain place so traveller will feel comfortable eating there.

I had meat loaf. They were out of the Cabernet Sauvignon so I had Merlot "from local grapes." It was good, the meat loaf was American, with mashed potatoes and lots of gravy, and on the side, a "dinner roll" that looked like about 1/2 a loaf of bread. I'm on a diet after too many cruise meals so no desert. Service was good, food was good quality American.

For lunch the next day, after a long morning sitting around in court to make a 2 minute appearance, it was the Thai place. Thai tea and Pad something which had pork in it and was mildly spicy. Great.

Still driving from Ukiah to Yreka, I got out into the valley on Route 20. They sky looked weird but I'm still driving. I get onto I-5 and suddenly all hell breaks loose. I'm barreling along at 70+ doing the speed limit when the sky opens up and dumps a ton of rain on my area all at once. I can't see 10 feet ahead of me and I'm still going 70+, so I pull off to the left (I'm usually in the left lane on divided highways) to wait it out. The guy behind me can't figure out what I'm doing so he's swerving around. After a few minutes its sunny again and I get back on the road. The radio tells me that there is still a tornado watch on for the Colusa area - which is about where the storm struck. I didn't see any funnel but I haven't been in rain that heavy since my father drove us through a hurricane in Mississippi in the 1940s. Are we having weather, or what?