Do you believe in miracles? I do. Want some proof of miracles? Just look to the sides of Interstate 5 driving from Bakersfield to Redding, California.
Look out the car window to see enough different varieties of fruits and vegetables to feed a large portion of the U.S. population. Bountiful citrus fruit tress line the freeway around Bakersfield eventually giving way to fruit trees, then grape vineyards and later corn fields as I-5 heads north. Leaving Sacramento, the flat valley landscape turns to miles of rice production.
It was while driving past the rice ponds, I realized the absolute miracle of life. First I noticed the ponds covered with water. Starting from tiny seeds dropped by airplanes into large flat ponds, they find nourishment in the soil and water and grow into healthy plants.
The rice plants emerge from the water and grow up into the sunlight into sturdy plants and re-create themselves as tiny rice grains.
Farmers harvest the rice grains from the plants. We cook and eat the rice grains, and they nourish us so we grow tall and strong.
This miracle is carried out millions of times in California in thousands of different food-product ways. From the dirt at our feet, comes food that keeps us alive. California feeds millions of people with the food grown in its flat, fertile fields with water from the snow that falls in the mountains months earlier. Isn’t that a miracle?
Sometimes, a tree, an odd shaped tree at that, grows in unlikely places. Have you noticed any odd or weird shaped trees growing in unlikely places and wondered how they got there? This pine tree doesn’t fit the profile of the local trees in Antioch. However, we know how it happened to “grow” in this spot!
We saw the birth of this tree. This is how it grew in this spot starting as a tall trunk and weird attachments at the top:
Whoops, a naked tree! We saw the spikes and looked for the rest of the little branches and found them along the road:
This odd tree was assembled just like our artificial Christmas tree, only they used a lift to reach the top. Now, if this little odd tree would just help the Verizon signals out at Sugar Barge Resort, we would call that a REAL miracle too!!
We are in Redding, CA for a few days at the Elks Club RV Park.
Wonderful news is after several years of a California drought: Lake Shasta is full! So full, they are opening the dam to let water out to make room for the coming snow melt and warning of down-river possible flooding. This is Lake Shasta last summer:
And to our delight, here is Lake Shasta today:
To see the lake finally back up to normal levels is another miracle!
We came to visit long-time friends, Jack and Nancy Reed. We met on our honeymoon trip—camping at Lake Shasta, some time back in the last century.
Our middle-aged kids were just little spouts as were their three beautiful daughters, who now have teenagers of their own. We have kept in touch over past 39 years. They just bought a new-to-them condo in Redding and as always, Nancy has transformed it into a showcase with her decorating talents.” We had a wonderful visit--catching up on family news.
We are heading up to Alturas, CA on Tuesday morning to visit with our extended-family members, Fred and Arlene Cray. We will be driving Hwy 299 East which winds through the mountains. It will be a slow trip with a few knuckle-biter moments!
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