Rice Farm, Where Is The Top & Weed

This travel day was a short drive and we headed to a Harvest Host. (Harvest Host is an RV Camping Membership where you can stay overnight at 4395+ farms, wineries, attractions, and more. Let us know if you want a discounted referral.) When I first looked it up, Chico Rice sounded so interesting – a father and son grow the rice, harvest, package, etc all there on the farm. Oh, I wanted a tour!

Driving there the landscape changed a bit, still flat with Coastal Range mountains on one side and Sierra Nevadas on the other. But now not so much orchards and fields as what looks like pastures.

We got to the farm and found our spot between the grain bins and the farm equipment on gravel. As we got set up a motorhome pulled in behind us. Later, a 5th wheel behind them. We walked to the kiosk and saw choices of things to buy: hats, shirts, rice, big rice bags, olive oils, etc.

I purchased some bags of rice. A beautiful spot but we were both a bit disappointed in that we didn’t learn a thing about the farm or growing rice. It would have been nice even if they had a poster in the kiosk with explanations and such.

The next day was about 4 hours of travel day. We took our time waking up and got on the road around 9:00am. The drive, all on I-5, was spectacular. Just before Redding we stopped at the TA for diesel. I was inside waiting for Kevin so I looked for a coffee mug with a handle on it like he wants. Found one. Met him at the drink machine and then said, come look, and showed him. He started laughing because when I was in the bathroom, he had also looked at the mugs, found them, and had planned to show me. HAHA He got one. Then we were off again.

Quickly the landscape changed and we were in the mountains – we went from around 500 ft to 3500 ft elevation on the route. Lake Shasta was breathtaking. The bridge over the lake with steep mountains with green trees and then snow on some tops all so pretty.

Mt Shasta, around 14,000 ft, looked like its top was cut off. It was covered with white clouds. (Saw it a week later from a distance and it looks cone-shaped at the top, it is an old volcano.)

We learned about “Weed, CA” from Autio (the great iPhone app) – it was the last name of the guy who started there. HA, being CA, we thought it would be funny if it was named for pot.

On the other side of Mt Shasta the landscape is dry with cedar trees scattered here and there. So interesting all the climates we went through in just a few hours.

We got to Central Point, OR at 1:45pm and checked in. This campground – wow. It is part of Jackson County and is right next to  “The Expo” fairgrounds. The fairgrounds had a lot of old equipment set up. Looks like they must have had an auction the day we got there. Kevin especially liked watching the equipment being hauled away; he knew of some of them from his grandpa and dad’s farming days. A very good weekend.  We got a few rain drops as we got into Oregon. Cooler with highs in the 50s° at Central Point, OR.

🤣 Did you see the fishing bobber in the branch in the top picture? Isn’t that funny. Lake Minden RV Resort, near Sacramento, CA saw quite a few people fishing…and losing their bobbers, apparently. 😃