California by Nick Young

            Last year my dad was offered a job in the golden state, California. He called and asked me if I was okay with it. I said, “Yes, you have to take it!”. I was so excited because I had never been to the west coast before. So he packed up his stuff and rented a truck and drove across the country. The truck smelt just like wet dog. I felt pretty bad for my dad having to drive from Richmond, Virginia to Rocklin, California in that raunchy smelling vehicle. He said “ it felt like I’d drove a million miles in three days.” It took him a few days to get settled and find a house to rent.  

            A few weeks after he got settled, I began my expedition across the country. I started out at my house in Roanoke and left for the Charlotte International Airport. I stayed in charlotte for a few hours then departed for California. While I was in the air I noticed a familiar looking figure. It looked like the Grand Canyon I had seen. Once I landed, I pulled out my smart phone and looked up, bird eye view of the Grand Canyon. After that it was time to depart from the plane. When I stood up, my legs turned to jelly and I fell right back down. After my legs were revived, I got up and went through the mile long tunnel that connects the plane to the airport. In the light at the end there was a figure. The figure at was as small as an atom. When I got closer, the small figure began to grow and form into a man. As I approached the man he started to look familiar. It turned out the man was my own father that was waiting for me at the end of the tunnel. We said our hellos and began to long walk to the car. Once we got there I put my belongings in the back and left. It took us forever to get out of the San Francisco International airport. I was finally on the last stretch of my expedition. I was overjoyed but, hunger got to me and we had to stop. We stopped at this McDonalds in Fairfield California and I had my first meal in California. I had two cheeseburgers and a large fry. The fries were way better than any you could get on the east coast. This is because California has tons of laws and regulations on how they cook and clean the restaurant. From there we went straight to the house dad had just rented out. When we were pulling into the drive way the house looked like it was grinning at me. Once in the garage dad helped me unloaded my luggage and instantly after, I was in bed sleeping.

            I woke up about 6 in the morning California time, because my body hadn’t fully adapted to the time change yet. Then we decided to go for a mountain bike ride at Folsom lake. At the end of the ride, I had blisters as big as a pine cone on both my hands. Folsom lake is a beautiful place that smells like flowers during the spring. We went to Folsom a few times when I was over pass the Serra-Nevada mountain chain. Another thing we would do is go hike to the water fall about thirty minutes from the house. One day we decided to jump in and go for a swim in the small rock pools there. Well my dad was swimming in one and wanted me to take an overhead picture. So I got out and put his phone in my shoe and while I was putting my socks on the shoe tilted over. It felt like time went into slow mode as his phone sled down the cliff into the water. The phone reminded me of a sled when it sled down the slope. As it fell the trees, water, and everything else just stopped and froze for a second as the phone dropped into the water. To be honest I thought it was kind of funny, so I took a few pictures of him while he was looking for his phone in the water. In the pictures I took it appeared my dad was dead floating on the water. Luckily he wasn’t dead at all but I thought I was about to be.  It took a little while to let him simmer down from his frustration but, once he was cooled down I showed him the pictures. I was happy because, he thought the pictures I took were amusing. Later that week we went down to Fresno California to see some of my dad’s friends. Dad, his friends, and I went to Kings Canyon National Park to see the giant red woods and sequoia trees. All the trees looked like they were smiling at me because of the way they were shaped. They were as tall as the statue of liberty in New York City. As all of us left I waved my goodbyes to the smiling trees. Once we got back home we relaxed for a few days then started another journey. This time we had to leave the state of California and journey into Reno Nevada. The trip to Reno was amazing. We saw snowcapped mountains and huge rock formations the size of hotels. Also we followed this crystal clear river all the way to Lake Tahoe. Once there, we ventured down the mountain side, into a desert valley. It was as dry as the Sahara, down in the valley. I was ready to see a tumble weed roll across the street at any moment. As we pulled into Reno all I saw where casinos lining the streets, just waiting to steal gamblers money. The aroma of fried chicken filled the streets. We stayed there for a few hours then left to go back to Rocklin. On the way back we took a detour around Lake Tahoe and headed up to Donner Pass. From there I just slept the rest of the way home because I was tired from all the driving. My dad told me after, I reminded him of a sleeping bear when I fell asleep that day.

            Now to be honest California is not as prefect as it sounds. The weather may be blue skies and no rain for almost the whole summer but, I assure you that they are in an environmental crisis every day it doesn’t rain. The less rain the dryer the climate, which may feel good to us but over time it kills plants and sometimes even animals. While I was there for four weeks over the summer, it only rained one day. Now that one day it rained so hard I honestly thought the roof was going to clasp. In the news the next day the anchors said “The mud slides took out houses and even entire street blocks.”.  Another crisis that happens there a lot is forest fires. Now flames are fun to watch dance but, most are pretty deadly. Since everything is so dry it’s easy for a cigarette the size of a small twig to start huge fires. When I was going to Reno we went through this area where a forest fire had just been put out. The damage was horrifying, everything was turned to black ash. It looked like the shaved and died its head black. Now sometimes the fires help the environment buy, killing all the undergrowth. While I was at kings Canyon national park I noticed there was limited under growth under the tall sequoias. It was like traveling through a city, with tall trees everywhere and the scent of sap all around. All and all, California has there down sides but when you look through those it is my favorite place to go on Earth.