Off-topic: Whiskey Tango, TOYOTA style

[toyotafreak]

One thing led to another and we drove 600 miles from Corona, CA to Whiskeytown Lake, CA, right next to Shasta and Redding. Mapquest and GPS agreed it was 600 miles each way. Eleven hours.

Since we were camping and I haven't camped in a while, I brought everything we might need. As you can tell.

The truck is a 1995 4-cylnder Hilux. Only factory options were 5-speed and A/C. It's a dream, though. Hauling that sheaht down the I5 at 70 was like a rolling TOYOTA commercial (maybe not one they'd really like to run ;-)

[toyotafreak]

Sometie during the trip up...

[toyotafreak]

Money shot

[Bitzco]

Dude, can you board behind that sweet green boat? It must have a really narrow wake.

[krejciman]

We took our Epic from Corona up to Shasta Mid-June.  Long drive, nice lake.  Did you see all those canals around the Sacramento area?  Some of those houses with the docks gave me ideas of living up there one day.

[toyotafreak]

Yeah, Krejci...the Sacramento River looked like it was a lot bigger/better than Parker or the river between Needles and Topoc.

Whiskeytown Lake is the same acreage as Elsinore (about 1/7th of Shasta), but the water was like over 30 ft visibility. Felt super clean, and it was so cool to just look over the side of the canoe or whatever and watch the little fishies and the green fern deals that were growing down there. We did a lot of snorkeling, and the family used to scuba quite a bit there.

Forgot to mention the truck's got 160K on it, and we bought it new while stationed in Guam. It was on the frist ship from Japan. Been a great truck....not sure if I'd expect such perfection from a Tacoma (US-built).

[krejciman]

I'm always searchin out different places to go....  so far, there's nothing within 10 hours that is as majestic as the Shasta area....  although Powell comes close... but differnt.

We rented a house on the Lake that was pretty cool.  A dock right out the back door, fire pit, all that stuff.

[toyotafreak]

Never thought of renting a house. That's a great idea. Bet it's more economical (and less work) than a house boat.I hope we can hook up before you sell your X. Hate to see a guy like you part with a boat like that.