the best part was

The Beach family, Charles, Doretta, Lela and Claude, set out from Cornwall, Ontario on October 18, 1921. This is Doretta's diary.

Dec. 13. Staying at Portland Hotel, Lela and I shopped all morning and bought our Xmas cards and then it took us nearly all afternoon and evening to get them off. Claude went to see Jack Dempsey (fighter) this afternoon.

Dec. 14th. Hotel Umpqua, Roseburg, Oregon. Left Portland at eight, had dinner at Albany and arrived at Roseburg about 4.45 after making 210 miles (our record) but it was all paved but about 15 miles. It rained off and on all day. We saw heaps of beautiful roses in bloom, and lots of berries, orchards, farming, flocks of goats with long wool and flocks of sheep.

Franco-American Hotel, Yreka, Calif. Dec. 15th. Left Roseburg, Oregon about eight A.M., the sun shining bright but cold, as there was a heavy white frost and only went about ten miles until we were in the mountains in a thick fog, but it did not last long and we had paved roads and beautiful scenery all through the Siskiyous Mountains along Shasta River canyons and into the State of California, going a hundred and seventy five miles to-day. Claude got out and got some mistletoe along the road and we saw people planting potatoes. As there were farming land in the valleys, orchards, grape vineyards, ranching with large flocks of goats with long wool and flocks of sheep.

Hotel Maywood, Corning, Calif. Dec. 16th. Left Yreka about eight, the weather bright and ground covered with white frost with roads good. The scenery through the Shasta Mountains was beautiful, one of our nicest days trips and saw Mt. Shasta for over a hundred miles. It is fourteen thousand four hundred and seventy feet high and capped with snow, following the Sacramento River all day winding around the mountain.

Stopping at Redding for lunch after going a hundred and ten miles, as there was no town fit to stop at so far and it was two o'clock and then came on sixty miles this afternoon getting here at half past five. This is a very nice clean little town and a wonderful hotel for a town this size. Heinz' have a canning factory here and can all their olives.

Hotel Sacramento, Sacramento [PDF], Calif. Dec. 17th. Left Corning, Calif. quarter after nine, cloudy but cool, paved roads all the way. After leaving Corning came through olive, figs and almond groves for the first twenty miles, then through rice fields and on through dairy, sheep and turkey ranches, and when we got near Sacramento, saw lots of little lambs which looked funny this time of the year and grape vineyards near here. Came a hundred and twenty-three miles in three hours and a half. After lunch Lela and I went out window shopping for a couple of hours, then had tea and are all getting cleaned up.

Lincoln Hotel, Stockton, Calif. Dec. 18th. Slept late had breakfast and went to church, had lunch and left for Stockton, getting here about four o'clock, only forty-eight miles. Weather cloudy and cool. Came through grape and prune groves mostly. Forgot to say that yesterday as we were getting near Sacramento we crossed a Causeway over a low tract of land three and a quarter miles long. It must overflow at times perhaps from the Sacramento River.

Dec. 19th. Stockton, Calif. Weather warm and bright in A.M. Chas. and Claude called on Mrs. Fassett and we walked around and looked in the stores. After lunch it got cool and cloudy and we stayed in. Then after we had dinner, all went and called on Eleanor Fassett and on one of her sons. It was nine o'clock when we got back and it was sprinkling rain.

Rev 2007-03-22