Bad Night- Great Day in Redding, CA.

    After spending the night in one of the worst motels we have ever had to endure we managed to have a fantastic day exploring Redding, California, the Sundial Bridge and Sacramento Trail System. The motel had loud drunks yelling, cuzzing and lighting off firecrackers all night. The room next door to us had 5 chihuahuas barking all night and our motel room phone did not even work so I could call the lobby to complain. The bathroom had no hot water and there was a wet dirty wash cloth hanging on the shower head when we moved into our room. I guess we have to count our blessings that this was our only bad night so far considering the low standards we have set for motel stays on this trip. Instead of counting the "star' ratings of motels, as all our's would all have NO stars, we now count the rooms by the number of hangers they have in the room. Our best room was a 10 hanger room, many had ZERO hangers! Tonight we are in a 5 hanger room called the Vagabond Inn just outside Yosemite National Park. We are hoping  to buy some tire chains somewhere in town tomorrow that would allow us to legally go into the the park. Tire chains are mandatory to be carried in all vehicles, even 4 wheel drives this time of year in California's mountain highways. If the roads are open and we score some chains we hope to make in into Yosemite tomorrow and check it out. Most of it is closed due to snow conditions but since we are so close we would like to get in and see what there is to see! Today we biked the Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay area and had a great time. The bridge has a glass roadway so it will not cast a shadow on the migrating salmon below in the Sacramento River and it was neat to bike and walk over it. The bridge is also a giant sundail and casts a huge shadow on markers on the far side of the river and tells exact time on the soltice each year and fairly accurate time the rest of the year!  We rode the Sacramento Trail on our bikes upriver and saw lots of people fishing for trout and salmon in unique dory style boats. We had a great time!