This Adventure Called Retirement

After a delicious breakfast with George and Kathleen we said our goodbyes and began our trek north to Oregon. Rather than fight the LA traffic we chose to take I-15 through Cahon Pass and then across the high desert through Palmdale to Bakersfield, then up through the San Joaquin Valley via Route 99. Once again, the beautiful views and ever-changing landscape were a clear reminder of why we so enjoy driving across this country. The verdant, green, southern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains changed dramatically on the northside into dry, rocky terrain. Then to our surprise, we entered a vast area filled with Joshua Trees. These trees only grow in the California desert and there is a Joshua Tree National Park on I-10 but we saw many more of this unique tree on this drive than we did in the National Park.

We passed through Bakersfield into the great expanse known as San Joaquin Valley. This valley began as part of the Pacific ocean. Then as the coastal mountains began to form, the outlets to the sea closed. Two million years ago an ice age brought glaciers across the valley, turning the valley into a freshwater lake. These lakes would eventually shrink, leaving behind the very fertile valley which is now a major agricultural breadbasket for the country. For the rest of the day we passed field after field in a never-ending patchwork of farms.

Our custom at Easter is to attend the Catholic Easter Tritium Service which is a single service that occurs over three days – Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and The Easter Vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday. It is quite fascinating to experience. Holy Thursday is recognized as the night Jesus established the priesthood and introduced the Eucharistic tradition of the Mass. This service begins as a typical Catholic Mass but includes a ceremonial washing of the feet as a memorial of Christ washing the apostle’s feet. However, after the communion service, the Mass ending does not occur. Instead, just like when Jesus left the upper room before completing the Passover meal, The priest removes the blessed Eucharist and a procession of the priest and people to an alternate place of repose is conducted, representative of the transition to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was betrayed.

On this trip, we experienced the true catholic (universal) nature of the Catholic church in that we attended the Tritium over three days in three different churches. This first day we stopped in Elk Grove south of Sacramento to attend the Tritium Day 1 Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Saint Joseph’s Parish. The Mass was bilingual due to the large Latin-American population in this area and the church was full.

After the service and procession, we spent a few minutes in adoration and then continued our trip in order to get north of Sacramento before stopping for the night in Williams CA.

On Good Friday we continued our trip through Northern California into Oregon. THe landscape of Northern California stands in stark contrast to the central and south of the state. The fertile valley eventually gave way to rolling hills and mountains. We bagan seeing Mount Shasta 100 miles away which was phenomenal.

We passed very close to Mount Shasta, the southern most of a string of dormant volcanic mountains running from California north through Oregon and Washington into Canada. We continued along the coastline of Shasta Lake which was quite large at the base of the mountain.

Right after passing Mount Shasta we began to see Mount McLoughlin peaking up over the mountain Range.

We arrived in Salem in time to get to the second day of the Tritium at Saint Joseph’s Parish in downtown Salem. This is a beautiful church that unfortunately suffered a major fire in 2023 due to arson. The arsonist was caught and sentenced and the church is being restored. As a result, the service was held in the gymnasium, but it had been converted into the main church facility in an extraordinary fashion. Good Friday is the day commemorating Christ’s passion and death. As a result, it is the only day in the year that a Catholic Mass is not celebrated. Instead, the Tritium service continues with the reading of the Passion of our Lord from the Gospel, veneration of the Cross on which our Lord sacrificed himself for our sins, and then a communion service which had been consecrated the day before. This service has no formal beginning or end since it is the middle of the the three parts of the Tritium. The priest enters in silence and prostrates in front of the altar. The sense of silence reflects the solemnity of the day in it’s sadness. At the end, the priest exits in silence.

After the Good Friday service we met our daughter, Emily, for dinner at the La Hacienda Real Mexican restaurant for some good Mexican seafood. Emily recently left us to move to Oregon and it was wonderful to see her again.