Winters/Williams/Willows, CA

stepper77 · #1 Posted **Sep 22, 2011, 7:57 PM**

I took a week off in August to help my sister move, but, when her plans changed, I had a week to myself and I decided to take an impromptu road trip up through parts of Northern California. I traveled 900+ miles over the course of 3.5 days and got to see a good slice of the middle part of our state. I plan to split this up into several threads. I hope you enjoy.

The first leg of my trip, up highway 5 (the eastern side is my trip home)

Winters, CA (pop 6,624)

Likely owing to its proximity to Sacramento, the Bay Area, and Napa, Winters had an unexpected air of sophistication to it and looked like a city in transition from a quiet, small, Central Valley town to Bay Area/Sacramento exurb. My favorite of the three Ws.

Williams, CA (pop 5,123)

I would say that Williams has seen better days, but, I'm not really sure there ever were any. They did obviously spend some money on that sign.

From a historical architecture perspective, this is the nicest building I saw and, sadly, it was completely boarded up.

I'm not really sure where this "Old Town Mall" was, but, there was not much of anything going on here and it was a Monday afternoon.

A new "business" coming to downtown.

Williams City Hall

Onward up the Central Valley we go

Willows, CA (pop 6,166)

Willows is the seat of Glenn County and felt to me like a quintessential Central Valley town. Not terribly prosperous but not really poor either. Just a quaint, historic downtown, with tree lined, older residential neighborhoods mixed with county offices, a high school, and rail road tracks cutting through town, surrounded by farms, silos, and fast food retailers towards the freeway.

My companion for the journey taking a break in the hot sun.

Glenn County Courthouse

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Tour of California 1: Los Angeles, 2: Hollywood, Glendale, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, 3: Riverside, Santa Ana, Long Beach, 4: San Jose, 5: San Diego, 6: Fresno, 7: Stockton, Modesto, 8: Gold Country, 9: Eureka, Arcata, 10: Monterey, Carmel, 11: Santa Cruz, 12: Sacramento Pt One, 13: Sacramento Pt Two, 14: Roseville & Folsom, 15: Concord & Walnut Creek, 16: Tri-Valley, 17: Berkeley, Emeryville, 18: Fremont, 19: Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, 20: Redwood City, Foster City, San Mateo, 21: Oakland, 22: Benicia, Vallejo, 23: Napa, St. Helena, 24: Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, 25: San Rafael, 26: Larkspur, Mill Valley, 27: Sausalito, Tiburon, 28: Hollister, San Juan Bautista, 29: Long Beach 2008, 30: Venice, 31: Santa Monica, 32: Sacramento Pt 3, 33: Solvang, 34: Alameda, 35: Knights Ferry, 36: California Zephyr, 37: Colfax, 38: Davis, 39: Oakdale, 40: San Francisco Pt 1, San Francisco Pt 2, 41: Chico, Redding, 42: Kings Beach, 43: Merced, 44: Gold Country pt 2, 45: Gold Country pt 3, 46: Sonora, 47: Vacaville, Fairfield, Suisun City, 48: Orange, Fullerton, 49: Anaheim, Irvine, 50: Newport Beach, Laguna Beach,51: San Francisco, Pt 3, 52: Lodi, 53: Martinez, 54: Ft Bragg, Mendocino, 55: San Luis Obispo, 56: Sacramento River Pt 1, 57: Sacramento River Pt 2, 58: Lake Merritt/Oakland, 59: Marysville/Yuba City, 60: Woodland, 61: Beverly Hills"62: Los Angeles, 63: Sacramento, 64: Lakeport, 65: South Lake Tahoe, 66: Salinas, Watsonville, 67: Pacific Grove

Expat · #2 Posted **Sep 22, 2011, 9:42 PM**

Thanks for the W tour. I agree that Winters is the most appealing. But, Willows does have some nice buildings and houses. Looking forward to seeing the next installment.

xzmattzx · #3 Posted **Sep 24, 2011, 5:47 AM**

Nice pictures. I'm glad to see that you California threads are back.

What made to stop in these towns? Willows is a county seat, so I can see that, but the others seem pretty random. Just places on the Interstates that you decided to stop in? Anything in particular that you heard about?

SLO · #4 Posted **Sep 24, 2011, 2:28 PM**

Good stuff. Always some gems out there. I wish people would cherish these towns a bit more, use the infrastructure that was built and planned.

ColDayMan · #5 Posted **Sep 24, 2011, 9:38 PM**

Another great tour!

stepper77 · #6 Posted **Sep 26, 2011, 7:59 PM**

Thanks for the comments!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SLO

Good stuff. Always some gems out there. I wish people would cherish these towns a bit more, use the infrastructure that was built and planned.

I agree. That is why I feel sad when these beautiful old buildings are boarded up and in disrepair.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures. I'm glad to see that you California threads are back.

What made to stop in these towns? Willows is a county seat, so I can see that, but the others seem pretty random. Just places on the Interstates that you decided to stop in? Anything in particular that you heard about?

You got it right on Willows. In fact, most of my other stops were county seats. But, I have driven past Winters before on 505 and had heard it had some good historic structures. I can't really recall my motivation on Williams other than it was along the way and was a nice convenience store stop.