Friday, November 7, 2014

Bravo Farms and The Great Escape

So, if you are ever traveling up Hwy 99 on the way to Fresno in central California and start seeing signs for a cheese factory/fruit stand/nut stand, by all means stop and check it all out. The best most entertaining roadside attraction in central California that I know of. It's right along the freeway in Traver, a little town with a population of 713 people as of 2010, all of whom probably work at Bravo Farms because that is one busy place.

They have a gas station with the outside all decorated in vintage signs, a barbecue/lunch/beer bar and grill, a gift shop and cheese factory where you can watch them make the cheese through glass windows and buy wine, cheese, nuts, candy, and all the other usual gift shop stuff. There is an open air courtyard behind the restaurant and gift shop area with picnic tables, more vintage signs, antiques, a shooting gallery, a tree house, and upstairs you can play miniature golf on the balconies and go inside another room to play video games. Outside those buildings are more areas with places for kids to play, a tree with a sand box built around it and about thirty vintage Tonka trucks in the sand, and I think there is also a petting zoo somewhere in all that.

We stopped on our way back from Fresno on our trip to the zoo, actually I think we've stopped there each time we've been to the zoo, but this time we actually stayed a little longer and had some food and then bought lots of nuts and candy. We didn't take our own pictures, someday we will both get fancy phones that make picture taking so very easy, but I did find some pictures on the internet.



It really is a fun place to stop even to just look around and not get sucked into buying candy and nuts, but really how can you resist buying candy and nuts at roadside attractions?

Buddy has figured out how to escape the living room when we have the back door open with just the screen door shut. He scratches at the screen until he gets a claw hooked in it and then slyly slides that door open and out he goes along with every other cat in the house. I caught him the other day after apparently having had his fill of outdoor freedom. He was sitting inside by the open screen just kind of minding his own business and looking at me with that 'who me?' expression on his face while the rest of the cats were still outside. He did it again yesterday when I was busy doing something at the computer, I come out to find the door open and him laying on the patio bricks sunning himself while everyone else wandered about the back yard. He tried it again later in the day but got his claw stuck in the screen and was hanging off the screen until I came and rescued him. 

Fortunately Genie just hides in her basket while they all wander about so no fighting and they don't have any desire to try and climb fences to go any further. If the front gate happens to be open they might venture that far but it's scary out front with loud cars and stuff so they don't stay too long.

I made a page on facebook for Keith yesterday, no desire to make my own page anytime soon, but his kids have been bugging him to get on facebook so they can better keep in touch with him. I figure he will either get sucked completely in to facebook and spend all of his spare time there or only get on there when I remind him to check it. We are going to get him a laptop or ipad or something that he can take with him on the road so he has more to do in the motel room that watch really crappy TV when he's not sleeping. He can also download his rule books and work stuff onto it so that he doesn't have to carry this big giant heavy rule book with him. So, hopefully this week on payday we will finally get that taken care of, having talked about doing it for months now.


1 comment:

Mom said...

Bravo Farms looks like a great place to just wander around in. I love that treehouse, and would like to see the cheese being made. I've not been up that way for years, of course, and don't remember very much of the drive anyway, except the traffic on 99!