Keith has been putting in a doggy door for a few days now. It's the kind meant for sliding glass doors that is like an insert that you put in the door frame and then the slider shuts against it. He is putting it in permanently which means lots of buying of metal pieces and stuff and lots of sawing of said metal pieces and lots of taking the doggy door insert in and out. He is at Home Depot right now buying more stuff.
Anyway, the dog learned how to use the door fairly quickly and it is nice not to have to open and shut the door multiple times a day so she can go in and out along with the cats. Most of the cats have sort of figured out the door, having one that goes into the garage that they've been using for years, but this one is a little different and it kind of threw them for a loop. Bear goes out but is afraid to come back in and I don't think Harri has used it at all yet.
This morning I was in the bedroom vacuuming and Keith came running in saying 'You've got to come see this!' and there was a little bird on top of the entertainment center. At first I thought he had flown in the door while Keith was busy messing with it again but then I saw lots of feathers by the kitchen so we figured one of the cats (Buddy) caught it and brought it in through the convenient doggy door.
The bird got scared when Keith tried to catch it and it flew against the side window, Buddy in hot pursuit, and then got under the couch, Buddy still in pursuit and trying to get under the couch to get the bird. I grabbed Buddy and shoved him into the bedroom, shutting the door, and then Keith lifted up the couch and the bird flew out the back door. Smart bird and I'm glad he found his way out.
Then since I was vacuuming anyway the feathers all over the living room got vacuumed up. Buddy was a little disappointed that his new toy got away.
The doggy door comes with a plastic door that slides down into it to close it at night or whenever you don't want animals going in and out, but we didn't put it in the last couple of nights since we don't care if the cats go out and the dog never seems to stir once she's snug in bed. Last night she did stir though, and I was woken up at 1am by her barking and barking and barking out there. I'm sure our neighbors were woken up too, and lesson learned, the doggy door gets shut at night.
Keith's vacation should be over with later today when he goes back to work, we really didn't do much but he says he enjoyed the time off and the time away from his phone ringing.
We took one little drive out to the desert the other day, figuring we could leave the dog home now with the doggy door in place. He had wanted to show me the not so lovely town of Mojave and the desert wildflowers that are in bloom right now. Mojave is awful, he sees it every day because the train tracks run through it, but I can't see anyone actually choosing to live there.
The wildflowers that he was talking about are really small, tiny little daisies and such that turn the ground around the scrub different colors, but the desert is still really bleak looking although the air is so clear that you can see a long long way.
We pulled off the road at Boron, the town by the borax mine, and as we pulled off we could see a ways up the road and saw that the traffic was almost at a standstill for miles and miles. We were thinking of going to Barstow but decided no Barstow for us that day, no reason to be stuck in traffic for hours, so we had lunch in Boron at one of the two restaurants we saw. The railroad tracks run right outside the town so he has seen the back side of it many times and has gotten food from the Mexican restaurant there. We went to the 20 Mule Team Cafe, which had both Mexican and American food. The food was cheap and we got a lot of it for our money so if we are ever in Boron again (doubtful) we will eat there.
We got home and the dog was fine, so I guess we don't have to worry about wanting to go somewhere and what do we do with her anymore or if we do take her somewhere with us will she get carsick or pee on me again.
Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label road trip. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Stoppping By The Side Of The Road And Trip To The Zoo
Now, when you take a little road trip up Hwy 65 here in Central California, you don't drink too much coffee before taking off on your trip because there are no rest stops along this road. And there are not too many little towns with a McDonalds or Taco Bell that might have a clean restroom for you to use. No, you don't want to drink too much before leaving town because you really don't want to have to stop at some funky old gas station in the hopes that their restroom might have been cleaned sometime in the last decade.
I didn't drink too much coffee before leaving on our drive last Saturday, but I did drink two big glasses of iced tea at lunch and was hoping I could make it back to the big city or at least a not so small city before needing to pee. I didn't make it. Keith took off on a side road to go look at a silo or whatever it's called near a bunch of dry dusty fields kind of in the middle of nowhere and I absolutely had to go by then. So, while Keith was taking pictures of this big silo thing I was trying to hide behind it to go pee. Men certainly have the advantage when it comes to peeing by the side of the road because they can just stand there and pretend they are looking at the scenery.
This silo was kind of spooky, crows were cawing when we drove up because they had a nest way high up and thought we might be trying to steal their babies. Being in the middle of dry dusty fields and by a road without much traffic, it did feel as if we were in some lost in the desert kind of movie and we would have to try to walk our way back to civilization, rationing what little water we had while crows followed us and cawed at us.
If you look at the very center top of this picture, you can see the nest where two kind of big baby crows were waiting for mom and dad to come back.
On Sunday we decided to go over to the California Living Museum zoo to see the new desert sheep and see if the mountain lion was awake. He was not but they have five bobcats now and one of them was pacing around by the window where you can sit and see a bobcat up close and personal, like right there. I was standing there not three inches away from the bobcat while he paced back and forth by the window and then maybe it was the red of my purse but he stopped to look at it and here is his nose against the glass.
Here, kitty kitty!
We wandered the zoo for about an hour and rode on the zoo train where we were the only people without small children, which feels a little strange, but when you can take a train ride for $1.00 why not?
It was a gorgeous weekend, weather wise, and after Monday and Tuesday being 94 degrees, we dropped by twenty degrees yesterday and it was almost downright chilly here! We are promised another 7 or so days of nice spring weather, low 80s, just in time for the three day weekend. We have nothing planned since we spent all of our extra money last weekend, but it will be a nice weekend anyway.
I didn't drink too much coffee before leaving on our drive last Saturday, but I did drink two big glasses of iced tea at lunch and was hoping I could make it back to the big city or at least a not so small city before needing to pee. I didn't make it. Keith took off on a side road to go look at a silo or whatever it's called near a bunch of dry dusty fields kind of in the middle of nowhere and I absolutely had to go by then. So, while Keith was taking pictures of this big silo thing I was trying to hide behind it to go pee. Men certainly have the advantage when it comes to peeing by the side of the road because they can just stand there and pretend they are looking at the scenery.
This silo was kind of spooky, crows were cawing when we drove up because they had a nest way high up and thought we might be trying to steal their babies. Being in the middle of dry dusty fields and by a road without much traffic, it did feel as if we were in some lost in the desert kind of movie and we would have to try to walk our way back to civilization, rationing what little water we had while crows followed us and cawed at us.
If you look at the very center top of this picture, you can see the nest where two kind of big baby crows were waiting for mom and dad to come back.
On Sunday we decided to go over to the California Living Museum zoo to see the new desert sheep and see if the mountain lion was awake. He was not but they have five bobcats now and one of them was pacing around by the window where you can sit and see a bobcat up close and personal, like right there. I was standing there not three inches away from the bobcat while he paced back and forth by the window and then maybe it was the red of my purse but he stopped to look at it and here is his nose against the glass.
We wandered the zoo for about an hour and rode on the zoo train where we were the only people without small children, which feels a little strange, but when you can take a train ride for $1.00 why not?
It was a gorgeous weekend, weather wise, and after Monday and Tuesday being 94 degrees, we dropped by twenty degrees yesterday and it was almost downright chilly here! We are promised another 7 or so days of nice spring weather, low 80s, just in time for the three day weekend. We have nothing planned since we spent all of our extra money last weekend, but it will be a nice weekend anyway.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Springville California - Road Trip!
I knew this past weekend was going to be beautiful, after the previous weekend being at 100 degrees, we were promised much more spring like weather, with the highs in the 80's and a nice breeze blowing. I was feeling a little house bound since we really haven't done much of anything so far this year, other than a quick trip down south at Easter time. I thought Keith might not want to go anywhere after his trip up to Fresno on Thursday, but he thought going for a drive sounded good, too, so Saturday morning we set out to go up Hwy 65 and find someplace in one of the little towns for lunch. We were thinking Lindsay, since we had visited that town for a few minutes on our last little trip up that way, and what a cute little town it was. But, when we hit Porterville, we saw a sign for Springville and since we'd never been there, took a right through Porterville and on up the road.
The trip on Hwy 65 is really pretty once you get out of the oilfields outside of Bakersfield, very rural and lots of rolling hills and orange groves. Lots and lots of orange groves. There are a couple of small agricultural type towns right on 65 before you hit Porterville, and more towns between 65 and the 99. The scenery is mostly green, with the flat valley full of orchards and fields on the left as you are driving up the highway, and the brown this time of year hills and beginnings of the Sierra Nevadas on the right. Very pretty and very nice to see after months of being in a suburban/urban environment.
The road to Springville was even prettier, going towards the mountains and climbing up through the hills, past Lake Success, which looked really nice and we think we will come back and bring a picnic lunch next time. Pine trees are now on the hills, and beautiful ranch houses beside the road, and then around a bend we come to Springville, which is basically in a river canyon. The altitude is 1000 feet, so not so high that they would get snow, but high enough where the mountains around the town would definitely be snow covered in the winter and what a view they must have all year round. At a population of a little less than 1000 people, small town indeed, with a few businesses along the main street, a hamburger stand and a funky (very funky) little cafe that we stopped at for lunch and to go to the bathroom because by now I REALLY NEEDED TO GO!
Lunch was okay, you don't expect fine cuisine in a tiny little cafe where the floor and your table kind of slope towards the wall and there are five stools at the counter, six booths, one waitress, and one cook.
We drove through the houses alongside the river, you couldn't actually see the river because of the houses and trees, but I was impressed to see that all of the little houses were very well kept and the town was very clean, until we got to the end of the road of houses and there they were, the hillbilly houses that every town has, with junk in the yard and kids bikes laying around and Christmas lights still up, you know those houses. Where the nearest neighbor, whose house and yard are immaculate, has a For Sale sign out front because he is probably really tired of living next to Just Throw The Junk In The Yard Mr. and Mrs. Billy Bob.
Anyway, beautiful little town and next time we'll keep going further up the road to see where it goes.
We didn't take any pictures but I did find one on the internet that shows the cafe where we ate. The sign that says CAFE.
I also found a map that shows where we were.
As we were driving up to Springville, we passed an orange stand on the other side of the road, so on the way back down stopped so Keith could get some oranges. Here is something you would never see in the city, an honor system orange stand, where you grab your huge bag of oranges that were grown right there and put your $5.00 in a metal box on the wall.
The trip on Hwy 65 is really pretty once you get out of the oilfields outside of Bakersfield, very rural and lots of rolling hills and orange groves. Lots and lots of orange groves. There are a couple of small agricultural type towns right on 65 before you hit Porterville, and more towns between 65 and the 99. The scenery is mostly green, with the flat valley full of orchards and fields on the left as you are driving up the highway, and the brown this time of year hills and beginnings of the Sierra Nevadas on the right. Very pretty and very nice to see after months of being in a suburban/urban environment.
The road to Springville was even prettier, going towards the mountains and climbing up through the hills, past Lake Success, which looked really nice and we think we will come back and bring a picnic lunch next time. Pine trees are now on the hills, and beautiful ranch houses beside the road, and then around a bend we come to Springville, which is basically in a river canyon. The altitude is 1000 feet, so not so high that they would get snow, but high enough where the mountains around the town would definitely be snow covered in the winter and what a view they must have all year round. At a population of a little less than 1000 people, small town indeed, with a few businesses along the main street, a hamburger stand and a funky (very funky) little cafe that we stopped at for lunch and to go to the bathroom because by now I REALLY NEEDED TO GO!
Lunch was okay, you don't expect fine cuisine in a tiny little cafe where the floor and your table kind of slope towards the wall and there are five stools at the counter, six booths, one waitress, and one cook.
We drove through the houses alongside the river, you couldn't actually see the river because of the houses and trees, but I was impressed to see that all of the little houses were very well kept and the town was very clean, until we got to the end of the road of houses and there they were, the hillbilly houses that every town has, with junk in the yard and kids bikes laying around and Christmas lights still up, you know those houses. Where the nearest neighbor, whose house and yard are immaculate, has a For Sale sign out front because he is probably really tired of living next to Just Throw The Junk In The Yard Mr. and Mrs. Billy Bob.
Anyway, beautiful little town and next time we'll keep going further up the road to see where it goes.
We didn't take any pictures but I did find one on the internet that shows the cafe where we ate. The sign that says CAFE.
I also found a map that shows where we were.
As we were driving up to Springville, we passed an orange stand on the other side of the road, so on the way back down stopped so Keith could get some oranges. Here is something you would never see in the city, an honor system orange stand, where you grab your huge bag of oranges that were grown right there and put your $5.00 in a metal box on the wall.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Scaredy Cat and Other Cat Antics
Buddy just came tearing into the bedroom to hide himself under the bed covers because there was a big truck coming down the street and IT MUST BE A MONSTER! AGH! Such a pussy, he is.
The other night Mimi was staring at something on the floor by the sliding back door and when I investigated I found a small beetle type of bug that was totally fascinating her. I went to get a paper towel to scoop it up but it escaped under the entertainment center so she spent the next hour squeezing herself under there trying to find her bug. Which she probably would have eaten if she found it.
Buddy ate one of those big flappy mosquito eater bugs the other night. Yum.
Then I see Bear playing with what I think must be a small piece of food, knocking it around on the rug and kitchen floor. She doesn't play all that much anymore, so I let her have her fun and then later see a roly poly bug kind of dazedly crawling across the floor and realized that it was not food she was knocking around but rather a rolled up pillbug. Fun for all!
Well, Keith got his first paycheck yesterday, they get paid on the 1st and 15th which will take a little re-adjusting to since we are used to every other Friday and loved those months when there would be three paydays and the third check wouldn't have health insurance deducted so it would be a bigger check. He is having a hard time getting used to his new job, being inside a shop all day after the freedom of being outside by himself all day. The work is pretty much mind numbingly boring, so I told him to keep checking the railroad sites for job openings, there's no law that says he has to stay at this job for the rest of his life, this job that apparently nobody wants to do for the rest of their lives because they have a big turnover rate.
Anyway.
We drove down to Ventura for Easter dinner on Sunday and it actually rained on the way down and then again on the way home and we couldn't remember the last time we'd driven anywhere in the rain, rain being such a rare thing around here. The news is already talking about fire season coming early since the hills got so little rain. We did see some scenery on the way back home that you usually can't see because of the smog, the hills where Taft and Maricopa are with the sun setting behind them and all the lights coming on in the towns. Kind of pretty when you can actually see it!
The other night Mimi was staring at something on the floor by the sliding back door and when I investigated I found a small beetle type of bug that was totally fascinating her. I went to get a paper towel to scoop it up but it escaped under the entertainment center so she spent the next hour squeezing herself under there trying to find her bug. Which she probably would have eaten if she found it.
Buddy ate one of those big flappy mosquito eater bugs the other night. Yum.
Then I see Bear playing with what I think must be a small piece of food, knocking it around on the rug and kitchen floor. She doesn't play all that much anymore, so I let her have her fun and then later see a roly poly bug kind of dazedly crawling across the floor and realized that it was not food she was knocking around but rather a rolled up pillbug. Fun for all!
Well, Keith got his first paycheck yesterday, they get paid on the 1st and 15th which will take a little re-adjusting to since we are used to every other Friday and loved those months when there would be three paydays and the third check wouldn't have health insurance deducted so it would be a bigger check. He is having a hard time getting used to his new job, being inside a shop all day after the freedom of being outside by himself all day. The work is pretty much mind numbingly boring, so I told him to keep checking the railroad sites for job openings, there's no law that says he has to stay at this job for the rest of his life, this job that apparently nobody wants to do for the rest of their lives because they have a big turnover rate.
Anyway.
We drove down to Ventura for Easter dinner on Sunday and it actually rained on the way down and then again on the way home and we couldn't remember the last time we'd driven anywhere in the rain, rain being such a rare thing around here. The news is already talking about fire season coming early since the hills got so little rain. We did see some scenery on the way back home that you usually can't see because of the smog, the hills where Taft and Maricopa are with the sun setting behind them and all the lights coming on in the towns. Kind of pretty when you can actually see it!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
A Little Road Trip
When we went up to Tehachapi in September for Octoberfest (yeah, I know, Octoberfest is supposed to be in OCTOBER, hello!) and sweated in the hot sun, we picked up a flyer for an Octoberfest that was actually happening in October up in the mountain community of Stallion Springs last Saturday. We decided to drive up in the hopes that their beer lines wouldn't be as long as the ridiculously long ones in Tehachapi and we had never been to Stallion Springs, so it would be an adventure as well.
Before we left I asked Keith if he wanted me to get directions off of the computer but he said, no, he thinks he knows where it is and there is an offramp and sign on the freeway for Stallion Springs.
Which there isn't.
We had to stop at a gas station in Tehachapi for directions.
But, the drive was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately we forgot to bring a camera.
I had no idea that if you turned right while driving through Tehachapi the road would take you through a mountain pass to another valley, a beautiful valley surrounded by tree covered mountains with fields of whatever they grow up there. A rural valley with ranches and farmland and at one end of the valley nestled up against the mountains is the little unincorporated community of Stallion Springs. After you pass the prison.
I've never seen such a well kept little town, most mountain towns have the usual junky yards and old houses, but this town is clean, the houses are new, and the community center where the Octoberfest was being held was quite impressive. The Octoberfest not so much, but they did have bratwurst for Keith and the beer was cheap and the lines were short. A craft show was going on inside the community center with the usual small town crafts, and a bake sale was going on right outside. I couldn't find the advertised pretzels, though, and I just can't eat bratwurst and I was starving since I hadn't eaten lunch in anticipation of a pretzel. I finally found them at the bake sale, but it was the driest hardest pretzel I'd ever eaten, despite it being advertised as baked fresh that morning.
So, half of a dry pretzel eaten and still hungry, we decided to take a little drive down the main road of Stallion Springs and then head back to Tehachapi for some early dinner. Apparently Stallion Springs is a resort type town, with a golf course that meanders through town, and a big resort hotel by the golf course, and an actual covered bridge crossing a pond/creek thing. It really was a pretty town, but we wondered what the people who live there do so that they can afford to live there. Perhaps they all work at the prison or own the farmlands in the valley. It's actually considered part of Tehachapi even though it's a good 15 miles or so outside of Tehachapi proper. And, I'm guessing that they all have to drive into Tehachapi to buy their groceries. Which could be a problem in the winter since it snows there and if it's not snowing it's raining, and all of the roads we drove on to get there had warning signs about being prone to flooding.
Anyway, back to Tehachapi where we went to The Village Grill instead of The Apple Shed because I'm kind of tired of The Apple Shed, but The Village Grill's food was pretty awful, so we should have just gone to The Apple Shed.
That is probably the last road trip we will take for a while, but it was nice to see a part of Kern County that we hadn't seen before, and if I were rich I might even consider living in Stallion Springs, it was that nice.
Before we left I asked Keith if he wanted me to get directions off of the computer but he said, no, he thinks he knows where it is and there is an offramp and sign on the freeway for Stallion Springs.
Which there isn't.
We had to stop at a gas station in Tehachapi for directions.
But, the drive was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately we forgot to bring a camera.
I had no idea that if you turned right while driving through Tehachapi the road would take you through a mountain pass to another valley, a beautiful valley surrounded by tree covered mountains with fields of whatever they grow up there. A rural valley with ranches and farmland and at one end of the valley nestled up against the mountains is the little unincorporated community of Stallion Springs. After you pass the prison.
I've never seen such a well kept little town, most mountain towns have the usual junky yards and old houses, but this town is clean, the houses are new, and the community center where the Octoberfest was being held was quite impressive. The Octoberfest not so much, but they did have bratwurst for Keith and the beer was cheap and the lines were short. A craft show was going on inside the community center with the usual small town crafts, and a bake sale was going on right outside. I couldn't find the advertised pretzels, though, and I just can't eat bratwurst and I was starving since I hadn't eaten lunch in anticipation of a pretzel. I finally found them at the bake sale, but it was the driest hardest pretzel I'd ever eaten, despite it being advertised as baked fresh that morning.
So, half of a dry pretzel eaten and still hungry, we decided to take a little drive down the main road of Stallion Springs and then head back to Tehachapi for some early dinner. Apparently Stallion Springs is a resort type town, with a golf course that meanders through town, and a big resort hotel by the golf course, and an actual covered bridge crossing a pond/creek thing. It really was a pretty town, but we wondered what the people who live there do so that they can afford to live there. Perhaps they all work at the prison or own the farmlands in the valley. It's actually considered part of Tehachapi even though it's a good 15 miles or so outside of Tehachapi proper. And, I'm guessing that they all have to drive into Tehachapi to buy their groceries. Which could be a problem in the winter since it snows there and if it's not snowing it's raining, and all of the roads we drove on to get there had warning signs about being prone to flooding.
Anyway, back to Tehachapi where we went to The Village Grill instead of The Apple Shed because I'm kind of tired of The Apple Shed, but The Village Grill's food was pretty awful, so we should have just gone to The Apple Shed.
That is probably the last road trip we will take for a while, but it was nice to see a part of Kern County that we hadn't seen before, and if I were rich I might even consider living in Stallion Springs, it was that nice.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Zoo Trip
I just went out into the living room to look for Keith's camera which has zoo pictures on it but he must have taken it with him to work today. The pictures weren't all that exciting except for the one of the lady orangutan looking at us, so I'll continue without pictures today.
But as I'm walking into the kitchen I see something on the floor that shouldn't be there. Someone apparently got the sh*t scared out of them this morning because there it was laying on the living room carpet. Sigh...not only do I have to scoop it out of the cat box numerous times a day but now I'm going to have to go on a hunt around the house for it? Anyone want some cats?
Anyway, zoo trip. We had been there in January when it was freezing cold and we were the only people in the zoo and now here we were making our return trip on a Monday when it was supposed to get up to 97 in Fresno. We weren't sure what to expect, thinking it wouldn't be all that busy because aren't most schools still in session in mid May and aren't most people at work on a Monday afternoon?
We took the back roads this time, going up 43 which kind of parallels the 99 but is more scenic, if you like looking at dairy farms. There are a whole lot of cows in central California. Lots and lots of cows. Lots and lots and lots of cows.
We get to the zoo and are kind of surprised at how many people are in the huge park by the zoo, aren't these people supposed to be at work today? Then we get to the actual zoo and see dozens of school buses full of schoolchildren who are apparently on field trips or class picnics or something and I'm thinking the zoo will be very crowded, but fortunately the hoards of schoolchildren appeared to be getting back on those buses and leaving the park so I guess it's a good thing we got a late start getting on the road today.
Into the zoo where it is very shady and was actually very comfortable despite the rising temperatures. The exotic bird aviary had misters going to help keep the birds cool and the viewing platform for the elephants also had misters going, so we managed to keep fairly comfortable and had a very enjoyable afternoon. There may have been more people at the zoo that day but it is large enough to where everyone was spread out and we never encountered any big crowds.
We watched the elephants for quite a while this time, they had been given hay and cherry tomatoes, and it's really something to watch an elephant pick up a cherry tomato and put it in its mouth.
So, good day and good road trip except for the part where Keith stopped to take pictures of some abandoned buildings on the side of the 43 and got hundreds of very sharp sticky thorn things in the bottom of his shoes. He spent about an hour taking thorns out of his shoes after we got home.
But as I'm walking into the kitchen I see something on the floor that shouldn't be there. Someone apparently got the sh*t scared out of them this morning because there it was laying on the living room carpet. Sigh...not only do I have to scoop it out of the cat box numerous times a day but now I'm going to have to go on a hunt around the house for it? Anyone want some cats?
Anyway, zoo trip. We had been there in January when it was freezing cold and we were the only people in the zoo and now here we were making our return trip on a Monday when it was supposed to get up to 97 in Fresno. We weren't sure what to expect, thinking it wouldn't be all that busy because aren't most schools still in session in mid May and aren't most people at work on a Monday afternoon?
We took the back roads this time, going up 43 which kind of parallels the 99 but is more scenic, if you like looking at dairy farms. There are a whole lot of cows in central California. Lots and lots of cows. Lots and lots and lots of cows.
We get to the zoo and are kind of surprised at how many people are in the huge park by the zoo, aren't these people supposed to be at work today? Then we get to the actual zoo and see dozens of school buses full of schoolchildren who are apparently on field trips or class picnics or something and I'm thinking the zoo will be very crowded, but fortunately the hoards of schoolchildren appeared to be getting back on those buses and leaving the park so I guess it's a good thing we got a late start getting on the road today.
Into the zoo where it is very shady and was actually very comfortable despite the rising temperatures. The exotic bird aviary had misters going to help keep the birds cool and the viewing platform for the elephants also had misters going, so we managed to keep fairly comfortable and had a very enjoyable afternoon. There may have been more people at the zoo that day but it is large enough to where everyone was spread out and we never encountered any big crowds.
We watched the elephants for quite a while this time, they had been given hay and cherry tomatoes, and it's really something to watch an elephant pick up a cherry tomato and put it in its mouth.
So, good day and good road trip except for the part where Keith stopped to take pictures of some abandoned buildings on the side of the 43 and got hundreds of very sharp sticky thorn things in the bottom of his shoes. He spent about an hour taking thorns out of his shoes after we got home.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Zoo Trip Part Two
So, after our coffee and squirrel encounter, we walked past a big area with five giraffes, a couple of gazelles, and a really huge camel, then past a petting zoo with the usual sheep and goats. I wanted to go in the petting zoo but Keith didn't, so we'll save that for next time. We went to the orangutan encounter where they have a two story viewing platform to watch the two adult orangutans and one big gibbon, but nobody was outside. Apparently there are also two baby orangutans but they don't let them out when it's too cold.
Then, some more animals and birds and as we're walking along we hear the most beautiful chirping and singing and we're looking around for whatever bird is so happily singing away, thinking it must be a big bird to have such a big loud song and it's a tiny little thrush. We listened to that for a while because it really was something to hear.
They have two Andes condors and one of them obligingly spread his huge wings which are like 12 feet across.
Then we heard monkeys screeching and went back to the orangutan enclosure and here is a black gibbon swinging and playing and having a really good time. He reminded me of little kids playing, just swinging for the sheer joy of it and then hanging upside down for a while, then swinging some more. Guess that's where they got the name monkey bars from for the playground equipment that I don't think they even make any more because they're too dangerous or something.
At first I thought this was a chimpanzee, it looks a lot like one and is about that size, but I finally read the signs in the exhibit and found out that it is a gibbon.
One of the orangutans was out, sitting on top of a huge tree trunk, just sitting there ignoring us. He was only a few feet away from us and we were kind of amazed at how hairy this guy was, and we were thinking that orangutans must have been the inspiration for dreadlocks. He finally got bored sitting there and then slowly made his way around the enclosure to his little house. Not quite as energetic as the gibbon.
We were starting to get tired, it's not a big zoo but we still did quite a bit of walking and decided to make our way to the exit, but then as we get to the exit realize that we didn't go to the left where the wolves and the reptiles are. They have a really nice wolf exhibit where they made like a fake mountaintop with a very deep gully around it so the wolves can't get out- yikes! They have lots of trees so it's as you would see them in the wild, very beautiful wolves and if you have to live in a zoo, a pretty nice enclosure. I really didn't want to go in the reptile house thinking that if you've seen one you've seen them all and my feet and legs were really tired, but we went in and I was glad I did because it was the nicest reptile house I'd ever seen. Very quiet inside with low lighting but bright lighting in the windows so you could really see the colors of the assorted snakes and frogs and lizards. I was very impressed with how nice it was. It was also nice and warm inside.
The zoo is in the process of building a sea lion exhibit, Keith was watching some of the work going on and it looks like a huge project and will have an underwater viewing window that will be like 36 feet long. Hopefully that will all be finished the next time we go visit. Which will be when the weather is a little warmer.
Back on the road going home we wanted to stop for an early dinner since we didn't have lunch and I suggested another stop in Tulare where we saw lots of restaurants but Keith wanted to stop at a little diner that he had been to before that had really good food, so we're looking out for this diner and finally see it as we are driving past the exit so we go a few miles further down the road to the next exit to turn around and go back. Tulare hosts the World Agriculture Expo each year and has a huge agricultural complex with buildings and a museum and apparently in the agricultural world is the place to be during Expo week. And apparently people do come from around the world to visit. I'm reminded of this because we drove past the Expo grounds as we were turning around to find the diner.
We sit down in a mostly empty diner and realize that our table is shaking. Is there a big truck driving by? No, it's because the fans in the building make certain tables shake, so we changed tables. And then ate our dinner. Completely by ourselves because the other few people in the diner had finished their food and left. It's always a little creepy being the only people in a restaurant.
One other central valley fact. Selma, which is right outside of Fresno, is the Raisin Capitol of the World. How about that? All of the vineyards that you see driving through Selma are not wine grapes, but raisin grapes. There is even a Sunmaid raisin store that you can visit.
So, it was a fun and tiring day, by the time we got home we were ready to just crash on the couch and ended up going to bed early.
Then, some more animals and birds and as we're walking along we hear the most beautiful chirping and singing and we're looking around for whatever bird is so happily singing away, thinking it must be a big bird to have such a big loud song and it's a tiny little thrush. We listened to that for a while because it really was something to hear.
They have two Andes condors and one of them obligingly spread his huge wings which are like 12 feet across.
Then we heard monkeys screeching and went back to the orangutan enclosure and here is a black gibbon swinging and playing and having a really good time. He reminded me of little kids playing, just swinging for the sheer joy of it and then hanging upside down for a while, then swinging some more. Guess that's where they got the name monkey bars from for the playground equipment that I don't think they even make any more because they're too dangerous or something.
At first I thought this was a chimpanzee, it looks a lot like one and is about that size, but I finally read the signs in the exhibit and found out that it is a gibbon.
One of the orangutans was out, sitting on top of a huge tree trunk, just sitting there ignoring us. He was only a few feet away from us and we were kind of amazed at how hairy this guy was, and we were thinking that orangutans must have been the inspiration for dreadlocks. He finally got bored sitting there and then slowly made his way around the enclosure to his little house. Not quite as energetic as the gibbon.
We were starting to get tired, it's not a big zoo but we still did quite a bit of walking and decided to make our way to the exit, but then as we get to the exit realize that we didn't go to the left where the wolves and the reptiles are. They have a really nice wolf exhibit where they made like a fake mountaintop with a very deep gully around it so the wolves can't get out- yikes! They have lots of trees so it's as you would see them in the wild, very beautiful wolves and if you have to live in a zoo, a pretty nice enclosure. I really didn't want to go in the reptile house thinking that if you've seen one you've seen them all and my feet and legs were really tired, but we went in and I was glad I did because it was the nicest reptile house I'd ever seen. Very quiet inside with low lighting but bright lighting in the windows so you could really see the colors of the assorted snakes and frogs and lizards. I was very impressed with how nice it was. It was also nice and warm inside.
The zoo is in the process of building a sea lion exhibit, Keith was watching some of the work going on and it looks like a huge project and will have an underwater viewing window that will be like 36 feet long. Hopefully that will all be finished the next time we go visit. Which will be when the weather is a little warmer.
Back on the road going home we wanted to stop for an early dinner since we didn't have lunch and I suggested another stop in Tulare where we saw lots of restaurants but Keith wanted to stop at a little diner that he had been to before that had really good food, so we're looking out for this diner and finally see it as we are driving past the exit so we go a few miles further down the road to the next exit to turn around and go back. Tulare hosts the World Agriculture Expo each year and has a huge agricultural complex with buildings and a museum and apparently in the agricultural world is the place to be during Expo week. And apparently people do come from around the world to visit. I'm reminded of this because we drove past the Expo grounds as we were turning around to find the diner.
We sit down in a mostly empty diner and realize that our table is shaking. Is there a big truck driving by? No, it's because the fans in the building make certain tables shake, so we changed tables. And then ate our dinner. Completely by ourselves because the other few people in the diner had finished their food and left. It's always a little creepy being the only people in a restaurant.
One other central valley fact. Selma, which is right outside of Fresno, is the Raisin Capitol of the World. How about that? All of the vineyards that you see driving through Selma are not wine grapes, but raisin grapes. There is even a Sunmaid raisin store that you can visit.
So, it was a fun and tiring day, by the time we got home we were ready to just crash on the couch and ended up going to bed early.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Zoo Trip Part One
Okay, it is probably not the best time of year to go to a zoo where you are walking around outdoors and it is freezing cold (cold being relative and anything less than 70 in these parts is considered cold)- but, it is a good time to go to the zoo if you hate crowds and want to be the only people there. With the exception of maybe 20 other people in the whole place not counting the people who work there.
Yesterday we drove up to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo- I'm assuming that the Chaffees were some of the original sponsors of the zoo. I did some online research to find out about the zoo and how to get there, and while it is a small zoo (think the Santa Barbara Zoo) it is a really nice zoo, is right off the freeway and easy to find, and has some animals and birds that I've never seen before, and despite the cold was a really pleasant way to spend a day. We will go back when the weather is a little warmer this spring for sure.
We left town about 8:30 and hadn't had breakfast yet so drove for about an hour and stopped in Tulare, which if you have to live in the central valley, looks like a really nice town to live in. Clean and surrounded by farmland and cows and not too big of a town but not too small, what we saw of it just looked like a nice place. Unlike the other little town we stopped in to get gas, Earlimart, where even the crappiest little shacks had bars on the windows. I would not want to live in a place where you have to have bars on your windows to keep people from stealing from even the poorest other people.
Anyway, breakfast at Apple Annie's, a cute little cafe near some hotels and right off the freeway with about fifty different types of omelettes and a dessert menu that featured guess what? Apples! Apple pie, apple dumplings, apple ice cream, apple sundaes, and any other kind of sweet that you could put an apple in. We didn't have dessert though, a little too early in the day for that.
Then, off to the zoo, which is in a big park and so easy to get to, get off the freeway, make a right and then the first left at the first stoplight you see. The web site had said there was a $5.00 parking fee to get into the park, but the little parking attendant shed was closed so we didn't have to pay. On around the park, passing lots of playgrounds and barbecue pits and picnic tables, and past a Storybook Village that was closed, and then across from a children's amusement park with carnival booths and carnival type rides, also closed and only open on the weekends, was the zoo. I've never in my life parked right in front of the entrance to a zoo before, but that is where we parked. Like I said, cold weather makes for uncrowded zoos.
It was only $7.00 each to get in which in my mind is an incredible bargain, and if you are a kid or a senior it's even cheaper. First stop was the restroom of course, and then on to the Australian birds aviary. The zoo has like four different aviaries, something that I always find fun, being inside a big cage with birds. The Australian aviary had some beautiful birds all up on branches and right after I said hey it would be cool if they started flying around, they did, all squawking and yelling and soaring a few inches above our heads.
I don't know what kind of birds these are but they were really gorgeous and very curious. One of them really liked Keith's shoelaces and was pecking at them, and then as we were walking along the path, was following right on his heels.
Then, elephants and a tiger.
And then another aviary, this time a rain forest with a waterfall and a stream, parrots and water birds, and these weird little birds that were on the bridge over the stream and as we got closer, started making an incredibly loud clacking type call. LOUD. But such cute birds.
At the back of this aviary was a temperature controlled building for some of the species that need the moist warmth, like the male and female sloths that were indeed being incredibly slothfull. The boy sloth did open his eyes and look at us, then yawned and went back to sleep. There was another stream in this building with some turtles and fish and two gorgeous spotted stingrays, a kind of ray that I'd never seen before, and are so peaceful to watch swim.
And, speaking of rays there was a special feed and pet the stingrays exhibit with rays borrowed from the Monterey aquarium, all swimming in a big low tank with a waterfall. This exhibit was supposed to cost $1.00 per person, but since it was a slow day they weren't charging admission and we were the only people watching the rays. There were two of them that were just huge, the rest were about the size of a turkey platter and again, so peaceful to watch swim although the water in this tank was kind of hard to see through. One of them was apparently thinking we were going to feed it because it kept launching itself right up the side of he tank and out of the water, like HEY WHERE IS MY FOOD! We were able to touch that one, they feel very strange and soft.
Then we stopped for a cup of coffee and were thinking about getting some lunch but I didn't want to sit outside in the cold and eat so we decided to wait until on the way home for lunch/early dinner.
The zoo is full of chubby and innovative squirrels, many of which we saw in the aviaries with the birds and how they managed to get inside I don't know, but they definitely know where the bird food stations are. We saw this one squirrel running along by the snack bar with a big packet in its mouth and we followed it to see what he had.
And it was a packet of Ken's Honey Mustard salad dressing. That apparently was quite delicious.
Tomorrow: Part Two of our Zoo Adventure!
Yesterday we drove up to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo- I'm assuming that the Chaffees were some of the original sponsors of the zoo. I did some online research to find out about the zoo and how to get there, and while it is a small zoo (think the Santa Barbara Zoo) it is a really nice zoo, is right off the freeway and easy to find, and has some animals and birds that I've never seen before, and despite the cold was a really pleasant way to spend a day. We will go back when the weather is a little warmer this spring for sure.
We left town about 8:30 and hadn't had breakfast yet so drove for about an hour and stopped in Tulare, which if you have to live in the central valley, looks like a really nice town to live in. Clean and surrounded by farmland and cows and not too big of a town but not too small, what we saw of it just looked like a nice place. Unlike the other little town we stopped in to get gas, Earlimart, where even the crappiest little shacks had bars on the windows. I would not want to live in a place where you have to have bars on your windows to keep people from stealing from even the poorest other people.
Anyway, breakfast at Apple Annie's, a cute little cafe near some hotels and right off the freeway with about fifty different types of omelettes and a dessert menu that featured guess what? Apples! Apple pie, apple dumplings, apple ice cream, apple sundaes, and any other kind of sweet that you could put an apple in. We didn't have dessert though, a little too early in the day for that.
Then, off to the zoo, which is in a big park and so easy to get to, get off the freeway, make a right and then the first left at the first stoplight you see. The web site had said there was a $5.00 parking fee to get into the park, but the little parking attendant shed was closed so we didn't have to pay. On around the park, passing lots of playgrounds and barbecue pits and picnic tables, and past a Storybook Village that was closed, and then across from a children's amusement park with carnival booths and carnival type rides, also closed and only open on the weekends, was the zoo. I've never in my life parked right in front of the entrance to a zoo before, but that is where we parked. Like I said, cold weather makes for uncrowded zoos.
It was only $7.00 each to get in which in my mind is an incredible bargain, and if you are a kid or a senior it's even cheaper. First stop was the restroom of course, and then on to the Australian birds aviary. The zoo has like four different aviaries, something that I always find fun, being inside a big cage with birds. The Australian aviary had some beautiful birds all up on branches and right after I said hey it would be cool if they started flying around, they did, all squawking and yelling and soaring a few inches above our heads.
I don't know what kind of birds these are but they were really gorgeous and very curious. One of them really liked Keith's shoelaces and was pecking at them, and then as we were walking along the path, was following right on his heels.
Then, elephants and a tiger.
And then another aviary, this time a rain forest with a waterfall and a stream, parrots and water birds, and these weird little birds that were on the bridge over the stream and as we got closer, started making an incredibly loud clacking type call. LOUD. But such cute birds.
At the back of this aviary was a temperature controlled building for some of the species that need the moist warmth, like the male and female sloths that were indeed being incredibly slothfull. The boy sloth did open his eyes and look at us, then yawned and went back to sleep. There was another stream in this building with some turtles and fish and two gorgeous spotted stingrays, a kind of ray that I'd never seen before, and are so peaceful to watch swim.
And, speaking of rays there was a special feed and pet the stingrays exhibit with rays borrowed from the Monterey aquarium, all swimming in a big low tank with a waterfall. This exhibit was supposed to cost $1.00 per person, but since it was a slow day they weren't charging admission and we were the only people watching the rays. There were two of them that were just huge, the rest were about the size of a turkey platter and again, so peaceful to watch swim although the water in this tank was kind of hard to see through. One of them was apparently thinking we were going to feed it because it kept launching itself right up the side of he tank and out of the water, like HEY WHERE IS MY FOOD! We were able to touch that one, they feel very strange and soft.
Then we stopped for a cup of coffee and were thinking about getting some lunch but I didn't want to sit outside in the cold and eat so we decided to wait until on the way home for lunch/early dinner.
The zoo is full of chubby and innovative squirrels, many of which we saw in the aviaries with the birds and how they managed to get inside I don't know, but they definitely know where the bird food stations are. We saw this one squirrel running along by the snack bar with a big packet in its mouth and we followed it to see what he had.
And it was a packet of Ken's Honey Mustard salad dressing. That apparently was quite delicious.
Tomorrow: Part Two of our Zoo Adventure!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
The Long Long Drive Part Two
So, we get into Vegas at around 6pm and get off on Sahara to go look for our motel. We drive and drive and drive up Sahara past lots of ratty looking strip malls and apartment buildings and then get up into a nicer looking area called The Lakes, with nicer looking apartment complexes and gated housing tracts. We keep driving, looking for the Best Western sign that should be on the left side of the road and don't see anything that looks like a Best Western and finally realize that we have gone way past where the Best Western should be. We finally find the right block but still don't see a Best Western and most of the buildings don't have street addresses on them, and see a shopping center that looks like it is where the Best Western should be and finally find the Best Western way back in the shopping center/office building complex. Finally.
We check in and are told there is breakfast in the morning in the breakfast room and get to our room to freshen up a little and call James to go have dinner.
We get back on Sahara and drive, drive, drive past the downtown casinos and back into even rattier looking neighborhoods with rattier looking strip malls, apartment buildings, and trailer parks here and there. We finally get to the house, which is in a rather old also ratty and rundown neighborhood and why Keith's mom just had to buy this house we still haven't figured out. And there was no way I could ever have spent the night there so I'm really glad we got a motel room. The house was dark, dingy, and full of junk laying around waiting for the dumpster to be delivered so it could all be thrown away, and bags and bags and bags of trash. Dirty dishes in the kitchen and boxes of food on the counter because the pantry was infested with bugs despite numerous fumigations of said pantry. The house is laid out rather oddly, with a sunroom (also full of junk) off of a bedroom, a living room right off of the kitchen up front, a family room in the back with a bed in it, a master bedroom with two huge walk in closets that had been full of clothes and purses and shoes. Cleta never threw anything away, down to the last piece of junk mail. And on top of never throwing anything away, she loved yard sales and would bring home more junk on a regular basis.
There is a carport on the side of the house and a garage, both full of more junk. She had about three houses worth of furniture all crammed into one small house, furniture that didn't match anything else. There were six microwave ovens, seven TVs and Keith counted 13 plastic poinsettia plants that he threw away the last time he was there.
We took James and his boyfriend Robby over to a nearby casino for dinner, there is a restaurant there that they liked and we had a nice dinner and wandered the casino for a few minutes and then went out the wrong door looking for the car and were on the wrong side of the parking lot, so we had to go back in the casino and find the right door out. I'm assuming that the casinos are planned to be confusing so you can never ever find your way out until you run out of money and they throw you out.
It was very noisy and crowded with all kinds of sad looking people sitting at slot machines that bells are constantly ringing on. I wish I had the camera with me because we saw the typical elderly casino addict as we were walking through, she was all dressed up in her casino best with her bright red hair expertly styled, her makeup in place, and her cats eye rhinestone glasses on.
We dropped James and Robby back off at the house and went for a drive down through the big casinos to look at the lights. It took us about 30 minutes to go five blocks and after sitting in the traffic and watching the craziness, we'd had enough and were ready for bed.
I hadn't been to Vegas in about 20 years and since then there are lots of new casinos and those horrible huge TVs all over the place, like you see in Times Square. I found them very annoying.
I did like the Paris casino with the Eiffel Tower, though.
Tomorrow: Back through the desert. With cats.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Wrap up of the Week
It's Friday and the weekend is not starting off too well for most of the country, what with stock markets crashing and everyone losing their 401K investments AGAIN, and fears of another recession. Another recession? I think millions of other Americans who are still looking for a job after the first recession hit would agree with me that we never got out of the first one.
But some of the big businesses are doing well what with GM or Chrysler or whoever it was that we bailed out reporting huge profits once again, and Apple apparently having more money than God.
Anyway, it's a little scary out there.
We have decided to go ahead and get a room for tonight in Vegas even though we really shouldn't spend the money, but I would really rather have a nice hotel room to stay in. James has been cleaning out the house and there are 45 garbage bags of clothes (with more clothes still to go) in the living room that even Goodwill doesn't want and are waiting on a dumpster rental to put them all in, and I'm wondering if there is even any toilet paper in the bathrooms because James is on his last few dollars and I'm sure is not thinking about things like toilet paper. So, I went online and after a frustrating 20 minutes or so trying to figure out where these hotels are in relation to her house and I really don't want to stay in a casino, I found a Best Western in a quieter area that is just a Best Western, no casino and hopefully no casino customers drunkenly stumbling through the hallways at 3am, waking us up. With our AAA membership discount it comes out to $85.00 and doesn't look like a fleabag hotel and hopefully they don't have bedbugs.
I'm figuring that we'll get to Vegas around 8 tonight and then we'll get up early and if James is awake we'll take him to breakfast, then load up the cats and get back on the road. We'll have to make any stops on the way home very quick stops with one of us staying in the car with the air conditioner running so that we don't accidentally fry any cats in the desert heat.
And here is an update on Gimpy The Three Legged Cat, who did indeed have his leg amputated. He is recuperating at home and of course having to wear the Collar That Cats Hate so he won't lick the wounds. Poor Baby!
My Etsy shops started out this month with some good sales and I was hoping that things were looking up and the sales would keep coming but after yesterday's economic news now I'm fearing the worst, so we'll see how it goes.
And that is about it, I'm going to do the laundry so we have clean clothes to sweat in on our trip, and I'm going to get the lawn mowed and house cleaned so that we can come home to no chores tomorrow afternoon.
But some of the big businesses are doing well what with GM or Chrysler or whoever it was that we bailed out reporting huge profits once again, and Apple apparently having more money than God.
Anyway, it's a little scary out there.
We have decided to go ahead and get a room for tonight in Vegas even though we really shouldn't spend the money, but I would really rather have a nice hotel room to stay in. James has been cleaning out the house and there are 45 garbage bags of clothes (with more clothes still to go) in the living room that even Goodwill doesn't want and are waiting on a dumpster rental to put them all in, and I'm wondering if there is even any toilet paper in the bathrooms because James is on his last few dollars and I'm sure is not thinking about things like toilet paper. So, I went online and after a frustrating 20 minutes or so trying to figure out where these hotels are in relation to her house and I really don't want to stay in a casino, I found a Best Western in a quieter area that is just a Best Western, no casino and hopefully no casino customers drunkenly stumbling through the hallways at 3am, waking us up. With our AAA membership discount it comes out to $85.00 and doesn't look like a fleabag hotel and hopefully they don't have bedbugs.
I'm figuring that we'll get to Vegas around 8 tonight and then we'll get up early and if James is awake we'll take him to breakfast, then load up the cats and get back on the road. We'll have to make any stops on the way home very quick stops with one of us staying in the car with the air conditioner running so that we don't accidentally fry any cats in the desert heat.
And here is an update on Gimpy The Three Legged Cat, who did indeed have his leg amputated. He is recuperating at home and of course having to wear the Collar That Cats Hate so he won't lick the wounds. Poor Baby!
My Etsy shops started out this month with some good sales and I was hoping that things were looking up and the sales would keep coming but after yesterday's economic news now I'm fearing the worst, so we'll see how it goes.
And that is about it, I'm going to do the laundry so we have clean clothes to sweat in on our trip, and I'm going to get the lawn mowed and house cleaned so that we can come home to no chores tomorrow afternoon.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Scaring the Crap out of the Cats
And quite literally, too.
I was just finishing up vacuuming the living room, something I do every other day and something you'd think the cats would be sort of used to by now even though it is loud and probably hurts their ears, and I go to put the vacuum away in the hall closet, and right there in the middle of the hallway is cat poop. Just laying there.
And aren't you glad I didn't include a picture?
I'm assuming that someone was running madly trying to make it to the cat box in time and the vacuum cleaner suddenly being turned on kind of hastened things along.
Speaking of cats, we are planning on leaving Friday afternoon to go pick up the orphans, who I think are named Dusty and Genie. I was debating on whether or not to go along with Keith, and was wondering if there was even a mattress left in the house for us to sleep on although I'd much rather stay in a motel, but that costs $$$, and thinking about how freaking hot it will be driving through the desert and how freaking hot it will be in Las Vegas, and how I have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes, and should I just buy some Depends for the drive?
But, I'm a little concerned about him trying to drive back home with two cats in the car, two cats who might be a little stressed out and am thinking maybe it would be better if I got those Depends and just went along to help out with cat wrangling.
We were also discussing if it would be better to drive at night when it's supposedly a little cooler, but to me it is somewhat safer to drive in the daytime and how boring would that be to drive at night when all you can see are headlights, not that there is all that much scenery in the desert, and I'm also thinking it might be easier to stay awake on the long boring drive if it's during the day, and also so that I can help with driving if necessary, because I can't drive at night because I can't see. I'm getting to where I can just barely see in the daytime, too, and as soon as possible am going to get new glasses.
So, the plan is to get to Vegas in the early evening, spend the night, and then get back on the road early Saturday so that we can get back here and get the cats settled in their new home while everyone can still see what is going on. Then Keith will have the full day on Sunday to rest up for another grueling week at work. The heat is really getting to him and he has to stop working about every 15 minutes to rest a little and wipe all the sweat off and his boss is not very understanding about how draining it is to work outside when the temps are in the triple digits and why aren't you working harder and he's about ready to tell them to take this job and shove it only we can't afford for him to quit. Especially with 2 more mouths to feed.
I was just finishing up vacuuming the living room, something I do every other day and something you'd think the cats would be sort of used to by now even though it is loud and probably hurts their ears, and I go to put the vacuum away in the hall closet, and right there in the middle of the hallway is cat poop. Just laying there.
And aren't you glad I didn't include a picture?
I'm assuming that someone was running madly trying to make it to the cat box in time and the vacuum cleaner suddenly being turned on kind of hastened things along.
Speaking of cats, we are planning on leaving Friday afternoon to go pick up the orphans, who I think are named Dusty and Genie. I was debating on whether or not to go along with Keith, and was wondering if there was even a mattress left in the house for us to sleep on although I'd much rather stay in a motel, but that costs $$$, and thinking about how freaking hot it will be driving through the desert and how freaking hot it will be in Las Vegas, and how I have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes, and should I just buy some Depends for the drive?
But, I'm a little concerned about him trying to drive back home with two cats in the car, two cats who might be a little stressed out and am thinking maybe it would be better if I got those Depends and just went along to help out with cat wrangling.
We were also discussing if it would be better to drive at night when it's supposedly a little cooler, but to me it is somewhat safer to drive in the daytime and how boring would that be to drive at night when all you can see are headlights, not that there is all that much scenery in the desert, and I'm also thinking it might be easier to stay awake on the long boring drive if it's during the day, and also so that I can help with driving if necessary, because I can't drive at night because I can't see. I'm getting to where I can just barely see in the daytime, too, and as soon as possible am going to get new glasses.
So, the plan is to get to Vegas in the early evening, spend the night, and then get back on the road early Saturday so that we can get back here and get the cats settled in their new home while everyone can still see what is going on. Then Keith will have the full day on Sunday to rest up for another grueling week at work. The heat is really getting to him and he has to stop working about every 15 minutes to rest a little and wipe all the sweat off and his boss is not very understanding about how draining it is to work outside when the temps are in the triple digits and why aren't you working harder and he's about ready to tell them to take this job and shove it only we can't afford for him to quit. Especially with 2 more mouths to feed.
Monday, July 11, 2011
What We Did Last Weekend
Aside from sitting in the air conditioned house because it's stinkin' hot outside that is.
We had seen a commercial on TV for the Insect Lore Bugseum in Shafter, a little town about 20 minutes from here and thought hey, it's free and even if we don't have kids it looks fun, so on Saturday morning decided to drive on up and check it out. Keith had been wanting to go to the Shafter historical museum that is in their old Depot anyway, so we made a small town museum trip. In the heat.
The Bugseum was really cute and surprisingly busy with lots and lots of small children running about. The Insect Lore company started out in the late 60's sending live butterfly garden kits to kids through mail order and evolved into quite a huge business with butterfly and ladybug nurseries, complete with windows to the nurseries along the wall of the bugseum so you can peek in. They have displays of mounted bugs from all over the world and assorted live creepy crawly things inside display cages. All of the little kids seemed to be having a great time but of course part of that could be all the buggy things you could buy in the gift shop, my favorite of which is a little bug house on a strap to go on your wrist like a watch to keep your live bugs in and carry them around with you.
And the critter carnival with rides for your bugs.
The ant hill.
And the ladybug land where you watch ladybugs grow from larva stage to adult and then let them go so they can eat the bad bugs in your garden.
Even the outside of the building is fun. It looks huge, but most of the inside is taken up by bug nurseries and a huge shipping warehouse.
This is also probably the nicest looking building in the whole town. You know how some little towns are really charming with cute main streets and shady sidewalks? Not Shafter, sorry Shafter people.
Tomorrow, the other highlights from our little road trip. If you can call them highlights.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Bored and Out on the Road
We were both going a little stir crazy yesterday and despite the fact that Keith has been doing a lot of driving lately, decided to take a little ride out into the country for an hour or two. We got on the 58 going towards Tehachapi with the thought that we would take the back roads that we've taken many times before through the foothills, and then saw the turnoff for Lamont, a little farm town that I've never been to before. There is a huge section of the south valley that we've never explored, all flat farmlands and orchards and a few little towns. We drove through Lamont which looked like your typical small town, and then down some more country roads, all of them perfectly straight on a huge grid of straight roads and fields. We ended up near the foothills going through Arvin, which is the town where unemployment is at 45% because nearly everyone who lives there works in the fields.
I really liked this town, it was very sleepy, nobody on the downtown main street, no traffic, probably because when 45% of your town is unemployed, nobody has any money to go shopping downtown. It is nestled up in the far end of the valley with a beautiful view of the mountains and packing houses all along the edge of town. I had no idea that they grew potatoes in Arvin, but there were two potato packing houses but kind of quiet looking potato packing houses. We did see oranges going along the conveyor belts into big huge metal bins at another packing house and did see workers in some fields cutting what looked like cabbage or cauliflower and wrapping them in plastic right there in the field on a big truck bed thing.
I didn't take any pictures but did steal some off of the internet for your viewing pleasure.
The red dot is the metropolis of Arvin.
This picture is quite obviously not mine since it wasn't snowing on the mountains yesterday.
You do sort of feel like you are driving through Tijuana, although a whole lot cleaner. The town is predominately hispanic or latino or whatever the politically correct word is these days. Every building has signs in Spanish.
On the way back we passed by the hugest dairy farm I've ever seen, with the hugest stinkiest smell to go along with it.
We feel a little better about things today. Our neighbor Nathan has been talking up an open mechanic's job at the cement plant where he works so he gave Keith the phone number to call the supervisor guy, and he talked to him yesterday and will send along his resume and application when Nathan goes to work on Monday. They are really looking for a journeyman mechanic which Keith isn't but the guy said if he looked like a good fit he might give him a chance. The job has been open for a long time because it's a 3am to 11am shift and none of the union guys who would qualify are interested in driving way up into the mountains by Lebec to work such a weird shift. It's a long drive from here, about 1 1/2 hours, but it is a union job and pays well, so we'll see.
I really liked this town, it was very sleepy, nobody on the downtown main street, no traffic, probably because when 45% of your town is unemployed, nobody has any money to go shopping downtown. It is nestled up in the far end of the valley with a beautiful view of the mountains and packing houses all along the edge of town. I had no idea that they grew potatoes in Arvin, but there were two potato packing houses but kind of quiet looking potato packing houses. We did see oranges going along the conveyor belts into big huge metal bins at another packing house and did see workers in some fields cutting what looked like cabbage or cauliflower and wrapping them in plastic right there in the field on a big truck bed thing.
I didn't take any pictures but did steal some off of the internet for your viewing pleasure.
The red dot is the metropolis of Arvin.
This picture is quite obviously not mine since it wasn't snowing on the mountains yesterday.
You do sort of feel like you are driving through Tijuana, although a whole lot cleaner. The town is predominately hispanic or latino or whatever the politically correct word is these days. Every building has signs in Spanish.
On the way back we passed by the hugest dairy farm I've ever seen, with the hugest stinkiest smell to go along with it.
We feel a little better about things today. Our neighbor Nathan has been talking up an open mechanic's job at the cement plant where he works so he gave Keith the phone number to call the supervisor guy, and he talked to him yesterday and will send along his resume and application when Nathan goes to work on Monday. They are really looking for a journeyman mechanic which Keith isn't but the guy said if he looked like a good fit he might give him a chance. The job has been open for a long time because it's a 3am to 11am shift and none of the union guys who would qualify are interested in driving way up into the mountains by Lebec to work such a weird shift. It's a long drive from here, about 1 1/2 hours, but it is a union job and pays well, so we'll see.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Vacation Day Three- Big Big Trees
On to Sequoia National Park!
We spent the night in a nice little Days Inn on Motel Street in Merced (at least I think it was Merced) and yes, it really was called Motel Street because, well, that's the street that all the little motels were on. We had our choice of like six different motels all lined up in a row. The Day's Inn was nice with clean rooms and a filled pool and even an exercise room which we didn't use of course. Even free continental breakfast in the morning! Free is good.
So, we got started after eating our continental breakfast and headed on down the road to the park.
We had to stop at the cutest fruit stand ever where we got some nectarines and peaches.
This was in the little town of Centerville, appropriately named because it's in the center of California- get it?
They had a really nice little bathroom, too, always a big plus for my weak always needing to find a bathroom bladder!
Then, up through rolling hills and more rolling hills and windy roads and on into the park.
We stopped at the visitor center and decided to have lunch at the restaurant which I don't recommend, not the best lunch I've ever eaten.
Then on to the first of the big trees, the General Grant tree. Or was it the General Sherman tree? I can't remember which is which and I already threw away the map so I can't look it up, but back when the first explorers explored the big trees they named them for Generals and States and whatnot, but stopped doing that when they ran out of names I guess. Anyway the Grant tree (or whatever it's called) is just off a parking lot with some lovely trails that wind around the area. Once you get onto the trails you feel like you are far from civilization what with the wind sighing through the trees and the birds singing and just a general quietness and peacefulness. That is until somebody's car alarm goes off.
We even got to see some wildlife coming out of the parking lot.
This deer was so busy eating in this little meadow that it paid absolutely no attention to us and showed no fear at all. I'm sure he is used to traffic and cars and weird creatures getting out of the cars to take its picture that he just doesn't care anymore.
Then, more driving through the park, narrow mountain roads and forest all around us. We were amazed to see patches of snow still on the ground the higher up we got.
Some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.
Then on to the Sherman tree, or Grant or whichever one it was. You go off the main road and wind up to a big parking lot and then there are signs warning you that the trail is steep and there are numerous benches for you to stop and 'catch your breath' on the way back up. We started down the trail which is paved and has steps and were starting to wonder if we really wanted to see this tree after passing all the people huffing and puffing and looking totally miserable on their way back up. But, we persevered and went down far enough to see the tree but not quite all the way down. Out of shape much? Yes, we are, and the hike back up was not so fun and we did indeed use the benches to catch our breaths.
The pictures really don't do it justice, but you can sort of tell the size of the tree by the fence surrounding it.
I think there were more foreign tourists at the park that Americans, we heard lots of different languages. My favorite foreigner was the rather portly man who had his cowboy hat on that said Los Angeles on it and suspenders with American flags all over them. I think he was enjoying his trip to the States! We also kept running into a little shuttle bus full of French people at every stop.
On the way out of the park the road splits and goes right through the middle of these four trees- that was fun and I kind of wanted to turn around and go back through again.
There were some signs on the way out that warned of road work ahead and delays of up to one hour, but we didn't really believe it until we came to a stopped car and a worker holding up a stop sign. We had just missed the window out and were the second car stopped and the woman with the stop sign explained to us that the wait would indeed be one hour. Argghh.
Then up behind us comes the shuttle bus of French tourists. They certainly knew how to take advantage of a traffic delay and all hopped out of the bus and broke open some bottles of wine. They had come prepared with plastic cups and had a little party there.
After the hour of sitting there, but what better place to have to wait than in a beautiful forest even though I had to go to the bathroom REALLY BAD by then, the 'follow me' truck came up the road with a line of cars behind it, turned around, and we all followed him down. At a pace of about 5 mph. Down a very windy, very narrow road that was one lane where the workers were shoring up the sides of the road. Mind you, we are driving down the sides of very steep, very tall mountains on a very narrow, very windy road. We finally came to the end of the construction zone, the guide truck pulls over to let us on by, and what do we see on the side of the mountain about 5 feet from the road but a BEAR! Casually looking for something to eat.
All over the park there are signs warning of very active bears and warning to never leave food in your car because these bears are smart and know that cars and tourists=food and will rip right into your car in search of good things to eat. You are told to put all your food into metal lockboxes that are conveniently located at each trail point and picnic spot so that the bears won't smell it in your car.
We stopped at the first restroom we saw because I REALLY REALLY had to go by then, and again, behind us came the French wine drinkers, because after all that wine they had to go REALLY bad, too.
We had lost our park entrance fee receipt somewhere along the way and almost had to pay to get back out but they believed us that we had paid after showing them the map that we were given on our way in. I really didn't want to have to pay another $20.00 just to get back out of the park.
Then, on down the road heading home, past a beautiful river and huge lake and down into rolling hills again. We were going to go through Visalia and get back on the 99 to get home, but after looking at the map realized that the 65 that goes through Porterville would actually be a little shorter, so on we went.
Keith calls the Sierra side of the central valley the 'wet' side, because the other side is all desert and rather bleak. I had never been down the wet side and it was really pretty and reminded me of the Santa Paula valley, with orange groves and mountain views. We passed through the little town of Exeter, which reminded me even more of Santa Paula, and we are going to go back and visit Exeter sometime in the future, it looked like a really nice little place.
More orange groves and pasture land and rolling hills and then all of a sudden you are back in the oilfields outside of Bakersfield, which certainly aren't as pretty as orange groves, and back home.
It was a good trip and has satisfied my wanderlust for a while. I'm still kind of tired.
We spent the night in a nice little Days Inn on Motel Street in Merced (at least I think it was Merced) and yes, it really was called Motel Street because, well, that's the street that all the little motels were on. We had our choice of like six different motels all lined up in a row. The Day's Inn was nice with clean rooms and a filled pool and even an exercise room which we didn't use of course. Even free continental breakfast in the morning! Free is good.
So, we got started after eating our continental breakfast and headed on down the road to the park.
We had to stop at the cutest fruit stand ever where we got some nectarines and peaches.
This was in the little town of Centerville, appropriately named because it's in the center of California- get it?
They had a really nice little bathroom, too, always a big plus for my weak always needing to find a bathroom bladder!
Then, up through rolling hills and more rolling hills and windy roads and on into the park.
We stopped at the visitor center and decided to have lunch at the restaurant which I don't recommend, not the best lunch I've ever eaten.
Then on to the first of the big trees, the General Grant tree. Or was it the General Sherman tree? I can't remember which is which and I already threw away the map so I can't look it up, but back when the first explorers explored the big trees they named them for Generals and States and whatnot, but stopped doing that when they ran out of names I guess. Anyway the Grant tree (or whatever it's called) is just off a parking lot with some lovely trails that wind around the area. Once you get onto the trails you feel like you are far from civilization what with the wind sighing through the trees and the birds singing and just a general quietness and peacefulness. That is until somebody's car alarm goes off.
We even got to see some wildlife coming out of the parking lot.
This deer was so busy eating in this little meadow that it paid absolutely no attention to us and showed no fear at all. I'm sure he is used to traffic and cars and weird creatures getting out of the cars to take its picture that he just doesn't care anymore.
Then, more driving through the park, narrow mountain roads and forest all around us. We were amazed to see patches of snow still on the ground the higher up we got.
Some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.
Then on to the Sherman tree, or Grant or whichever one it was. You go off the main road and wind up to a big parking lot and then there are signs warning you that the trail is steep and there are numerous benches for you to stop and 'catch your breath' on the way back up. We started down the trail which is paved and has steps and were starting to wonder if we really wanted to see this tree after passing all the people huffing and puffing and looking totally miserable on their way back up. But, we persevered and went down far enough to see the tree but not quite all the way down. Out of shape much? Yes, we are, and the hike back up was not so fun and we did indeed use the benches to catch our breaths.
The pictures really don't do it justice, but you can sort of tell the size of the tree by the fence surrounding it.
I think there were more foreign tourists at the park that Americans, we heard lots of different languages. My favorite foreigner was the rather portly man who had his cowboy hat on that said Los Angeles on it and suspenders with American flags all over them. I think he was enjoying his trip to the States! We also kept running into a little shuttle bus full of French people at every stop.
On the way out of the park the road splits and goes right through the middle of these four trees- that was fun and I kind of wanted to turn around and go back through again.
There were some signs on the way out that warned of road work ahead and delays of up to one hour, but we didn't really believe it until we came to a stopped car and a worker holding up a stop sign. We had just missed the window out and were the second car stopped and the woman with the stop sign explained to us that the wait would indeed be one hour. Argghh.
Then up behind us comes the shuttle bus of French tourists. They certainly knew how to take advantage of a traffic delay and all hopped out of the bus and broke open some bottles of wine. They had come prepared with plastic cups and had a little party there.
After the hour of sitting there, but what better place to have to wait than in a beautiful forest even though I had to go to the bathroom REALLY BAD by then, the 'follow me' truck came up the road with a line of cars behind it, turned around, and we all followed him down. At a pace of about 5 mph. Down a very windy, very narrow road that was one lane where the workers were shoring up the sides of the road. Mind you, we are driving down the sides of very steep, very tall mountains on a very narrow, very windy road. We finally came to the end of the construction zone, the guide truck pulls over to let us on by, and what do we see on the side of the mountain about 5 feet from the road but a BEAR! Casually looking for something to eat.
All over the park there are signs warning of very active bears and warning to never leave food in your car because these bears are smart and know that cars and tourists=food and will rip right into your car in search of good things to eat. You are told to put all your food into metal lockboxes that are conveniently located at each trail point and picnic spot so that the bears won't smell it in your car.
We stopped at the first restroom we saw because I REALLY REALLY had to go by then, and again, behind us came the French wine drinkers, because after all that wine they had to go REALLY bad, too.
We had lost our park entrance fee receipt somewhere along the way and almost had to pay to get back out but they believed us that we had paid after showing them the map that we were given on our way in. I really didn't want to have to pay another $20.00 just to get back out of the park.
Then, on down the road heading home, past a beautiful river and huge lake and down into rolling hills again. We were going to go through Visalia and get back on the 99 to get home, but after looking at the map realized that the 65 that goes through Porterville would actually be a little shorter, so on we went.
Keith calls the Sierra side of the central valley the 'wet' side, because the other side is all desert and rather bleak. I had never been down the wet side and it was really pretty and reminded me of the Santa Paula valley, with orange groves and mountain views. We passed through the little town of Exeter, which reminded me even more of Santa Paula, and we are going to go back and visit Exeter sometime in the future, it looked like a really nice little place.
More orange groves and pasture land and rolling hills and then all of a sudden you are back in the oilfields outside of Bakersfield, which certainly aren't as pretty as orange groves, and back home.
It was a good trip and has satisfied my wanderlust for a while. I'm still kind of tired.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Vacation Day Two- Sacramento
On day two of our little road trip we left Placerville after breakfast at the Waffle Shop and headed out the 49 to the town of Coloma where gold was discovered way back when. The town is a state park with a little museum and the old buildings still there. We went through the museum and drove through town and then on to Sacramento. After much consulting of maps and trying to find the right freeways to take we finally made our way into downtown and Old Town, got off the freeway and got totally confused what with all the one way streets, but finally found the way into the huge parking structure and into Old Town. Which was a little disappointing. The old buildings and wood sidewalks are cool, but so many shops just couldn't make a go of it so there were lots of empty buildings, some restaurants with very pricey menus in the windows, four (yes four!) candy shops, a couple of ice cream shops, the usual shops with California t-shirts in the windows, and lots of homeless people. One guy was asking everyone who walked by for a nickle. I guess he figured that everyone could part with a nickle and if he asked enough people by the end of the day he might have a dollar or two. We didn't give him a nickle, we're mean like that.
Looking for a place to eat lunch, we found a pizza restaurant that promised a lunch buffet with salad bar, so we paid our $5.99 each plus drinks and went over to the saddest lunch buffet I' ve ever seen (note to self, LOOK at the lunch buffet before PAYING for it in the future!) and had the worst, the absolute WORST pizza I've ever eaten. There was also some soggy ziti that was totally inedible and some mac and cheese that I'm sure came right out of the Kraft box. It was not a good lunch and we should have just gone to Subway.
Then on to the train museum where we got in free because we pay $35.00 a year to belong to the train museum, so that part was cool to just walk on in like VIP's. The museum is really nice with lots of big trains inside and a sleeper car that moves just like you are riding in it when you walk through which made me feel a little woozy. Keith had to read everything and look at absolutely every part of every train and I got a little bored so spent a lot of time sitting on a bench watching a group of Young Explorers that were visiting the museum. They were all about 10 and dressed in red t-shirts and seemed to be having a great time.
Keith took lots of pictures but I won't bore you with more than one train picture.
There is also a diner car that you can go through, seeing the kitchen where I can't imagine fancy meals being cooked on a moving train, and the tables all set up with all of the different china patterns and menus from all the different trains. The choices for your dinner on the trains back in the days of rail travel were quite gourmet.
If you are into trains, the museum is well worth the trip.
After spending what seemed like hours and hours in the museum, we walked around the rest of Old Town. There is a river boat hotel docked on the river where the valet parking is like $20.00, so I can just imagine how much the rooms are, but if you're rich that would be a fun place to stay. They have a restaurant on the boat with pork chops for like $27.00, obviously we didn't eat there.
We did buy some salt water taffy from one of the candy shops, something about vacation and hundreds of flavors of salt water taffy is irresistible and you just have to come home with a pricey bag of salt water taffy, don't you? We did.
Then, back on the freeway heading south. We were debating on if we wanted to go on home or spend another night on the road and decided to go down to Merced and find a motel, then go through Sequoia the next day. So that's what we did. Sequoia tomorrow.
Looking for a place to eat lunch, we found a pizza restaurant that promised a lunch buffet with salad bar, so we paid our $5.99 each plus drinks and went over to the saddest lunch buffet I' ve ever seen (note to self, LOOK at the lunch buffet before PAYING for it in the future!) and had the worst, the absolute WORST pizza I've ever eaten. There was also some soggy ziti that was totally inedible and some mac and cheese that I'm sure came right out of the Kraft box. It was not a good lunch and we should have just gone to Subway.
Then on to the train museum where we got in free because we pay $35.00 a year to belong to the train museum, so that part was cool to just walk on in like VIP's. The museum is really nice with lots of big trains inside and a sleeper car that moves just like you are riding in it when you walk through which made me feel a little woozy. Keith had to read everything and look at absolutely every part of every train and I got a little bored so spent a lot of time sitting on a bench watching a group of Young Explorers that were visiting the museum. They were all about 10 and dressed in red t-shirts and seemed to be having a great time.
Keith took lots of pictures but I won't bore you with more than one train picture.
There is also a diner car that you can go through, seeing the kitchen where I can't imagine fancy meals being cooked on a moving train, and the tables all set up with all of the different china patterns and menus from all the different trains. The choices for your dinner on the trains back in the days of rail travel were quite gourmet.
If you are into trains, the museum is well worth the trip.
After spending what seemed like hours and hours in the museum, we walked around the rest of Old Town. There is a river boat hotel docked on the river where the valet parking is like $20.00, so I can just imagine how much the rooms are, but if you're rich that would be a fun place to stay. They have a restaurant on the boat with pork chops for like $27.00, obviously we didn't eat there.
We did buy some salt water taffy from one of the candy shops, something about vacation and hundreds of flavors of salt water taffy is irresistible and you just have to come home with a pricey bag of salt water taffy, don't you? We did.
Then, back on the freeway heading south. We were debating on if we wanted to go on home or spend another night on the road and decided to go down to Merced and find a motel, then go through Sequoia the next day. So that's what we did. Sequoia tomorrow.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
We're Back!
Or, as our cats would say, 'oh, were you gone?'
First off, the kittens in the back yard seem to be gone, I'm assuming mama cat took them to somebody else's yard after we found her hiding place.
And, yes, we were gone for 3 days on a little vacation, the first vacation we've had in a long long time, and we are totally exhausted. I don't think I'd make much of a world traveler, I really like the comforts of home, and 3 days in the car was definitely long enough.
The cats seemed a little confused to see us, kind of blink blink who are you, and the three litter boxes were TOTALLY OVERFLOWING AND THE HOUSE STUNK! Really. Stunk.
We had left them with three of the self feeder things where you load them up with food and it continually falls down into the bowl, so they got plenty of food, and one of those water dish things that continually fills itself back up again, so they had water even if it wasn't freshly poured like they're used to. So, other than the cat box thing they hardly even noticed that the humans were missing.
Anyway, here's what we did on our little trip on day one. The original plan was to go up the 99 to Sacramento and the train museum. It took us 30 minutes just to get on the 99 because we had to stop at walmart to get another bra for me because I thought I had enough clean ones but of course I didn't, so walmart first, then the back way to the freeway which we thought would be faster than going all the way down Rosedale Hwy. But, Keith hadn't gone the back way to the 99 before and got confused because the roads here are really confusing anyway and the signs aren't very clear and we ended up on the wrong side of the freeway so we had to turn around at the next exit and get back on the right side of the freeway so we'd be heading towards Sacramento and not Los Angeles. So, we finally get on the freeway going in the right direction a full 30 minutes after leaving the house.
After driving for a while we thought why not reverse our plans and go up the 49 through the gold country that day and go to Sacramento the next day? So, that's what we did, crossing over to the Sierra side of the valley at Merced, going through all the rolling hills to Mariposa (the gateway to Yosemite), stopping for lunch there, and then up through all the little gold towns to Placerville.
Where we stayed here:
I had done a little googling for motels and picked this one based on the sign alone (and the fact that the rooms were only $50.00). Old but clean although very hard pillows and mattresses. And the pool was closed for renovation. But it was quiet and surrounded by trees.
It was like 7 by the time we got to the motel, so we checked in and then went into town to find a place for dinner and when we saw this sign we knew where we were going to eat.
For those of you old enough to have seen the movie American Graffiti, this is the real deal, the Mel's diner from the movie, albeit not THE Mel's, that one is in San Francisco.
Anyway, good diner food and we got dessert, too!
After dinner we took a little walk around the old downtown, the buildings all have that Old West feel to them, like this one.
We really liked the way the side of this building looked.
The next morning we met up with Meghan and Ryan, who drove down from South Lake Tahoe and had breakfast at the Waffle House. Sorry, no picture, but we picked that restaurant because how could you NOT eat breakfast at a Waffle House anyway?
Tomorrow, day two.
First off, the kittens in the back yard seem to be gone, I'm assuming mama cat took them to somebody else's yard after we found her hiding place.
And, yes, we were gone for 3 days on a little vacation, the first vacation we've had in a long long time, and we are totally exhausted. I don't think I'd make much of a world traveler, I really like the comforts of home, and 3 days in the car was definitely long enough.
The cats seemed a little confused to see us, kind of blink blink who are you, and the three litter boxes were TOTALLY OVERFLOWING AND THE HOUSE STUNK! Really. Stunk.
We had left them with three of the self feeder things where you load them up with food and it continually falls down into the bowl, so they got plenty of food, and one of those water dish things that continually fills itself back up again, so they had water even if it wasn't freshly poured like they're used to. So, other than the cat box thing they hardly even noticed that the humans were missing.
Anyway, here's what we did on our little trip on day one. The original plan was to go up the 99 to Sacramento and the train museum. It took us 30 minutes just to get on the 99 because we had to stop at walmart to get another bra for me because I thought I had enough clean ones but of course I didn't, so walmart first, then the back way to the freeway which we thought would be faster than going all the way down Rosedale Hwy. But, Keith hadn't gone the back way to the 99 before and got confused because the roads here are really confusing anyway and the signs aren't very clear and we ended up on the wrong side of the freeway so we had to turn around at the next exit and get back on the right side of the freeway so we'd be heading towards Sacramento and not Los Angeles. So, we finally get on the freeway going in the right direction a full 30 minutes after leaving the house.
After driving for a while we thought why not reverse our plans and go up the 49 through the gold country that day and go to Sacramento the next day? So, that's what we did, crossing over to the Sierra side of the valley at Merced, going through all the rolling hills to Mariposa (the gateway to Yosemite), stopping for lunch there, and then up through all the little gold towns to Placerville.
Where we stayed here:
I had done a little googling for motels and picked this one based on the sign alone (and the fact that the rooms were only $50.00). Old but clean although very hard pillows and mattresses. And the pool was closed for renovation. But it was quiet and surrounded by trees.
It was like 7 by the time we got to the motel, so we checked in and then went into town to find a place for dinner and when we saw this sign we knew where we were going to eat.
For those of you old enough to have seen the movie American Graffiti, this is the real deal, the Mel's diner from the movie, albeit not THE Mel's, that one is in San Francisco.
Anyway, good diner food and we got dessert, too!
After dinner we took a little walk around the old downtown, the buildings all have that Old West feel to them, like this one.
We really liked the way the side of this building looked.
The next morning we met up with Meghan and Ryan, who drove down from South Lake Tahoe and had breakfast at the Waffle House. Sorry, no picture, but we picked that restaurant because how could you NOT eat breakfast at a Waffle House anyway?
Tomorrow, day two.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Vacation!
Keith is taking a few days off next week, his birthday is on the 16th and he vowed a few years ago to never ever work on his birthday again. Hence the days off. Last year for his birthday vacation he got a colonoscopy. Earlier this spring he took a few days off and got two crowns done at the dentist. Fun, fun, vacations, those!
So, this year I told him to never ever schedule doctors or dentists or whatever on his vacation days again. Ever. Leave work early, take an unpaid day off, but never again have colonoscopies or crowns on your birthday vacation. Unless it's a birthday crown complete with noisemakers.
And what are we doing on his vacation next week since he's not getting a (fun) colonoscopy or crown? Well, even though we can't afford it, we are going on a little road trip!
We were thinking of taking the train up to Sacramento and going to the railroad museum there, then coming back that night on the train. No spending $200.00 on a hotel room that way, the train is only 86.00 for two round trip tickets, and we get in free at the museum since we have a membership. A membership that we've never used since we've never been able to afford to get up there to Sacramento.
Well, the only direct train to Sacramento leaves at 7:15 in the morning, doesn't get to Sacramento until 12:30 pm, and then the direct train home leaves at like 6 pm and doesn't get home until late late late. So, we'd be on a train for about 10 hours total and only have a few hours in Old Sacramento. You can take a little later train in the morning but you have to get off in Stockton and take a Trailways bus into Sacramento. Um, no thanks.
Keith wanted to take the train 'because it's fun!', but I think I'd rather drive up there and not be on a schedule where if you don't get back to the train station on time, you're stuck and will still have to spend that $200.00 for a hotel room. Seriously, all the hotels near Old Sacramento are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE! So, I convinced him that we should just drive, spend the night outside of Sacramento where the motels and hotels might be a little cheaper, and then the next day we could drive back along route 49 through all the gold rush towns, also making a stop in Jamestown where they have another railroad museum.
I took son Joe on a trip when he was 9 (20 years ago, eek!) and we drove up 395 through Carson City, down past Lake Tahoe and down through gold rush country, then through Yosemite and Kings Canyon. I still have fond memories of that trip, especially the part where we saw the bear while driving out of one of the parks (just a baby bear, but a bear!), and the peaceful drive through the rolling hills of the Sierras, stopping at all the quaint little towns, and panning for gold at Sutter's Mill.
So, road trip it is, we'll leave Monday and either come back Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how long it takes us to drive down 49 what with all the great places to stop and beautiful scenery to see. Our credit card will be hurting after we get home, but we are really tired of never being able to go anywhere or do anything, so we'll just put the hotel rooms on the card and do the old buy now pay later thing.
I'm looking forward to it, especially after this weekend when Keith spent two days messing with the living room ceiling fan trying to put in a new switch so that it would work right, and not being able to get the right switch and getting totally frustrated and wasting two days fooling with it and vowing to never ever buy crappy cheap fans from walmart again!
So, this year I told him to never ever schedule doctors or dentists or whatever on his vacation days again. Ever. Leave work early, take an unpaid day off, but never again have colonoscopies or crowns on your birthday vacation. Unless it's a birthday crown complete with noisemakers.
And what are we doing on his vacation next week since he's not getting a (fun) colonoscopy or crown? Well, even though we can't afford it, we are going on a little road trip!
We were thinking of taking the train up to Sacramento and going to the railroad museum there, then coming back that night on the train. No spending $200.00 on a hotel room that way, the train is only 86.00 for two round trip tickets, and we get in free at the museum since we have a membership. A membership that we've never used since we've never been able to afford to get up there to Sacramento.
Well, the only direct train to Sacramento leaves at 7:15 in the morning, doesn't get to Sacramento until 12:30 pm, and then the direct train home leaves at like 6 pm and doesn't get home until late late late. So, we'd be on a train for about 10 hours total and only have a few hours in Old Sacramento. You can take a little later train in the morning but you have to get off in Stockton and take a Trailways bus into Sacramento. Um, no thanks.
Keith wanted to take the train 'because it's fun!', but I think I'd rather drive up there and not be on a schedule where if you don't get back to the train station on time, you're stuck and will still have to spend that $200.00 for a hotel room. Seriously, all the hotels near Old Sacramento are RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE! So, I convinced him that we should just drive, spend the night outside of Sacramento where the motels and hotels might be a little cheaper, and then the next day we could drive back along route 49 through all the gold rush towns, also making a stop in Jamestown where they have another railroad museum.
I took son Joe on a trip when he was 9 (20 years ago, eek!) and we drove up 395 through Carson City, down past Lake Tahoe and down through gold rush country, then through Yosemite and Kings Canyon. I still have fond memories of that trip, especially the part where we saw the bear while driving out of one of the parks (just a baby bear, but a bear!), and the peaceful drive through the rolling hills of the Sierras, stopping at all the quaint little towns, and panning for gold at Sutter's Mill.
So, road trip it is, we'll leave Monday and either come back Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on how long it takes us to drive down 49 what with all the great places to stop and beautiful scenery to see. Our credit card will be hurting after we get home, but we are really tired of never being able to go anywhere or do anything, so we'll just put the hotel rooms on the card and do the old buy now pay later thing.
I'm looking forward to it, especially after this weekend when Keith spent two days messing with the living room ceiling fan trying to put in a new switch so that it would work right, and not being able to get the right switch and getting totally frustrated and wasting two days fooling with it and vowing to never ever buy crappy cheap fans from walmart again!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Road Trip Part Two
So, after we ATE we headed on up the road, taking the back road instead of the freeway into Tehachapi, then down into the desert.
Windmills on the hills outside of Tehachapi.
Very long very straight desert road.
Back up into the mountains.
Then winding through the mountains, some little tiny towns with populations of like 107, and past Lake Isabella. I'm not real impressed with this lake, the area really is not all that pretty, and this is not a natural lake but rather a planned dammed 'recreation area'. They were having a fishing derby over the weekend and every shore was packed with campers. It is odd to me that they let all the campers just drive right to the edge of the lake and park. I don't know, camping is okay if you've got the deluxe camper with a toilet and shower and all, but I think I'd pick a much nicer lake than this one.
As soon as you get past the lake, you start going back down the mountains through the Kern River Canyon, which is very pretty but gets very scary narrow towards the bottom. You know, where they have signs saying 'road narrows' but you are wondering how much narrower could it possibly get. It's also a long long way down to the river in parts and you are kind of cringing at the thought of going off the road, crashing over all the boulders, and ending up in the river in a million pieces. Not the most relaxing part of the trip.
This is before the scary part.
River.
And more river.
And that's all, folks.
It would be nice to live up in the mountains but having to drive that long winding road to do any real shopping or get to work would not be fun at all.
Windmills on the hills outside of Tehachapi.
Very long very straight desert road.
Back up into the mountains.
Then winding through the mountains, some little tiny towns with populations of like 107, and past Lake Isabella. I'm not real impressed with this lake, the area really is not all that pretty, and this is not a natural lake but rather a planned dammed 'recreation area'. They were having a fishing derby over the weekend and every shore was packed with campers. It is odd to me that they let all the campers just drive right to the edge of the lake and park. I don't know, camping is okay if you've got the deluxe camper with a toilet and shower and all, but I think I'd pick a much nicer lake than this one.
As soon as you get past the lake, you start going back down the mountains through the Kern River Canyon, which is very pretty but gets very scary narrow towards the bottom. You know, where they have signs saying 'road narrows' but you are wondering how much narrower could it possibly get. It's also a long long way down to the river in parts and you are kind of cringing at the thought of going off the road, crashing over all the boulders, and ending up in the river in a million pieces. Not the most relaxing part of the trip.
This is before the scary part.
River.
And more river.
And that's all, folks.
It would be nice to live up in the mountains but having to drive that long winding road to do any real shopping or get to work would not be fun at all.
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