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.

Road Trip Part One- Up The Mountains to Tehachapi

When we first moved here to Bakersfield we took quite a few little day trips and drives to see what kind of land we lived in, but it's been a long time since we took a day off and did a little traveling. What with economic crashes and high gas prices, not to mention cars that were old and rather unreliable, we just haven't gone much of anywhere in a very long time.

Saturday we decided to buy the gas and bring some lunch money along and go out and see the spring flowers and green mountains. The weather was perfect, the air was clear, and it turned out to be a very pleasant way to spend the day.

We made a big loop, driving out Hwy 58 and up the mountains, through Tehachapi, back down the mountains on the other side, through the Mojave desert, back up the mountains and through all the little towns to Lake Isabella, and down Hwy 178, following the Kern River through the very narrow canyon, and back into Bakersfield.

I took lots of boring pictures, so I'm going to break the trip up into two posts. Part one is the beautiful road through the rolling hills near Caliente. There is a freeway that you can take to Tehachapi which is also a really pretty drive, but this road is so much more fun.




Lots and lots of wildflowers in the green hills.





And a few cows here and there.

More green hills.

And flowers.


And then it was time for lunch. We were going to eat up in Tehachapi at the Apple Shed but I was really really hungry and wanted to stop at the Keene Cafe to grab a bag of chips or something to tide us over until we got some real food. The last time we had stopped at the Cafe it wasn't exactly a cafe, just a deli with already made sandwiches like you could get at any gas station, so we were pleasantly surprised when we walked in and it was a real restaurant again. So we decided to do what the sign says and EAT.



It was a really good lunch, we both had burgers with homemade potato salad. We were tempted by the pie flavors offered that day with the chocolate peanut butter pie sounding especially delicious (anything chocolate always sounds delicious to me) but we were so full we thought we'd better skip the pie. They also have mexican food on the menu, so they bring you chips and salsa when you sit down, always an added bonus.

Tomorrow: deserts and more mountains.

Why Did I Buy A White Shirt?

So I could spill my dinner on it the first time I wore it.

When we were in Tehachapi on Sunday we went to the local K-Mart, partly to use the restroom, and partly to get some shoelaces for Keith's work boots. Tehachapi doesn't have a Wal-Mart-don't know if that's because they don't want a Wal-Mart or Wal-Mart doesn't think that such a small town could bring in enough business. Whichever, it's kind of refreshing to go to a town that does not have a Wal-Mart.

The K-Mart is fairly new and is actually pretty nice inside, everything looked clean and the restrooms weren't nasty. I don't shop at the K-Mart here mainly because it's way across town and it's the ghetto K-Mart, all junky and dirty.

Anyway, as we were looking for shoelaces I found some cotton camp shirts on clearance for $5.00 so I grabbed a white one and a pink one, and then over in the men's department they had 60% off on denim shorts, which came out to $5.95 for a pair of shorts for Keith. $5.95! So we grabbed two pairs for him. Bargain city!

I'm just hoping that I didn't totally ruin my new $5.00 white shirt with taco stains. Maybe I should wear a bib.

Being inside a K-Mart brought back memories of my high school days when I worked in the deli at K-Mart. Way back when, they had a little sandwich, popcorn, nuts, and icee counter at the front of the store and that's where I worked. On weekends we would sell hundreds and hundreds of ham and submarine sandwiches that we made up in huge batches before the store opened. Then there were the thousands of bags of popcorn and millions of icees that we would sell each day too. Ugh...I would go home reeking of popcorn each day and it was about ten years before I could even think of eating popcorn-it still isn't something that I eat very often-too many smelly memories of shoveling popcorn into bags for the hungry hordes at K-Mart. I think it was only about 10c a bag back then, too. The ham sandwiches were like 3 for $1.00 too. Of course, minimum wage was only like $1.45 or something like that.

So, anyway, don't think I'll be at that K-Mart too often, but the next time we're up in the mountains we'll definitely stop on in there and see what's on sale-and to use their restrooms!

Another Day Out

Yesterday looked like it would be another boring Sunday-not much to do here in the big old Bakersfield-and too hot to do anything anyway.

We were discussing what to do and Keith suggested driving up to Tehachapi for lunch so we got in the car, checked our wallets to make sure we could pay for lunch, and drove on up the mountain. Once you get out of Bakersfield, you start seeing some pretty scenery, orange groves off in the foothills and green fields of whatever it is they are growing. First stop was at the Murray Family Farms, mostly for a pee break since I usually have to go about five minutes after getting into the car. This is a family fruit stand with hayrides and you pick and a newly constructed barn like fruit and nut shop. The best part (besides the clean restroom) is the do it yourself petting zoo.
Trusting souls, aren't they? Yes, we paid.

Words to live by:


There was also a pig in a pen-how appropriate-with a big sign that said don't touch, pig will bite, and some chickens, a llama, a sheep badly in need of a shearing, a big billy goat, doves, and a huge pigeon coop.

So, on up the hill. A very pretty drive with actual trees and mountains.
And then to The Apple Shed restaurant which is located in an old packing shed and they do grow apples in Tehachapi.
Half of the restaurant is a gift shop with all kinds of gifty stuff, part of it is a bakery and fudge shop, and the rest is a nice casual little restaurant with really good food.
What is it with travelers and fudge anyway? Buying fudge on a long car trip sounds messy and melty to me, but it seems like all the rest stop/travel plaza type places are required to sell homemade fudge. They do have a huge selection of flavors here, though, the creamsicle one looked pretty good as did the chocolate caramel. We didn't buy fudge but did get a bag full of cookies to take home.

There's not a whole lot in downtown Tehachapi, but the next time we visit I'd be tempted to stay at this motel
and eat at this drive in
just because their signs are so cool.