Central Valley

We got up with the sun again and were 'merrily' on our way by 6:30 AM. It appeared to get down to about 60 F last night so we were pleased. After about 10 minutes we turned onto US-99 in Bakersfield and headed north. Central Valley here we come! Almost immediately there were green fields on both sides of us, the result of irrigation. As they say, 'food grows where water flows!. Nowhere is that more evident than in this part of California. The sun was behind us and the road was in front of us,..no, the road was under us, we could feel it! California evidently does not have an active road maintenance department. Where the road was patched it was as bad as where it was not patched. Our coach rattled and jumped from bump to bump and we were lucky that the smoke detector only fell from the ceiling once. Every once in a while we found a stretch that had been paved sometime in the past 10 years and we thought we were in heaven. Then, in a short while we were back to the bumps again, evidently we're not heaven rated! The beautiful day and the clear sky helped to make the day a little more pleasant and we took in all the various crops, the fields and orchards and tried to guess what was being grown. US-99 is mostly a divided highway and the median has been planted with thousands of oleander bushes is reds, corals, pinks, and white. There were millions of blooms and it made the drive very beautiful and enjoyable. I had the windshield fan on in the coach but we did not have the AC or vent on all morning, the most comfortable temperature we have had on the trip. We were lucky, Anne chose our departure date well! We will be out of California tomorrow and expect cooler weather in Oregon and Washington.

At Stockton we left US-99 and moved onto Inastate-5 (In a state of disrepair!). Oh, did I mention the crappy roads? Since we had such an easy day we ended up heading for Corning and Rolling Hills Casino for our days end.

We had lunch in Woodland at our favorite burger joint, IN-N-OUT! There was a new mall there and we were sure we could park the coach in those large parking lots somewhere. Sure enough, we found a spot where we took up almost an entire row but we had an easy in and an easy out and there was no one parked even close to us. OMG, walking across the lot to the restaurant I saw my first car! There it was, a white 1965 Mustang, I couldn't believe it. I still remember buying that car, it was about $1969 in 1965. Dad gave me $250 for a down payment and I got a coupon book with 36 payments of $69 and change. The license plate was a Michigan plate, SD-7084! Heck, I can't remember what any other car cost or the license plates either. How does that trivia stick with you? I had a blue interior with a bench seat and a column three speed with a six cylinder engine. I could have had four on the floor with bucket seats and a V-8 but since Dad was having to pony-up up front I went for the economy version. I still loved that car!

BTW, we made 54 cents on the slots between us. Winners!

How is your summer going? If you pass us on the road, be sure to honk!