Thursday of My Trip

Hello:
It's not that I didn't want to post, but that I was on the road most of Thursday and Friday.  So here is what happened Thursday on my trip south.

View Larger Map

First of all, on Wednesday, we drove 14 hours and made it to the famous Harris Ranch.  We planned to  eat dinner at their restaurant, stay the night, then finish the last 5 - 6 hours of driving.  Well!  it was full.  The night before we left, I Binged it to get the address, and the exit, and make a reservation.  But, my Father-in-Law, Pop, said that when he had driven north from Phoenix 3 weeks earlier, he had spent the night there, and there was no problem getting a room.  It's a huge place.  I checked it out a bit on the web, and really, it was the number one recommended place to stay on the 5 if you are between Los Angeles and Sacramento. 

I guess everyone else was reading the same recommendations that I was, because there were no rooms available.  We did eat in the restaurant, I had a really nice filet mignon, then we went back across the freeway where there were 3 rather sketchy hotels.  The first 2 we tried were also full.  The Traveloge had room.  It was a hotel with a room.  That's about all I can say.  It was reasonably clean.  Reasonably.  And, we were exhausted.  So we stayed.  If I hadn't been with Pop, I would have driven on. 

The next morning we went back across the freeway and ate breakfast at the Harris Ranch Restaurant.  I had to take some photos inside

The furniture was hilarious.

 They had a big gift shop, but we didn't check it out as we wanted to get on the road.

The rest of my photos from Thursday, are me trying to capture the unending agriculture passing by.  It is somewhat frustrating to a city girl, that the farmers don't have big signs saying what the crops are.  I'm pretty sure we saw almonds, pistachios (ok, there was a sign near that orchard), grapes,

and lots of hay.

The fields and trees were beautiful with the rolling hills in the background.

There must be some type of water fight going on, because we saw lots of angry signs saying things about how the farmers paid for water but didn't get it.  Or how their "dust bowl" was because of politicians.

Gas was crazy expensive.

It was a much more reasonable price when we got over the pass into LA and Orange.  The trip was  beautiful, and I had some great talks with Pop.  He told me how he met Grandma (now passed away), and some fun stories about his childhood.

We arrived in Orange at about 2:30 pm.  I had a chance to visit my brother.  He is doing well.  He doesn't seem to have deteriorated any more since June.  He was busy working (!!), so I spent some time chatting with his wife, and kids.  Pop and I went out to dinner with my parents, then I abandoned Pop at their house, and walked the block to my sister's house.  We had a really nice visit.  That was where I was able to write my last update.  My parents stubbornly refuse to get internet.

The weather in Orange was really nice.  It can be horribly hot in August, and, as my parents also stubbornly refuse to get air conditioning, their house can be hell.  But it was rather pleasant.

I hope to finish up my trip posts tomorrow.

Goodnight for now.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet from Phoenix

Prime rib on the smoker at Harris Ranch