TRY MY SIZE FIVE, CUPCAKE!
Oct. 14th, 2008 02:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariA quick refresher...
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1202026.html - August 1st
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1203686.html - August 2nd
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1205378.html - August 3rd
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1206154.html - August 4th
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1207368.html - August 5th
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1209952.html - August 6th
Thursday, August 7th
We knew we were going to be running through Death Valley on our way to San Francisco, so we got an early early start, flying out of Las Vegas into the high desert.
Frankly, there wasn't much there. Just a high flat desert with looming mountains ahead, big bright blue skies, jutting rocks, and a ribbon of freeway heading dead straight, hitting the occasional casino.
We hit Baker, California early in the morning, about 9AM, to visit the World's Largest Thermometer. At 9AM it was already 102. Holy cow.
Burger Boy Agrees - It's Freakin' Hot.
San Bernadino County is Big. Really big. It may seem like a long way to the corner chemist, but compared to San Bernadino, that's peanuts. By the time we got to Zzyzx Road (yes, that's a real name) we were just bored. My god, it's big and flat and hot and sandy out there. When we hit the Agricultural Insepction Area, we were just begging for company, and while we were being inspected for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, took advantage of the roof over the freeway to catch some cool air and company of the inspector for all of 30 seconds.
We finally met back with I-40/US-66 in Barstow, California. We took the time to celebrate coming back to our old friend by hitting the first In N Out we could fnd leaving Las Vegas.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
gwenners1 swears by In N Out, and she's never done me wrong. So I stopped by one to pick up two Double Doubles, one Animal Style and one with Light Fries. It's no Whataburger, and I seriouslyt doubt anything will topple Whataburger's place on the throne of Jenn's Best Burger Ever, but its not bad at all. :9 It must have been good, though, since we dont' have ANY pictures of In N Out other than the reciept. :D
Leaving Barstow, we drove down CA 58 towards Bakersfield, past Edwards AFB. Again, a long drive, now very hot, through the dry arid and virtually featureless desert. Miles and miles of this:
Now, I realize, I've had a blast with all the terrain in New Mexico and Arizona. But the terrain in California never really changed. It was always "Flat Terrain with the same mountains in the distance." As you'd get close the mountains would part and you'd have the same flat terrain with mountains in the distance. I love vistas and excisitng terrain - this was just long hard driving with nothing but flat road.
In Texas, they've made a big deal about having a few windmills on ridges in Texas. Well, in California, they don't mess around:
That's just ONE HILL.
We passed through Mojave to the airplane graveyard, but it seems they've done some reorganizing, and now the planes are far far away from the freeway. We drove through Bakersfield, through Wasco, and into the San Joachin Valley.
The Twittering began to payoff here as Gwen and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bonkinawolf were giving us little updates with traffic notices and geographical trivia. Crossing into the Valley, it was Bon's Twitter that alerted us to the Smell Of Alfalfa. :D
San Joachin Valley (3619x600 Jpeg, 1.48MB)
Again, there were nice golden hills to our left, a long valley to our right....and this went on for the next SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS. Beautiful for the first million miles, but the second...not so much. :)
We missed our turn towards San Francisco off IH 5 somewhere, and drove into Stockton. We took CA4 into Antioch, where we would be staying during our trip, and that's when the scenery finally changed from a long illy field to fields and rice paddies and deep irrigation canals that had me cringing when we got too close or too fast. But the water, and most of all THE GREEN, was welcome, and so were the more urbany centers we were hitting.
Somehwere in Oakley we missed a turn and got lost, but a quick check with the Sidekick later, we were back on track and got to Casa Smith shortly before sunset.
I've known Gwen for a LONG LONG time. Almost 15 years, I'm thinking. An yet I'd never met her or Bon in person before, and seeing them for the first time in so many years was just...I don't even have the words for it. :)
We took a few minutes to get out of our Mojave Desert Drenched Clothes and into something a bit less musky, while Bon and Gwen made us a spaghetti dinner. We talked for a good long while, joking and laughing about Rocky Horror and geekiness and the roadtrip. We spent some time on Second Life (I'm sure her ISP is very happy with four people sucking down bandwidth at once), and slept deep deep sleeps. We had four days of San Fran ahead of us.
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1202026.html - August 1st
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1203686.html - August 2nd
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1205378.html - August 3rd
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1206154.html - August 4th
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1207368.html - August 5th
http://jenndolari.livejournal.com/1209952.html - August 6th
Thursday, August 7th
We knew we were going to be running through Death Valley on our way to San Francisco, so we got an early early start, flying out of Las Vegas into the high desert.
Frankly, there wasn't much there. Just a high flat desert with looming mountains ahead, big bright blue skies, jutting rocks, and a ribbon of freeway heading dead straight, hitting the occasional casino.
We hit Baker, California early in the morning, about 9AM, to visit the World's Largest Thermometer. At 9AM it was already 102. Holy cow.
Burger Boy Agrees - It's Freakin' Hot.
San Bernadino County is Big. Really big. It may seem like a long way to the corner chemist, but compared to San Bernadino, that's peanuts. By the time we got to Zzyzx Road (yes, that's a real name) we were just bored. My god, it's big and flat and hot and sandy out there. When we hit the Agricultural Insepction Area, we were just begging for company, and while we were being inspected for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, took advantage of the roof over the freeway to catch some cool air and company of the inspector for all of 30 seconds.
We finally met back with I-40/US-66 in Barstow, California. We took the time to celebrate coming back to our old friend by hitting the first In N Out we could fnd leaving Las Vegas.
gwenners1 swears by In N Out, and she's never done me wrong. So I stopped by one to pick up two Double Doubles, one Animal Style and one with Light Fries. It's no Whataburger, and I seriouslyt doubt anything will topple Whataburger's place on the throne of Jenn's Best Burger Ever, but its not bad at all. :9 It must have been good, though, since we dont' have ANY pictures of In N Out other than the reciept. :DLeaving Barstow, we drove down CA 58 towards Bakersfield, past Edwards AFB. Again, a long drive, now very hot, through the dry arid and virtually featureless desert. Miles and miles of this:
Now, I realize, I've had a blast with all the terrain in New Mexico and Arizona. But the terrain in California never really changed. It was always "Flat Terrain with the same mountains in the distance." As you'd get close the mountains would part and you'd have the same flat terrain with mountains in the distance. I love vistas and excisitng terrain - this was just long hard driving with nothing but flat road.
In Texas, they've made a big deal about having a few windmills on ridges in Texas. Well, in California, they don't mess around:
That's just ONE HILL.
We passed through Mojave to the airplane graveyard, but it seems they've done some reorganizing, and now the planes are far far away from the freeway. We drove through Bakersfield, through Wasco, and into the San Joachin Valley.
The Twittering began to payoff here as Gwen and
bonkinawolf were giving us little updates with traffic notices and geographical trivia. Crossing into the Valley, it was Bon's Twitter that alerted us to the Smell Of Alfalfa. :D
San Joachin Valley (3619x600 Jpeg, 1.48MB)
Again, there were nice golden hills to our left, a long valley to our right....and this went on for the next SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS. Beautiful for the first million miles, but the second...not so much. :)
We missed our turn towards San Francisco off IH 5 somewhere, and drove into Stockton. We took CA4 into Antioch, where we would be staying during our trip, and that's when the scenery finally changed from a long illy field to fields and rice paddies and deep irrigation canals that had me cringing when we got too close or too fast. But the water, and most of all THE GREEN, was welcome, and so were the more urbany centers we were hitting.
Somehwere in Oakley we missed a turn and got lost, but a quick check with the Sidekick later, we were back on track and got to Casa Smith shortly before sunset.
I've known Gwen for a LONG LONG time. Almost 15 years, I'm thinking. An yet I'd never met her or Bon in person before, and seeing them for the first time in so many years was just...I don't even have the words for it. :)
We took a few minutes to get out of our Mojave Desert Drenched Clothes and into something a bit less musky, while Bon and Gwen made us a spaghetti dinner. We talked for a good long while, joking and laughing about Rocky Horror and geekiness and the roadtrip. We spent some time on Second Life (I'm sure her ISP is very happy with four people sucking down bandwidth at once), and slept deep deep sleeps. We had four days of San Fran ahead of us.
