Day 10, The Weather Angels were with Us

 March 31, 2023

We managed to miss the bad weather on our way home. We had sun and light winds.

We headed out fairly early since we knew driving would be a long day. We tried to keep driving to 230 miles/day on our big trip. Yesterday and today, we were closer to 280 miles each day.

We stopped at Casa de Fruta to eat our lunch. We didn't even get out of the car. We just needed a place to pull over and there aren't many along Hwy 5.

We saw more fields of wildflowers than we did on our way out. I can imagine in another week, the highway hills and fields will be even more spectacular.



Years ago, when we drove down 5, there would be signs that said what was being grown in the fields. We used to see cotton, but we couldn't identify any cotton fields today. One thing we did see was several uprooted trees. We don't know if there were old orchards that are replanted with new trees or if the fields are being repurposed. In trying to find out, I learned that over 700 agricultural products come from California.


We drove past the  California Aqueduct. It is part of a series of canals and reservoirs that bring water from the Sierra Nevadas to (mostly) the Central Valley farms and Los Angeles.

It was interesting driving through the Central Valley with "Pray for Rain" signs in fields with standing water and signs accusing Newson of dumping California water into the ocean. California has recently received so much rain that there is not enough storage and so much of it is running into the ocean. Signs claim this is a "man-made" problem and advocate building dams. Large dam projects are an environmental issue.  California plans to build hundreds of small water capture projects over the next 30 to 50 years that could eventually retain as much water as the mountain dams but, as we see, the solution is many years off. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 9, Rockin' n Rollin' all Night Long

Image
Our crash wrap survived the night. The forecast called for a high wind warning with gusts up to 50 miles an hour. We are pretty sure that wasn't an exaggeration. That was accompanied by heavy rains. Our RV developed a small leak around where the slide comes out but it only required a rag on the floor to keep the water from spreading in the night. We were really relieved and thankful that the temporary fix held.  Ardith and Jim decided to head back to Ashland today. They'd planned to stay an additional night. Tomorrow we would continue north and theywould head back inland and south. If the night's storm and the forecast for continued rain, wind, and chilly temperatures (as I write this at 6 pm it is 46°) wasn't enough to convince them to leave, the standing water in their campsite was. We didn't have too much on our list of things to do given the weather but we headed out to Oceanside Beach. We got there during a break in the rain. Luckily, it was low tide. A walk do...
Read more

Day 7, The Long and Lonely Road

Image
March 28, 2023 Death Valley, at 3.4 million acres, is the largest national park in the contiguous 48 states. More than 90% is protected wilderness. As we left the park, we made sure we had gas since we'd be driving for a long time with not more much besides vast expanses. We drove through Death Valley Junction. Pretty much at all that is there is the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel. It was originally built by the borax company but was abandoned in 1925. In 1957, Marta Becket came across the abandoned building and felt it was asking her to ressurect the building. She moved from NYC and began offering dance and mime performances but the audiences were small so she began to paint an audience on the walls. It took her four years. There were no tours anytime close to when we passed through so the image is from the web. From Death Valley to the Mohave. We are outside Barstow tonight. It is about halfway to our next stop. I found a Harvest Host at Slash X Cafe, abou...
Read more

Day 1, On the Road Again. Destination Olivia

Image
Since our big adventurer, we've only been out in the pod on a few occasions and then only for a few days at a time. Even though I made lists of what we'd taken on our long trip, it took a while to assemble it all together. We also need to sanitize the fresh water tank. When we finally drove away, the planning and packing already seemed all worth it Driving to our first stop was a bit unremarkable. We made one rest stop at the Dunnigan Rest Area. It has lots of eucalyptus trees which makes it a nice rest stop by California standards. Our first night is at MoonBeam Farms, a lavender and loofah farm. It's a Harvest Host, meaning RVs can stay one night but you must have your own water, power, and there are no trash facilities. In return, you are asked to support the host by spending $20-40. Caz gave us a tour. She currently has ten different varieties of lavender. Some are culinary, others are more fragrant and provide buds and oils for her many products. As we walk...
Read more