Sizzle, with Needles

Here we are in Needles, CA. When we pulled into the parking lot, the car thermometer said 112 degrees, although weather channel said 109. I'm going with the car's temp for purposes of complaining about how hot it has been today.

We had a lovely low carb breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express in Westley, the best steam table scrambled eggs either of us has ever had, along with sausage links and a banana. Yummy!

Today, departure time was 7:31 am. The hotel hosted several tour groups last night. The biggest bus was full of French tourists. They left before we did. Two smaller tour coaches were still there.

It was only 83 degrees and felt quite cool in the shade because there was a nice breeze. Later in the day, a howling wind would not have put a dent in the heat.

Norm has chosen not to eat again today, although he seems to like this hotel room much better. I do not know why. Perhaps he is just sick of the car and the heat. When I took him across the parking lot to the dog yard, he moved his little paws quite quickly. I imagine the concrete must have been hot as a griddle and he is a spoiled, northwest, inside dog. He's now stretched out of the floor snoozing away.

For supper Ray walked across the parking lot to Juicy's River Cafe. I have not figured out about the river yet, as I have not seen it, but there must be one somewhere. Anyhow, the food was good and plentiful. Ray said his steak salad was better than Shari's, and he likes Shari's. I had fish, coleslaw and shared the fries with Ray and Norman. They give a 10% discount to hotel people for supper and 25% for breakfast. Tomorrow, we will split an order of biscuits and gravy and some sausage links. We brought V-8 with us and it is chillin' in the little fridge.

We saw many mohos and bikes today, more than other days. We took a two lane country road between I-5 and the Stockdale Highway, which is the one that goes up into Tehachapi. The two-lane put us closer to the trees and flowers which were growing alongside the road in huge fields. Quite a few of the trees were pistachios and the remainder almonds. All kinds of flowers. There are many newly planted fields of teensy trees along I-5 south of Stockton and along this little road. And we even saw two small fields planted with nopalitos. That's a new thing, those fields were not there in past trips. They are also planting trees on steep hills that were formerly cattle ranges. Now the trees range there. Those trees are about 2 years old, we think. We also saw an almond tree nursery---they looked like long chopsticks with a small crown of leaves. The signs complaining about the Congress created dust bowl are still there, along with all the new trees. I guess it's not dust bowl time just yet, although we did notice that all the newer orchards have drip irrigation instead of sprinklers or irrigation ditches. Those that still do it the old fashioned way sport signs attesting to their irrigation permit status.

Tehachapi was our lunch break. We got carry out from Burger King and then went to the city park and ate in the breezy shade. It was our favorite lunch stop of the trip so far even though the thermometer said 99 degrees. We didn't have to eat in the car and Norm got to lay about in the cool green grass. It was still burgers. ha ha never thought I'd be tired of burgers. The train track runs just behind the park and we were just feet away when the 6 engine train rumbled through town. Wow, those engines make the earth shake and your tummy quiver. Norm seemed quite fascinated by it all and was not a bit frightened by any of it. Later on, while we were on I-40 we saw a 10 engine train!

I-40, by the way, is where asphalt and concrete go to die and crumble away into dust. What a horrible road surface! We did find a nice new rest area (107 toasty degrees) between Mohave and I-40, along highway 38. It was a surprise as two years ago nothing was there but dirt. Today it is a lot of dirt with some well-irrigated trees and grass and a full-time staff to keep it all watered, raked and clean. Yes, where there is not grass, they rake the dirt. Lots of dirt here abouts. Brown, parched dirt. We did see a rocky hillside where the rocks were so coated with desert patina that they were black and shiny, like coal. Never saw rocks that patinaed before. They must be very old rocks.

As to why we did not bring the moho on this trip  (and Questions have been raised), we paid $4.25 a gallon for gas in CA this morning and $5.26 a gallon in California this afternoon (420 bucks a tankful!!!). As the minivan gets 22 miles per gallon and the moho gets 6 if we are lucky and going down hill with a tailwind, we feel we made the right choice. Also, in the minivan we can go faster than in the moho towing the truck, since we can go 70 in the minivan and would be limited to 55 in the moho. Since this is a quick trip, again the minivan is the best choice.

Again my feet and ankles swelled like balloons and will hurt when I finally lay down, like they did last night. O well. Such is life in the slow lane.