rambling thoughts

pictures are taking way long. i'll just ramble a while...on saturday we drove from monterey down to fresno. across the central valley. flat flat country. toatally devoted to agriculture. we drove through the garlic capital of the world, the artichoke capital of the world, and the raisin capital of the world. then we drove though an area with orange groves, i never smelled that before. wow, for miles it smelled like the cleanest and sweetest restroom you could ever walk into. it was crazy.

the sierra nevada mtns: first you see a dim very dim line across the sky, not even sure that it's really there. then you see a line of what might be clouds out above the horizon, a thin line of clouds, but again, you're not really sure what yo're seeing through the haze. then you get a little closer and like an image appearing out of the air, you see the line of clouds is actually the snow-capped peaks and ridges of these really big mtns. very cool.

there are flowers all over the place. it has been very rare that wherever we were, we didn't see any flowers. it is like the roads are lined with gold to show us the way. like paint splashes of a mad artist in yellows, oranges, blues, violets, reds, whites. beautiful!!. the foothills, covered in what looks like green velvet, dotted with chestnut brown or black cattle grazing the hillsides. and always the sky, blue, sometimes hazy, other times a deep azure. and the clouds, when they do appear, just add a little dramatic flair.

stellars jays. we've seen a few of them, irridescent blue in the sunlight, with their black ninja-hooded heads.

thanks to ADA and the handicapped people of the world. because of the laws passed to help them out, a somewhat fat, somewhat lazy person like myself can have easy access to some of the wonders of our national parks.

all across the central valley and into sequoia and yosemite, they have numbers for their roads. just little side roads and drives and avenues and streets. it's very starnge and shows a severe lack of creativity on the part of the founding civil engineers here. why do they have 632 street? 205 avenue? 390 road? please come up with some real names for these places.

breakfast yesterday in coarsegold california. just a little greasy spoon for our eggs and....
elvis singing "little sister" on the radio. that's for you ron.

solvang cal was nice, a danish town, very quaint, if not a little like stepford.

well i've rambled enough. this is a great trip, i'm seeing some amazing things and places, and it's something i've always wanted to do when i retired, and miguel is a fine companion. but it's kind of bittersweet without you here maria, it's just not the same....see ya down the road.