Between Hikes - Saturday 2/28/2009

Part of what I do in my job as a script researcher is come up with fake business names for shows to use so they don't accidentally identify an actual business and depict, say, someone getting killed there. We check everything, no matter how ridiculous it sounds.

Believe me, if one of my clients had sent me "Between a Rock and a Leather Place" I would have laughed and figured it would clear.

This is exactly why we check everything, even if we're laughing.



I wouldn't mind having this flour sifter in my kitchen. But for like $3.00, not $15.00. I don't buy a lot at antique shops, as much as I like to cruise them when I'm in the mood.

Really, I want to be the person who buys it at the yard sale before it gets marked up.



Okay, you tell me.

Does this clock just scream, "I love you, Daddy, even though you blew the milk money playing craps?"

Road Trip! Bakersfield - Saturday 1/3/2008

Whew, the fog was thick between Tehachapi and Bakersfield! It actually got worse than this, but by then Hydra stopped taking photos and was digging his nails into the dashboard.



Hydra alive and well inside The Pyrenees Cafe. It's located on a rather desolate and industrial feeling street, but it's pretty interesting inside. The bar, which is visible over Hydra's shoulder in the next room, seems very friendly and lively. The dining area has rows of long tables and you eat family style.

The cabbage soup was really good. The rest of it, frankly, was just okay. We loved this place the first time we came here, and it still earns points for being a throw-back to another style of eating place. There was a lot of garlic on the chops and chicken we ordered. I like a lot of garlic, but I like it cooked a bit more than this was.



I'm on a photo scavenger hunt for a list of 43 pirate- and surfer-related items. This counts as a treasure chest, I believe!



My entry into this week's themed photo contest (RED) on Facebook : the little red wagon outside an antiques mall in Bakersfield.


This is here just because I thought it was interesting. It's like an electric chair for soup!

Pretty elaborate set up, here: a single metal mug with prongs on the back of it that plug into this machine. This booth had a lot of very old vending machines. Like pre-Mad Men old.

We went to several antiques stores and malls up there, and didn't end up buying anything. What makes it interesting is when you come across a booth like the one with all the old vending machines in it, and you feel like you've learned something about the (obsessions of the) person who finds this stuff and salvages it.

It's like they're curating their booths rather than merely stocking them.

Bakersfield Morning - Sunday 8/24/2008 (Part 1)

We didn't speed out of Bakersfield in the morning. Enjoyed the included breakfast at the Residence Inn by Marriott where we spent the night. Cruised Barnes & Noble with some good coffee in hand, and then hit Great American Antiques. We spent a couple of hours looking around.

Hydra's interested in finding a better deal on a salt & pepper set something like this one, which his family had when he was a kid.


Having watched all those William Powell movies from the 1930s recently, I was particularly attracted to these stylish playing cards.

But I don't need any more in my house.


I would think this potty chair would scare off most kids!


Never let it be said that we left any of our resources undeveloped. There were several oil wells in the midst of the grape vines. They grow table grapes around here.


Who would stay in the Rank... Er RancHotel in Tehachapi?

I know it's supposed to be Ranchotel, but I swear to you it doesn't read like that.


My. That is personal storage.



The old and the new, east of Tehachapi.


I used to be a little conflicted about these things. They are huge. When we were in the midst of a field of them outside of Palm Springs years ago (Hydra was acting in a student film,) they were really disturbing.

Now I can see the beauty of them.

Victor Valley Visit - Saturday 6/21/2008

Here we are! It always cool to wake up some place new. I sat in the dinette in the trailer and wrote, and then went out to see if I could walk around the lake.



This was taken across from our campsite. There are quite a few people scattered around the lake fishing for the stocked trout and catfish.

This body of water is a natural oasis (which may have been enhanced with damming) formed by the Mojave River. The Mojave is completely dry and sandy above ground in some places, but apparently still flows below the surface.

Click here for an aerial view.


This was taken looking north from the northern end of the park. Those are cattle in the background. I have some closer shots, but I liked this posts, too.



It was really too hot to think about sitting on a fiberglass seat in my denim shorts, but the boats look nice, huh? It was 98 degrees when I started my walk at 10 a.m.!



This guy asked if I was trying to get a picture of the ducks. He'd just seen a mother duck and her babies disappear into the reeds. He asked if they were catching all the fish at the other end of the lake. I told him that's what they asked me about his end when I was up there!

He said one time he was here and he saw a whole flock of white water birds on the lake. They swam around in pinwheel circles, then go butt-up all at once! Then resurface and slowly spin until they dipped again. He said it was beautiful and kind of funny, too.



There are horses--which you can hire to ride--and camels at the other end of the park (though this shot was taken later, from the window of the Tahoe.)



We visited the California Route 66 Museum in Old Town Victorville. It's a really nice little museum. Very well maintained, and chock-full of interesting memorabilia from Route 66 itself, and about the businesses and desert characters that were once in the area.

Interesting fact: Sammy Davis, Jr. almost died and did lose one eye in an automobile accident in Victorville on November 19, 1954, on his way from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.


Inside the museum. That sign for Mahan's Half Acre used to advertise a folk art construction of glass bottles out in the desert.



For my tastes, this is the weirdest display in the museum. False fingernails painted with Route 66 scenes! Brought to you by Lissa Anderson.


This rather grim sign is a reminder of just what it meant to travel Route 66 back in the day!



Luckily for us, it was only a few minutes to Johnny Reb's for lunch. We split catfish and a hamburger. The burger was way over done, but the catfish was crunchy and wonderful. And hush puppies! Hydra is not impressed with a fried ball of corn meal dough, no matter what you call it, but I was transported back to vacations in South Carolina as a kid, and that was just fine.



Passed this very expressive Vietnam War Memorial in Old Town, near Johnny Reb's.


We could have bought this cool coin-operated Uncle Sam riding chicken at The Antique Station in Oro Grande. But noooooo.



Whatever you think Soylent Green might be, we're pretty sure they make it in Victorville.

Took this on the way to the hoot, which was the main excuse we had for going to the area for the weekend. Met a bunch of friendly desert Songmakers we'd never met before and stayed out realllly late.

No, really late for us. Like 1 o'clock.

Which leads us to the last adventure of the day. Or the first adventure for tomorrow... Whatever.

When we got back to the campground, the gate was locked! And it had been since 10pm.

So I held the tire-gouging strip on the exit down with one foot while Hydra drove slowly into the park. I don't think I could have actually stood there with the Tahoe coming so close to me and the headlights shining into my eyes if Hydra hadn't gotten out a big flashlight so I could hold it and see that the tire wasn't going to go over my foot.

Still that was less scary than the thought of driving over the thing myself! Whew!

The Pines Cafe and a Littlerock Junk Yard - Saturday 1/19/2008

The Pines Cafe. We've been meaning to go there for years. It was once in the middle of nowhere, but Palmdale has sprawled out to meet it.


Not a broad menu, but they have some interesting omelets with zucchini in them and hand made burgers, and incredible thin-sliced fried potatoes that actually rival my mother's (which is saying something, friends.)



Outside The Pines. People who put together things like this warm my heart.



Very old, very worn tires at a real mess of a junk shop in Littlerock, CA.



The person who worked behind this cash register could probably not have imagined it would end up here.



Clever recycling of an old sign as a roofing panel for a shack in the junk yard. This area produces a lot of fresh produce.



I love the way the paint has aged on this.



Some one has been cleaning up around here. I don't really have a shot that shows just how much junk crowds this 3-acre junk yard. I don't think I can go back and get one. Things were so decayed it was like a trash heap with paths through it. It was kind of depressing to think of the man inside sitting by his barrel-shaped woodstove day after day, hoping to sell something.

You Say It's Your Birthday? - Wednesday 1/16/2008

Well, it's my birthday too, yeah!

Hydra had the day off, and suggested that we go to the UCR/California Photography Museum in Riverside. I've been wanting to do this for about 3 years, but every time I check it out, they seem to be changing exhibits. Same was true today, but I figured with a name like that, it had to have a pretty decent permanent collection on display.

I was wrong! The permanent collection is a few cases of cameras and four walls of photographs. Nice discussion and display of earliest types of photos, with a description of each.

They advertised a special stereographic photography exhibit. I expected we'd be treated to 20 or 30 stereographs. Not so. The display was set up in this weird little area at the entry to the bathrooms on the bottom floor. The only stereographic photos actually on display were the four--count 'em!--four in the permanent collection. Sigh.

I was particularly interested because I just finished reading All Will Be Revealed by Robert Anthony Siegel.

This is a photo of the Riverside Art Museum, next door. Which was completely closed due to a change in exhibits.



We had a delicious lunch at the Bella Trattoria (shared an antipasto plate and added bowls of flavorful minestrone soup) in the famous Mission Inn. Dick and Pat Nixon were married in one of the presidential suites. We'd never heard of it before, but it's said to be the heart of Riverside.

We enjoyed the small but informative Mission Inn Museum but declined to take the tour, which cost $12.00 per person.

Darling, that's more than the Louvre or the Musee D'Orsay!

Keeps riff raff like us out, though.





The Chief has seen better days. (In an antiques store on Market Street.)


It's just a good thing I don't have a) a bigger house or b) too much money. Otherwise, both of these things would have gone home with us.

That guy with the clock in his belly is seriously weird. What was the original intent!?



Back at the homestead. Little Gus on the left doesn't fly. We had his wings trimmed when we first got him, so we could get him used to us handling him. We've done this with all our birds. Seems like he should have all his flight feathers by now, but still no lift-off.

He climbed up the chair in the bedroom to get as close to his cage as possible at bedtime. Hydra called me in to see him and Rocky (center) on the pillow. As soon as he saw the camera, however, Nick flew a curly-cue and got into the shot. Jr. Ham.


And! The birthday dessert! Double Rainbow vanilla ice cream with Saunder's hot fudge and hot caramel toppings, carried home from Michigan by Hydra. Yum!

Hope this didn't sound complain-ish. It was a wonderful day.