Your Tax Dollars at Work - Monday 5/18/2009

Thank you, fellow Californians, for the much needed additional lane which is being built onto the 14 where it merges onto the 5. We really need it!



This project can't be finished too soon, as far as I'm concerned.

No kidding, for the first two weeks there was an accident every morning going southbound and every evening going northbound because they took away a lane on each side to make room for construction.

CalTrans really dropped the ball on informing drivers about the new lane configurations. Even though those big programmable message signs are in prime position in both directions to warn about the loss of a lane, I never saw them used to do that. Just messages about high winds all the way to the Antelope Valley, as if that was news to anyone.

So if you're headed up that way and you haven't been in a while, watch out for lane-loss, or for the guy next to you to suddenly realize he's running out of road and opt for a little of yours!

Sundry Drive - Sunday 5/3/2009

We decided to drive out to the Rock Inn in Lake Hughes for lunch on Sunday.

There's a better photo of the whole place at their website. Apparently, they've stopped calling it Harley's Rock Inn, and are playing up the historic aspect of this 80+ year old hotel and restaurant. I wish I had taken a shot of all the gleaming Harley's and Harley-wanna-be bikes out front of the restaurant.

It's pretty loud on a Sunday afternoon. Wonder how much sleep one's likely to get in the hotel on a Saturday night. There is really not much else to this little town, except Papa's Market across the street.


Love the backs on these bar stools. It's quite a crowd. Lots of middle-aged weekend bikers mixed with real mildly alarming bikers.

Hydra walks into a biker bar wearing the Detroit Redwings hat his cousin brought him from Michigan. There's a hockey game on the tube in the corner. Yep, you got it: Detroit Redwings v. Anaheim Ducks in Stanley Cup playoffs!

There's a heavily tattooed, drunk, serious biker dude behind us yelling nearly incoherantly from time to time, but apparently in synchronization with what's going on in the hockey game. It takes us a while to figure out he's rooting for the Redwings. Whew.


I like this elderly lady sitting by the window reading a book and drinking coffee. I expect to be that woman when I am her age.


On the way back, we stop to look at the new electricity transmission lines going in. I think these are going to help get the energy being created by the wind farms in Tehachapi down to the folks in Santa Clarita and beyond. The pieces look like giant tinker toys.

Hydra admits that he has seen pieces of these things being airlifted in by helicopter from his commute up Bouquet Canyon and Vasquez Canyon roads. Harumph! Why was I not alerted sooner!?


The idyllic Pitchfork llama ranch.



This llama, not wanting to be sold and carted away from paradise, heads for the brush.



Back at home after running errands, I return to the scene of the yard work. Tore out or moved old straggling African Daisies and planted new ones.


Added new soil and rearranged the rocks. These will fill in nicely through the summer.


Added a pot of Gerbera daisies and some geraniums to the front porch. A little color in amongst the succulents. Also started cucumber and herb seeds in one of those peat-pot starter terrariums.

Okay, now a plea for help. Has anyone ever had a pair of this style of grass shears that actually works? I've bought probably 3 pairs in the past 8 years and none of them have done much more than crimp the grass. Do you know of a brand that works?

There and Back Again, Again - Friday 11/28/2008

So... after a nice day of reading at home, I thought I'd go get the mail. Went to retrieve the mailbox key from the hook and...

Oh. No.

I instantly flashed on my keys in my jacket on the bed in the Cuz's spare room.

Called them. Yes, they found the jacket right after we'd left, but didn't know the keys were in there.

So on the day upon which I planned to buy nothing and drive nowhere, I ended up driving 220 miles round trip and buying gas in Orange County.

But I had my iPod, so I sang along to favorite tunes all the way there, and listened to stockpiled episodes of This American Life on the way back. Accomplished the whole thing, including a short conversation with the Cuzzes, in four hours. Traffic was moving.

Sigh.

The Road Home - Friday 8/1/2008

Hydra's favorite road cut... on Escondido Canyon Road heading toward Acton from Agua Dulce. It's a nice reveal when you drive through here.

It's easier to drive 55 and get better fuel economy on these smaller roads than on the highly competitive 14.


Hydra on Sundry's Mountain. Can you see him? Hiker Man!

Hysteric Route 66 - Sunday 6/22/2008

If we had turned around right here, we would have saved ourselves about an hour and a half.

If we had really looked at the map, we would have known that we didn't want to go through Oro Grande again to get home.

[This photo was actually taken yesterday, when I was in the passenger seat, but it's just the right illustration for today.]

Well, we saw a lot more of Historic Route 66 than we planned to! Isn’t that great? Yeah!

We merrily headed out of Victorville, CA at 10 o’clock this morning, feeling like we were getting away with something. We’d gone out for breakfast and packed up and I was excited about pulling the trailer. This is a step up from my usual mildly-frightened-but-determined attitude.

I guess we got cocky and didn’t check the map. It was a crummy map with gaps in crucial places, but it would have helped. We’d driven about 40 miles in the wrong direction before we figured it out. Even the abandoned gas stations had thinned out when I pulled over and we checked the few listed landmarks.

We had passed Silver Lakes (ha!), Helendale and Hodge [< Honestly, click on the map to fully appreciate!] before Hydra mentioned that we should really be seeing the San Gabriel mountains by now. He was so right.

Instead of turning around, we went on in the direction we were headed, which ended up adding almost 100 miles to our trip home! (Going to Victorville from Acton on Friday was only about 60!) This is about 37 miles further than if we'd turned around, but like I said we were working from truly crummy partial Google maps.

It did cross my mind that I was taking the lives of my dear spouse, our whole flock and myself in my hands as I turned off of old 66 onto lonely Hinkly Road to cut across to the 58. It was 107 on the Tahoe’s external thermometer and we were pulling a 27 foot trailer, to boot!

Everything worked out fine, but this is a vista I would just as well have missed. I love a new road, but I was kind of over it by the time Hydra took over.

But you know, we did put a positive spin on it, reminding ourselves that we wouldn’t have seen this if we hadn’t come this way, and that we’d gotten an early start.

Getting all bent out of shape over stuff like this is really more exhausting than it’s worth.


Another thing we wouldn't have seen if we hadn't been entering Mojave on the west bound 58 for the first time ever: this cool airplane graveyard. Which maybe made the whole detour worthwhile for a certain aircraft enthusiast in the car. [Hint: Not me; not Dodger.]

And yet: Number One on To Do list before next trip there: Get a decent map of San Bernardino County!

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!

Bouquet Canyon Drive - Saturday 5/10/2008

On the way back from running errands in Valencia, Hydra suggested we take the long way home and drive up Bouquet Canyon. I'm always up for this sort of thing.

I think this is The Big Oaks Lodge.

I think I could really love living along this road. There are so many amazing old houses with stone bases and clapboard walls painted brown and green to blend into the surroundings. Usually they have neat little outbuildings around them, too.




Looking down into Bouquet Canyon Reservoir from the road. Spunky Canyon Road goes around the other side. How'd that get it's name? From some intrepid little burro, maybe?



Low reserves.



My foot. On the road. Lovin' the day.

On a completely different subject... I have this goal to sing 12 "new" songs in public this year. Last night I did #3, which was "That'll Be the Day." [#1 & 2 were "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" and "Accentuate the Positive." Granted, I've been singing about that train since before I can remember, but not really in front of anyone...usually in the back seat of the family car, with a soft serve cone in one hand.]

Here's my story about that:

Ha! I told the audience to sing along because there was no way they were going to drown me out—I do have a big voice—and promptly started off on the wrong key.

Thank goodness, our friend GL was playing along, because he stopped me and clanged out a solid A for me, and off we went. I have to say, the audience was really with me and we rocked it out.

Hydra did “Can You Sing Any Dylan?” which is a very fun Eric Bogle song, and I oohed along in the background, and hammed it up in reaction to the lyrics and got the audience involved.

I think the main thing in performing for people, whether it’s music or a novel reading, or anything, is getting the emotion across. If it’s a fun song, act like you’re having fun and you will…everyone will.

This was a benefit concert that raised about $450 for our music club.

Potus Hits the Brazillion Mile Mark! - Friday 5/2/2008

Well, honestly, only 100,000 miles. But sometimes it feels like I've traveled a brazillion miles since we brought our brand new Toyota Echo home in September 2003. She still gets 36-40 mpg, so we think we'll keep her.



The odometer hit 999999 right in front of Le Chene Restaurant on Sierra Highway. (It was Joe's Cafe in Steven Spielberg's Duel (1972.)


We knew that we'd hit this milestone today. Hydra was going to use Potus for an errand earlier in the day, but turned around and brought her back so I could drive her out of the warranty. Nice.


So. 100,000 miles later, and we're driving down Sierra Highway on our way to share music with our friends at a hoot in Northridge.


Have to show you these magnificent hibiscus flowers that grace the entryway to our friend's house, where the hoot was held.

Easter Saturday - Saturday 3/22/2008

I'm really looking forward to seeing the family today and sharing a meal. We're not religious, but we look for opportunities to get together. I'm going to suggest we name a random weekend to do this again before Thanksgiving... our own midsummer holiday. Otherwise, we don't see each other quite enough.

I'm really glad that we get to head off through the desert rather than hitting a major freeway the whole way down. We'll pass Mormon Rocks and go through the Cajon Pass on our way. Maybe I'll get some more photos to share.

It's 100 miles each way. Thank goodness Hydra and I both like driving.

Angeles Forest Highway - Sunday 11/4/2007

I feel a little sad that we didn't have time for more adventures during this visit, but I was completely out of commission most of the first week of Mom's visit. It was her last full day here. We took a drive up Aliso Canyon Road to Angeles Forest Highway. I think it's about 5 miles from our house to the edge of the Angeles National Forest.

This was taken from near a ranger station.



Brilliant colors, even in low light.



Hidden Springs Cafe was our unintended destination, about 20 miles from the house. We stopped in for a can of root beer to share. There were two women and a man at the horseshoe-shaped counter inside, talking about what movies were shot in the area, I think. Outside, a couple of bats flew by!



The cafe's covered patio is right against the rock face of the mountain. We also drove down into Monte Cristo Campground, but it and all access into the Angeles National Forest are closed due to extreme fire danger. You can drive through, but you can't hike or picnic.



On the way home, we were treated to some lovely views of the Acton area.



Below here a few miles, on the outskirts of Acton, we encountered two deer right in the middle of the road! So slender and delicate... We stopped and I flashed my lights till they left Aliso Canyon Road and took off over a ridge. Not sure if the ranger who came up behind us saw them or not. Those were the first deer I've seen in the area.



Heading for Acton Market for a few supplies, we were treated to a really spectacular light show. Nice ending to the day.