One kind of Arizona landscape

Barstow, California is a wind-blown, sun-faded little town that seems to me to be a stopping over place for those who trek back and forth to Vegas. I found it difficult to distinguish between the winners and their counterparts and wondered if perhaps the winners chose a different route home. Upon further reflection I decided that the only real winners never left Vegas at all but instead stayed to operate the cash cow concessions that drew the losers.

I grow weary of the road.

We left Barstow around 10:00 AM this morning and headed east on I-40. We must have been very near the beginning of that famous American highway because we very shortly came across exit #2. The music of choice on this warm sunny day was Here Come the Noise Makers by Bruce Hornsby and the Range. And excellent live album that helped to cheer us on our way. Later in the morning we listened to several hours of “the Van Man”. My wife and I loves us some Van Morrison.

About 140 miles down the road we came to Needles, CA and soon after that entered Arizona.

At the motel we stayed in last evening there was a large group of bikers staying over. Bikers are pretty cool these days. Most of them have aged quite a bit since I was a young man and they never really bothered us, or as near as I could tell, anyone. Just large men and women in lots of leather attire riding on very large and loud motorcycles. There were quite a few on the road that we passed as we traveled and quite a few who passed us.

When you live in a number of different states during your life and/or travel through several of them you come to realize that this country is indeed a United States of America not just a country composed of the same sort of people with the same sort of ideas about what is right and what is wrong. At least that is true in terms of the various state laws governing almost everything. I seem to recall that in South Carolina you don’t have to wear a helmet while riding your motorcycle but you cannot buy beer on Sunday.

When we entered Arizona the biker’s helmets came off and the speed limit went up to 75 MPH. I could not help but think that this was a somewhat unusual combination of ideas, but what the heck. To each state its own.

The Cracker Barrel Resteraunt in Kingman, AZ

Lunch was had at The Cracker Barrel restaurant. We loves us some Cracker Barrel as well.  Check out my life mate’s comments on the service at this fine dining establishment. http://www.managemypractice.com/road-trip/

My wife had some sort of broccoli chicken skillet dish and I had the meat loaf dinner with southern green beans (meaning cooked to death), turnip greens and pintos. The food was great, as always. The only down side of the meal was the caramel apple pie with ice cream we split for dessert. I think they take their regular sugar free apple pie and just drizzle caramel on it. Sugar free pie is fine for those who want to avoid sugar or just don’t really care how pie tastes. It did not really cut it for Bob.

Back on the road we were amazed at how the vegetation changed every 50 miles or so. We saw scrub bushes in a desert environment that changed to red dirt with huge piles of boulders that made us feel as though we were traveling through a land of giants. The elevation rose as we approached Flagstaff with larger pine trees dominating the landscape and then dropped off again as we moved past it and in to Winslow, AZ.

Remember the Eagles song, Take It Easy?

“standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona I got seven women on my mind.”

Of all the songs I have on my iPod for us to listen to on this trip, would you believe it?

Not one song by the Eagles.

The best music we heard today was after lunch when we played some songs by Big Sandy and his Fly-rite Boys. A great bit of Texas swing with some outrageous pedal steel guitar. Good Stuff.

A plant in the desert of Arizona

Good night y’all.

Mount Shasta

We are sitting in Woodland, CA which is just about 20 miles north of Sacramento. The hotel rooms were cheaper so we stopped here.

So far the music on the trip has been pretty good, but then, I was the one who picked most of it. We left Cottage Grove at 9:30 this morning and rocked on down the road with a couple of old Creedence Clearwater Revival albums blasting. What a great way to start a beautiful day on Interstate 5. The sky was clear and blue as we rolled into the mountains of southern Oregon.  After a couple of hundred miles we stopped in the town of Weed, California for lunch.

Weed was really cool.

Welcome to Weed, CA

Apparently there was a little bit of a controversy a few years back in Weed. Someone wanted to change the name to Shastina or some such thing. A number of the residents got quite stirred up about it and nipped that whole plan in the bud, so to speak.

My theory is that it was the folks who had invested all of their money in the ball caps, t-shirts and coffee mugs that said “I got high in Weed” who put an end to that crazy idea. But maybe that’s not the whole truth.

Mary Pat in front of the Hi-Lo Cafe

There are a little over 3000 residents of Weed and the town was formed in 1901 and named after its founder, Abner Weed. After filling up the gas tank we had lunch at the Hi-Lo Café beautifully situated in the shadow of Mt. Shasta. The portions were huge. MP got some eggs and French toast and I got the Hungry Man breakfast of eggs, hash browns, ham, biscuits and gravy. Check out the picture and you’ll see what I mean.

A huge breakfast

I showed more discretion than usual and only ate half of the meal but that did not stop me from ordering the peanut butter pie and coffee. Everything was delicious even though I was unable to eat all of the dessert either.

We got back on the road about 2:00 and rolled into California while listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Soon we began descending out of the mountains. As we rolled into the upper portion of the San Joaquin Valley MP turned the iPod to a greatest hits collection of the Turtles.

The San Joaquin Valley is the bread basket of America. It is here that they grow a tremendous amount of the fruits and vegetables we eat in this country. We saw olive and orange trees and many more bushes and plants that we had no idea what grew on them. It was a perfect day for traveling and after 450 miles we stopped for the night.

Thanks for all the comments and emails from our friends and family. We will miss all the friends we made in Washington and of course the folks in Oregon as well. A special farewell to the Kerner family who will always be close to us and I want to give a shout out to that old goat of a friend of mine who turned me on to the Oregon Country Fair, the indubitable, Randolph. I love you man.

Once again, I would point you towards my wife’s version of this day. She has been known to tell the truth. Check out, http://www.managemypractice.com/road-trip/.

I was wondering where the name Black Friday came from so I did what all of us do now whenever we want to find the answers to any of life’s important questions; I Googled it.

What a tool we have at our disposal. What an amazing engine. Yes, that’s what it is referred to as, an engine. A search engine. Pretty cool I guess.

Wikipedia, an equally important tool for all of us in the know, says that the name Black Friday can be traced back to the 1960s. It apparently originated in Philadelphia and was used to describe the terrible traffic on the day after Thanksgiving. I wonder if perhaps we should go ahead and make it an official holiday. It has come to represent the insane consumerism that is so important to the survival of the American economy.

I watched President-elect Obama on TV the other night and saw how he tip-toed around Barbara Walter’s question regarding their family Christmas. He had to make sure that he did not sound as though a big Christmas was easy for his family, given the problems many Americans are facing and at the same time sound an optimistic note in an effort to inspire confidence in the whole system. I thought he did well. At least he didn’t just tell us to “go buy things”, like our current Chief Executive so crudely put it.

The good news for me and my wife is that we are not even thinking about going out to participate in the madness. The weather here is a little bleak anyway, what with winds and rain, but even if the sun was shining we have no desire to get involved. We are perfectly happy to sit this one out.

By now of course, we have all heard about the Wal-Mart employee who was trampled to death after a crowd of bloodthirsty consumers stormed the doors of the business in an effort to get the things they felt entitled to. I am trying very hard to imagine what any Wal-Mart in this country could contain that would mean that much to me. Do these people ever sit quietly and read books? Does the advertising on TV fill them with meaning and give them purpose in their never ending quest for more stuff? Pick up a Bible or almost any book, friend. Take a deep breath and come up with an alternative to crushing someone alive.

Our Thanksgiving Meal

Yesterday MP and I had a nice quiet Thanksgiving in our traditional non-traditional manner. I have included photos. We spoke with most of our family on the phone and in the evening I watched an old Alfred Hitchcock movie while my wife attempted to absorb it by osmosis as she slept on the couch. I really don’t know who enjoyed it more.

One of the other great things about the internet is that in addition to finding out all of the answers to our important questions, it is a great way to shop. Books, clothes, food, furniture, hardware supplies, and in fact, almost everything can be purchased online and shipped to your home without the messiness of crushing people to death. We think it’s a great option.

I guess I must sound rather pessimistic. All this talk of people dying and unbridled greed for stuff, but I don’t really mean to be that way. One of the fun things I did this week was get back to baking pies again. I have mentioned on this site before about my recent struggles with my recipe for pie dough. My mom got in touch and offered her usual words of encouragement and after listening to her and re-reading my Julia Child instructions I am happy to report that I seem to have reacquired my touch. Thanks Mom.

Three Pumpkin Pies

Last week I made five pumpkin and two pecan pies and I don’t mind saying that they were pretty good. Next week I am going to try some more. I also want to point out that I sent three of those pies to my wife’s office Thanksgiving lunch and gave two to our great neighbors next door. I can’t imagine what eating all of those pies by ourselves would have looked like. Actually the problem is that I really CAN imagine what that would be like and therefore I am always looking for people to give pies to. Any volunteers out there?

Two Pecan Pies

I also want to share a website I have found with all of you pie lovers out there. Check out www.pie-off.blogspot.com. This is where I got the recipe I used for my pecan pies and they were very good. You will find a lot of interesting pie stuff there and when they have their annual pie-off competition next year I hope to travel to Portland to compete.

If you must travel in the next couple of days, please be polite to those around you and be safe.

Oh, and of course since Turkey Day is past us now, Merry Christmas.