Walmart Rosedale Highway Bakersfield, California

Mileage:

We were at the Sacramento Airport  at 6am.  Kyle and Allison were flying back to Baltimore today…so it it just us again.  It is already quieter.

The plan today is to travel south on 5.  We will see how far we get.   The road follows the mountains of the Diablo Range.

We want to take 40 east across the country.  We passed right by the exit for Yosemite National Park.  We just cannot see everything on this trip.  We will have to come back someday to see more of California.

Today was  a gorgeous driving day.  It was sunny with a gentle breeze.

We passed through the San Joaquin Valley, known for agriculture.

We saw grapes growing.  There were cattle farms and egg ranches.  The farmers were threshing some sort of grain.  We saw trucks brimming with tomatoes, it must be the end of the harvesting season.  We saw lots of tomatoes that had bounced from the trucks and they lay on the roadside.

We saw olive trees. We saw rice fields.  California produces 85% of the rice in the United States and even sells it to Asian countries.  Who knew???

We saw tree nuts including pistachios, almonds, and walnuts.  There are these little nut picking machines that they drive through the orchards after shaking the trees.  The nuts were heaped in great piles and then dumped  into tractor trailers with a loader.  The nuts are then taken to a hulling and processing plant.

We exited 5 for awhile and went down 33S.  We were hoping to find a produce stand for some fresh fruits and vegetables.  Once we were off the highway it was very evident that we were in a working area.  It was a nice diversion.  We saw lots that we otherwise would not have seen.

It is so very arid here, the earth so very parched.  Everything is brown except for the crops.  It looks like a desert.  The grass makes good tinder.  There were many places where maybe a cigarette and a truck fire had ignited the grass beside the highway.

The air alternately smells like dust, smoke, pesticides, or fertilizer.  We saw several dust devils swirling and twirling in the dry air.  Garbage being carried along in the current.

The fight over water is a major debate here.  There were lots of signs posted beside the road:

“No Water=No Jobs”

“Is Growing Food a Waste of Water?”

“Congress Created a Dust Bowl.”

“Food Grows Where Water Flows.”

Today was about getting some miles accomplished.  We are spending the night in a Walmart parking lot.  We needed supplies and we knew we wouldn’t enjoy a campground much this evening.