It’s still hot out here. I’m talking 95 degrees, potato-baking weather. The temperature isn’t terribly uncomfortable—it’s much better than a humid July day back home—but the direct sun is brutal. My neck feels like a slab of crisping bacon, even when I’m in the car. I can only imagine what it was like during the summer.
I wanted a bit more city time, so I spent the morning driving through the well-developed San Joaquin Valley. This may have been a bad choice. Lots of it smelled like poop. This is, unfortunately, not a metaphor, nor was it farm scent. This was abandoned public toilet stench. I did have a delightful apple fritter and a coffee to distract my nose. Connecting the towns was a grid of olive and orange trees that were much more appealing. I’ve seen a lot of farmland during my trip, but not many farmers. I’ll have to look into the details of the modern occupation.
I went east, back up into the mountains, on switchback after switchback. These were the kind of roads that, instead of having a shoulder, have a five-hundred-foot cliff to the side. I performed the vehicular equivalent of tiptoeing as I gained 5,000 feet in elevation, then promptly lost 3,000 on the other side of the Greenhorns. The road spat me out into Mojave Desert, filled with Joshua trees that snaggled and snarled along the roads.
I ended up in Ridgecrest, where I engaged in my new hobby of laundering clothes. I’m trying something new tonight and camping on BLM land (that’s the Bureau of Land Management; Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus has a tremendous approach to the duality of that acronym). Tomorrow I will try not to dehydrate in Death Valley.
Farming — Well, there’s all kinds of farming: dairy farming, grain farming, cash crops (like cotton and tobacco), orchid farming (fruits and nuts), vineyards (“Drinkin’ that wine, wine, wine, wine —
Keepin’ your head stoned ALL the time!”)
Depends on what you want to do… but a lot of it is mechanized today — migrant workers (whom Donald Trump hates!) are usually not required until harvest time. Most of the rest of the time plowing, planting and so forth are done by machines. You don’t see too many farmers out on the land most days… Must be the smell.
I spoke to Marc this morning about the poop smell. He said there is a lot of beet processing in that area and it yields a terrible smell. Maybe that’s what it was. Anyway, you are out of there now. If it’s 95 degrees in the San Joaquin Valley, just wait until you get to Death Valley. It will be a bit warmer. Jeff and I did most of our exploring very early (like, just after sunrise). Spent the daytime hours indoors. Went to Scotty’s Castle one day. We were comfortable in the air conditioned car and the heat was not as bad as down by the Furnace area where we were staying. Take plenty of water wherever you go. It’s dangerously hot there for sure. Nice picture of the Mojave Desert. All of your pictures are so beautiful to look at and give me a really good idea of where you are and what you are enjoying. Thanks! Love, Grandma