Wednesday - October 26, 2011

Left Santa Rosa today with a goal of making Bakersfield. Decided to drive south rather than east through the mountains because going south kept us on the interstates where the roads are relatively straight. Going east would have taken us again up some secondary highways and roads. The roads look straight on the map but since they are going through the mountains likely were switchbacks both up and down. Didn't want to do this again as Brenda has a tendency to get motion sickness and I get tired from the steering the truck back and forth for 50 or more miles.

Went through Oakland and proceeded down the San Joaquin valley. At first the area was very mountainous and close to the highway. The hillsides were covered in brown grass with cattle farming.The east side of these mountains is very dry as a lot of water is dropped on the west side of the mountains. As we went further south we got into the farming area where the area, was irrigated and there were a lot of fruit crops growing.

We arrived in Bakersfield about 4 and after settling in went to dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel Buck Owens Crystal Palace which featured steak and live country music. Reminded me of the bar in the film The Blues Brothers. Lot of people line dancing which was very interesting as I never realized how intricate the dance steps are. For those of you who don't remember, Buck Owens was a country music star and host of the old show Hee Haw.