Thursday 22 April 2010; Vacaville, California

It is partly cloudy and the street is wet. I suspect it rained a little bit last night. I left Vacaville in my 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid at 0710; destination, Prescott, Arizona. I took highways 113 and 12 through Rio Vista to I 5; then south to Stockton where I cut over to 99. It rained continuously, but lightly from Stockton to Selma. I ate lunch at Sal’s in Selma. My parents lived in a house about two blocks from Sal’s when I was born, and my family ate at Sal’s frequently when I was a child. I also went the high school and college with Sal’s younger sister, Lupe Salazar Vargas who I still see at Selma High School class reunions.

I refueled in Bakersfield. There was fresh snow down to 4500 feet elevation at Tehachapi. I began seeing displays of yellow wildflowers just north of Tehachapi. Those displays continued intermittently to near Needles, California. I stopped to photograph them twice. There were very small poppies, goldfields, a larger orange composite, a purple Mimulus?, very tiny popcorn flowers, fiddleneck, and a small plant with white, bell shaped, Manzanita like flowers. My granddaughter, Marley, called when I was near Barstow. I told Marley, Kooper, and Betty about the wildflowers, snow and rain. I talked Marley through a reboot the Dell desktop computer and log back on. I wished Kooper luck in his baseball game and urged Betty to tape the ankle he sprained last week. It rained again most of the way from Mojave to Needles. I was tired by the time I got to Needles and decided to stay there for the night. I drove around Needles looking for a motel next to a brew pub. I got a draft hefeweizen and Caesar salad at Juicy’s.

You can see more photos of this trip at Picasa.