4/27/2009 Onward to Monterey

Since we didn't unhook the truck from the rig last night it didn't take long for us to get on the road. I think we pulled out around 10:15. A good time to get on the road because everyone who is going to work or school is already there and the lunchtime traffic hasn't started.

It was an uneventful drive and not a whole to keep me watching out the window. I started a new to me, John Grisham book. I don't know how it is that I can read while riding in the car now. Years ago I would have been sick to my stomach or had a headache within minutes if I tried to read. Not now. That's a good thing!

I looked up from my book at one point and couldn't help but notice the fields of red, ripe strawberries. My back hurt just thinking about having the job of having to pick them all!

Further on down the road we started driving through the Valley of the Grape. It isn't really called that, but I know not what to call the mile after mile after mile of grapevines.

Both sides of the road, thousands of acres of land devoted to growing grapes. Tens of thousands, no make that hundreds of thousands of rows, all evenly spaced.

As far as you can see, grapevines. Today there are just little flowers where in a few weeks there will be grapes. Millions of grapes. I can't imagine how many it will take to pick all the grapes that will grow in these fields.

This area is also known for its "field art". Larger than life people doing farm things.

Further up the road we came to Salinas Valley. This land is perfect for growing, broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts and the most important crop...LETTUCE! Over 400,000 acres in this area are used for farming produce. There is no small strip of land that goes unplanted. We couldn't help but notice that even the front yards of the land owners homes were planted with produce crops. No grass here, no lawn ornaments or a swing or even a flower bed. Every square inch of available land was planted with cash crops.

Here are fields of lettuce, take note of the different colors, is it no wonder when flying and looking down out of the window that earth is seen as a series of squares?

Lettuce is the major planting right now. We watched fields go from newly tilled and planted....

to fields of rows of tiny little plants just pushing their baby leaves up through the dirt.

With each field we could see the difference in color of the plants according to how old they were and how big. These next pictures are of romaine lettuce.

This field is a few weeks older than the ones above.

The chances are if you ate a salad this past week, the lettuce came from these fields. Now think about this, if you eat a salad in the next few weeks, Bob and I probably saw it growing here! If you have romaine lettuce it might even be pictured above! Wow, that's really stretching it, isn't it? Ok, Ok, moving on.

Lettuce being picked.

More field art...

Green leaf and red leaf lettuce, side by side, what a contrast of color!

My garden at home never looked this neat!

Broccoli being picked here.

.....and more field art.

We couldn't help but notice these "flowers" (?) along the roadways. I question that because I don't know if they are flowers or California's version of dandelions. This picture below was taken at an intersection, an area that certainly no one would plant.

Whatever they are, they're pretty!

Now we come to the part that got bad. Really bad. We were lost. Somehow, someway, Doris, our GPS, steered us in the wrong direction. Or maybe we didn't follow her directions the way we should have. We were in a crowded town which is not always a good thing when you are towing 36 feet of 5th wheel behind you and the turns are tight and the other drivers give no consideration to what you are towing when they ride along side of you and pay no attention to your turn signals and you HAVE to turn because Doris is now telling us to turn right in 500 feet and they won't speed up or slow down so we can get over. Its a good thing it was chilly and the windows were rolled up and the pedestrians couldn't hear the terrible language being spewed in the cab of our truck. STUPID DRIVERS! #*(^&@ DRIVERS! STUPID #$*&^#(@ DRIVERS! And that was ME!

We finally found the place in Monterey, where we'll spending the next few days or possibly a week, thanks to the lady in the office of the RV park who talked us in over the phone. Street by street, turn by turn, she got us there.

When I went in to get us registered the kind lady overloaded me with information. Pamphlets of must see, must do, must go to, attractions in the area. Tips on when to see, do, go to. Things she had discounts for or could get us discounts for if we wanted. My brain was fried. I will definitely have to go back and find out what she told me all over again.

I did have the chance to go through some of the brochures, magazines and paperwork she gave me. WOW! So much to see, do, and go to! She was right! This is good, the last two weeks we've been slugs and its now time to get out and see what this part of the country has to offer.

I don't know what happened to our weather. I've been hearing from family and friends on the east coast that its in the high 80's and low 90's ....in APRIL??? That's unheard of! Yet here on the west coast where I would EXPECT it to be warm in April its not getting out of the high 50's and low 60's this next week. So we'll be spending the next week in long pants and jackets it looks like. Not what I expected but there isn't a thing I can do about it. Darn it.

In case you haven't checked in on Stellan, I have a link to him in the sidebar, he had his operation and he's leaving Boston today and going home to Minnesota. Thank you Lord for prayers answered.

Have you clicked on the pink icon today? Let's not forget to do that!

We hope to take you on a great adventure over the next few days. So check back every day and see where we've been, what we've done and what we've seen. I think its going to be a good week!