Day 1 - Oakland, CA to Bakersfield, CA

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Finally! This first day of the trip has come! For the next week I don't have to work, and the best thing is, I will be getting paid vacation for it! Here I am counting my blessings, because 1) having a job is great and 2) having a job where they pay your vacation is even greater. I feel like I deserve this break and I am going to use it up to its fullest.

Today we embarked upon our long journey to Oklahoma around 10:30 from Pleasanton, CA. We packed the car full of suitcases and most specially with goodies to eat and drink along the way. My wonderful mom who knows me best made sure to bring 2 large bags of Cheetos for me. Another blessing: a great mom.

First stop: Selma, CA for lunch. It was Veteran's day so there was no school and the town was sleepy. We saw people paying respect to lost loved ones at cemeteries, families strolling around with baby buggies, and old lone men walking about, meeting each other and greeting each other. Small town friendliness. We stopped at a drive-in burger joint that during high school football season must be the place to be - they had a large banner that screamed 'Go Selma Bears' on the wall outside. And although the town was sleepy, we were not alone getting burgers. People walked up, drove up, ate and left so there was a steady flow of business. The waitress, probably still in high school still, was unmeasurably friendly and it stuck out the more because there wasn't very many Selmites to compare her to.

Then we moved on to the neighboring town of Kingsburg, and we wouldn't have stopped had there not been a big blue sign advertising this place as a Swedish village.

*Sorry to have to say this, but I just finished writing this entry and now half of it has disappeared. Maybe I will pick back up later, but for now I have eat free continental breakfast before it ends and then head off to Barstow, CA for a long tour of the mighty Mojave Desert.

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