forgot to publish this blog 3 days ago, it was a great day!!

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This morning we head out 46 east through vineyard after vineyard, it is too early even for the two of us to start drinking the vino. It is hard to describe the countryside, golden hills that are more like mountains to me. We pass a coyote that is golden also, not like our darker colored ones back home. Hey shout out to John Broadnax, one of the vineyards we pass is called Terry Hogue wineries and yes it is named after and owned by the great bulldawg himself. The vineyards give way to farms of trees that hold pistachios, almonds, walnuts, and a nut farm that is huge. Then we see tumble weeds, more nut trees and a startling sight of oil fields….. Oil pumps, giant grasshopper like things pumping as far as the eye can see on both sides of the road, we see a sign that says they are owned by Chevron. We approach the town of Lost Hill population 1500, and we believe it is aptly named. We cross the aqua duct, which is bringing the rivers to Los Angeles, remember in an earlier blog Kathy informs us that all of LA gets is drinking water this way? We do see more cotton fields also. Our waitress last night told us that there are huge tax breaks for landowners who have vineyards; maybe Wilkes County needs to install this law also?????? All in all we think Highway 46 is a beautiful road, one of the best to take you from the coast to interstate 40. We see signs that saying “food grows where water flow” Kathy says there is always a debate about the water going to LA or
We pass through Wasco where a state prison is. We see signs of “don’t pick up hitchhikers” gee, you think we shouldn’t pick up the guys in the striped pants? In all of the agriculture we do pass a rose farm and of course that is our favorites. Row after row of white, then pink then red bushes just covered. Now we are passing huge fields of grape vines but they are different from the vineyards, many of them are covered with green plastic and we see that it is raisin production place. Wasco is flat flat flat and not too pretty. A lot of carnceria (Mexican food markets) along this road, however we are reluctant to stop because we don’t think they serve grits and biscuits, I told you we left early we’ve been driving over an hour and there are no breakfast places even open yet. We left so we could get to Williams AZ before dark. This is very near the Grand Canyon and will be a reward for driving through the dessert.
The desert is a long large part of our journey today. If ever we had a Thelma and Louise moment it was today, we wanted to turn around and go back! Let’s see what I can relate that is exciting, we saw a truck on fire, you could see the smoke forever before we found out what it was, when we finally did reach it the whole cab was engulfed in flames and not a fireman in sight. OK our food experiences are sinking fast, so far we had a breakfast wrap at Burger King (actually it was pretty good and very cheap) and then we dined at Denny’s in some armpit town where we had fried chicken salad, it was ok but cost us 11.50 with tea, what in world? We are riding through a desert valley with mountains all around. It is spectacular though barren. We’re trying to point out the best thing about this particular place, it is a beautiful day, 92 and doesn’t feel like it, the road is long and straight, too bad we can’t be hitched onto a pulley or something like a moving sidewalk they have in big airports. We are smack dab in the middle of the Mojave Desert but we have not seen any Mojaves yet.
When we got on i-40 there was a big sign that said Wilmington, NC 2454 miles! We are passing signs that say "adopt a highway" beautification area sponsored by…….the thing is many of them say available, any volunteers? We pass signs to Las Vegas but Quarter Woman does not even look that way. We have come upon some funny road names; our favorite so far is Shinarump. As I have mentioned more than once, the sky is so big out here and you can see so far. We are seeing how the Indians’ smoke signals were so effective; you could convey your message hundreds of miles away.
We have reached our resting place tonight in Williams, AZ the gateway to the Grand Canyon. We ate at a Mexican restaurant which was pretty good. It was called something like “Jose McGuillicotte’s”…Irish/Mexican???? They had live music, killer margaritas which are all one can ask for in a small remote western town. The guitar player came over to the table and asked where we were from. I guess we don’t look like we’re from “these here parts”. Anyway, Kathy said “Georgia” and he didn’t bat an eye. She’s convincing, even without a Southern accent. On our next trip, Kathy’s going to take Debby up to the Northeast and see if she can be as convincing and deliver a Yankee accent. I dunno. Impossible? It’s going to take a lot of training.
Pearl has delivered us safely and in style.
Again many thanks to Kathy for driving most of the way, it takes a lot out of you but evidently not as much as trying to backseat drive me!

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