day one, Inland Empire to Oakland

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We hit the road at 6 a.m., heading from our house in Upland to the 210 Freeway, west to Interstate 5, then north. Stopped at Ft. Tejon State Historic Park so Molly could do her dog stuff walking around. We paid our $2 entry fee, strolled the grounds, read the plaques, saw a jackrabbit and two squirrels who got Molly's adrenaline up on alert. I don't know exactly why they were there, but soldiers, Indians, gentlemen and ladies all lived at the fort for a time in the mid-19th C. (See the museum photo.) For some reason Civil War enactments are sponsored on the grounds--one coming up in August.

We looked around the house of Captain and Mrs. Gardiner. The good captain kept a barrel full of alcohol in their basement in which he preserved lizards, frogs, snakes and toads. He sent these specimen to the Smithsonian. So he was a scientific military man.

A plaque near the parking lot spoke briefly but pointedly of the fate of one pioneer Californian. (Photo)

Interstate 5 up the San Joaquin valley can be monotonous, but the country music radio and little garbled snatches of NPR kept me awake. Signs of water politics: "Congress Created Dustbowl" posted wherever a dusty hillside abuts the freeway. A few of the old, kindlier "Food Grows Where Water Flows". And some newer, nastier ones about toilets and tap water. There's a photo of one.

What are these fruits? The last photo is of a kind of tree often seen along the freeway. Is it almond? apricot? olive? You tell me.

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Comments

[jackie joday]

trees?
Now I'm curious! I'm thinking this can't be apricots...........because there would be fruit at this time of the year.