Fixin' to stay

We did head north, but it was a much more leisurely trip than our last month of travelling. We finally had time to slow down and enjoy the ride. The weather was sunny and dry, warm in the afternoons and cool at night. Ideal weather for travelling the week before Christmas.

We drove up through the San Joaquin Valley, the green grocers of California. With mountains on both sides, this huge valley is flat and fertile. Big fields of crops are on both sides of the highway, intersected by the aqueducts bringing water from the mountains in the north.  Orchards of citrus and pistachio trees are planted in mechanically precise rows and stretch over large areas. Most fields and orchards are bare of any identifying marks, so the game going down the road is “what do you think is growing here?” Occasionally the name of the farm gives us an obvious clue, but rarely did we see anything as blatant as this citrus grove, which spelled out in big signs whether the trees were “lemon”, “orange”, or “mandarin”.

The aqueduct system was built in the ‘60s. An engineering marvel, it turned the valley from the semi-arid desert that it used to be into productive land. It spreads throughout the entire 450 mile length of the valley in a series of canals and pumping stations to get the water to agricultural fields and urban centers alike. Hubby, of course, merely looked on it as a likely place to do some fishing. Unfortunately for our dinner that night, the water was low and the only one successfully catching fish was a blue heron along the canal.

We stopped at the large San Luis Reservoir that holds the water before it flows down along the canals and aqueducts to the south. The state recreation area that surrounds the reservoir is used both for fishing and boating in the reservoir itself, and for hiking and camping in the hills around it. On our hike to the top of one of the hills, we were lucky enough to see a small sample of the elk that had been reintroduced into this area in 1974.

It was a short trip to our final stop of 2013.  The fridge in the trailer was emptied and our clothes moved out for the 2 months we plan to be here. The trailer is being stored, rather than us living in it this time. We settled into my sister-in-law’s house, taking full advantage of the washing machine (and hastily put up clothesline), the full size oven and the abundance of freezer space. It was nice to see how well the lawn and garden plants had thrived during the two years since we had been here last.

There will be a short break over the Christmas holidays, visiting family and sharing meals all around. Then it is down to business. I get to dabble in paint, and hubby will be putting all his energy into maintenance and organization.  

He does love to boss everyone around.

W