May 3, 2009

Captains log, star date.........

So the "tour begins......with rain...It rained about 50 miles into Gustine, then stopped. Isn't technology great? took these pics and emailed them to me for posting....
2009.05.02 backin' out 2009.05.02 away
My 100 mile marker was in Mendota, which is a small farm town in highway 33.
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From Mendota, I zig-zagged across the valley and ended up in Bakersfield. Took 99 to a turnoff for the city of Edison and rode the back way into Tehachapi. This gave me the opportunity to see the world famous Tehachapi Loop, which is a train passage that runs under itself into a loop then out the back way. It' pretty cool to watch.
DSC_0010 I don't know if you can enlarge this, but in not, sorry
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Finished the day in Tehachapi and visited with Mickey Parks, who is the sister of a friend that I grew up with. Mickey just retired from the Dept. or Corrections and her husband Dave still has about 4 more years to work (also in Corrections). I hadn't seen Mickey in about 25 years and it was fun to catch up with her and meet Dave. He works a swing shift and they were leaving at midnight for vacation up in Washington state and were generous enough to let me stay there by myself. In fact.....I even made the kids list of things to do...
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Normally I'm hoping to post at night, but last night I was too busy visiting to post. Thanks for showing me how to do a quick post from my phone so everyone know I'm safe for the night.
I'm safe for the night on Sunday in Panamint Springs which is in Death Valley. It's a one horse 16 unit hotel with camp ground and I'm going to go eat dinner and will post today's post in a little while...
oh.....and I'll try to play with the map of my trip as well later on...

8 comments:

katherine. said...

the photos do enlarge....the tehachapi loop train pics are great!

did you count the cars? smile.

Sounds like a great beginning.
vaya con dio.

Angel Bobbie said...

WOW you are seeing places we have never even heard of. Keep it up. !!!
Love Ya...Mom

Mel said...

Ohhhhhhh......train loops!

k....wait'll I show himself!!

:-)

Sandee said...

I love death valley. One of my favorite places. Have fun birthday boy. :)

Vinny "Bond" Marini said...

As you know...the pics enlarge...great opening of your trip...

remember...if you come nearby, let me know...dinner and a Couch await.

Travis Cody said...

Sounds like a great first day.

The Teamster said...

bond...don't tempt me....the bike goes wherever it wants..

travis...the first 3 days have been great..

Desert Songbird said...

Sounds like you're off to a great start. Are you coming my way?