NEW ADVENTURE!!!

Dear FFF:
Yikes....I have to put the rest of Alaska on hold to tell you about my last two days......honest, I finish up Alaska when I get time.  I have been on a treadmill (actually 1200 the last two days).  Tuesday I loaded up the van with all my belongings, then had a farewell dinner with Barb, Jacque, and Lauri.  B and L cooked some of the salmon I caught in Homer along with corn on the cob, beans, and coleslaw.  Yum, yum...it was the BEST fish I have ever eaten.  We shared photos that we had each taken and re-hashed all the fun times.  It was a GREAT trip.

Wednesday morning I pulled out at 4:30 am and drove south through Washington, Oregon and stopped about 100 miles south of the California state line.  Had a relaxing night at a Ramada then back on the road this morning.  Now TODAY was quite a drive.  As I headed south I saw mostly bare land with some very bare mountains (more like big hills) Then as I got south of San Francisco on I 5, the action began.  First I saw a pack of coyotes, then decided to take a detour and go west over to Monterey and Carmel by the Sea.  Saw the Hogs Breath Saloon but Clint was nowhere to be seen (probably still stalking some bad guy)  Took the California 1 which goes along the ocean and Big Sur.  It's over a hundred miles of pure beauty.  Only problem is that it is so curvy that you can't possibly drive over 20 mph. And couldn't take my eyes off the road so had to stop at every pull off to take pictures.  UNBELEIVABLE!!!  Just before I got to the end of the ocean views, I saw several cars pulled over with everyone pointing their cameras.  I whipped in and got to watch a beach full of elephant seals.  So cool. I turned west and headed back to I 5 and in a stretch of road that was just 100 miles long I passed 20 or 30 wineries, huge (like miles long) almond orchards, more desert, then tons of orange orchards, more desert, miles and miles of brown, bare and nothing growing land with thousands of cattle grazing (I don't know what they could possibly be eating) then I passed numerous trucks piled full of carrots, then tomatoes, then cabbage, then more desert.  Then a sign that said "Severe Dust Area"  Sure enough it was blowing with tumble weeds blowing all over the fields.  Fortunately their were fences along the highway because some of those suckers were the size of a VW Bug.  Oh, and before that I saw an accident (about 5 cars in front of me) where a SUV lost control, rolled and landed on it's roof!  Several people stopped and jumped out to help so I kept my eyes ob the road in front of me and kept going.  THEN, another 40 miles down the road, 4 highway patrol cars, officers all around, had some guy on the ground with handcuffs.