Get me out of California already!!
So, back to the road…. When we left Petaluma, we were determined to attain our goal of getting to Bakersfield and really stick to the 5-hour drive day.
 |
| About to drive over the Oakland Bay Bridge |
Before we left northern California, we wanted to stop by an Ethiopian restaurant for some injera and split peas, knowing that it would be a while till we’d find an Ethiopian place on the road.
If you’ve never dabbled in Ethiopian cuisine, it’s a real treat! My favorite part of the meal is an appetizer of sambussas. Sambussas are deep fried pockets of lentil goodness complete with a crimson slathering sauce composed of the Ethiopian staple spice mix, berbere. OH THEY ARE THE BEST! They are reminiscent of India’s Samosa but made with lentils instead of potatoes.
As an entrée, you can order a vegetarian dinner that comes complete with three different types of “stews” ladled over a spongy, pancake-like bread called Injera. When you eat Ethiopian food, no utensils are required because you just tear off a piece of injera and scoop up the stews and pop them in your mouth. I read at an Ethiopian restaurant back home that when feeding another person in this method it is a gesture of unconditional love. ♥♥♥♥
 |
| Typical Ethiopian meal |
It was um.. how can I put this nicely... not the best Ethiopian food I've ever had.
Personally, I enjoy hot food. I like my coffee hot and I like my food hot. I don’t know if this was just an off day, but the food was COLD. Yuck.
Lets just say I didn’t go back for seconds at the buffet.
After our lunch, we took a back route out of Berkley to meet up the I-5. We headed south. The drive on the I-5 through Central California or “The Grapevine” is just like driving down any interstate highway. One “attraction” that stuck out was the Harris Ranch Compound. The Harris Ranch is a 14,000 acre farm who produce many different kinds of fruit, veggies, and nuts. Eight hundred of those 14,000 acres is dedicated to a cattle farm (a.k.a modern day concentration camp for cattle). For those who have made the drive, you’d remember it as the unforgettable stench that lasts for about 5 miles as you pass through. I read online somewhere that critics will refer to this place as “Cowschwitz”. Unfortunately, I failed to take any photos as we were passing through.
 |
| Cedar and Ba playing with some Christmas toys! |
As we neared the San Fernando county, we hooked east on the CA-58 towards Bakersfield. Surprisingly the drive to Bakersfield is really pretty!! I’ve always regarded Bakersfield as a desert, but there were some gorgeous green hills and due to some rain we encountered, we even got to see a double rainbow!!
 |
| Double Rainbow!!! |
 |
| Single Rainbow |
As stated before, Bakersfield was our main destination. Are you guys just itching to see if we ACTUALLY made our mark?!
YESSSSS!!! We did. :)
We made it to Bakersfield by dark and stayed at the Bakersfield Travel RV Park. Again, not the most scenic campground, but it was wonderful because we really needed a break. After proving to ourselves that “YES we can do the 5 hour drive” we got inspired to stick with this plan till our next destination.
Our next stop was Parker, Arizona. Parker is located right on the Colorado River and is pretty much considered Lake Havasu.
So, from where we were, Lake Havasu was about another 5 – 6 hour drive from Bakersfield. Finally understanding the key to “surviving” these long travel days was to LEAVE EARLY, we started our travel day at around 9AM which would give us plenty of time to stop for lunch or any roadside attractions we might want to look at. Keep in mind, we were BEGINNING our travel days at around 11 or sometimes even 12, so this made a huge difference to us.
I have been wanting to visit a ghost town. Luckily for us (I guess moreso me), there was one on the way to Arizona. The name of the ghost town was Calico and it’s right outside of Barstow on the I-15 (on the way to Vegas). I remember my parents took my little sisters and I here when we were younger. I don’t really remember much from that trip, so I wanted to revisit the town to see if I’d recognize of it.
 |
| Calico ghost town sign from the 15 |
 |
| More Calico props |
Well, I didn’t remember anything (haha) except maybe the area where you can pan for gold. This area was closed that day though.
We learned that Calico was a silver mining camp that was founded back in 1881. The original town’s population was about 1200 people with over 500 silver mines. It was the typical “western” town complete with saloons, brothels, and gambling halls. By 1908, the town was almost completely abandoned since the mines were no longer economically sound. In 1951, the owner of Knott’s Berry Farm, Walter Knott bought the property and began to restore it using old photographs as reference. He later donated it to the San Bernardino County and it still remains a historic monument in California to this day.
 |
| Six dollar entrance fee at the gate... |
 |
| Refurbished fire house |
 |
| The directory |
 |
| A view of Calico |
That little history lesson helped us understand the “physics” of the town, because it WAS a lot like Knott’s Berry farm. Everyone was in western garb, there was one of those mystery spot houses where you could roll a ball and it would roll uphill rather than down, and there was even a train you could take that would toot around the camp.
 |
| Little shops where you could buy souvenirs |
 |
| An old wagon... authentic or a remake? |
 |
| Calico restaurant... they had veggie burgers! :) |
 |
| Fire hall |
 |
| Inside the Fire hall... an old school fire truck!! |
 |
| It was sooo windy up here and the cold felt like it was biting you! Jeff looks like Forest Gump when he went on his run |
 |
| An old Chinese bath house |
 |
| Inside the bath house.... |
 |
| Pretty view of Calico |
 |
| A still functioning railroad through the town |
 |
| Exploring a shelter used by the miners |
 |
| Gia's National Gia-graphic (haha) pose |
 |
| Another view of the town |
 |
| A house made out of old bottles... most of them were broken though.. |
 |
| One of the original buildings.. an old hotel |
 |
| An original horse drawn carriage |
 |
| The olde Blacksmith shop... don't they have one of these at Knott's Berry farm too? |
 |
| A cool collection of old guns and pistols |
We had an awesome time walking through this historic park!!
There were five original buildings which interested me the most. You could also take a tour and walk in one of the mines. I’m a bit claustrophobic so I passed on this part of the tour. Apparently, the town didn’t officially become a “ghost town” until 2005 because the last inhabitant didn’t leave until then. It was a really fun (and somewhat cheesy) stop we made, but I’m glad we decided to check out this spot.
 |
| A miner's lunch box that apparently belonged to a King!!! It sort of looks like Jeff's handwriting... |
 |
| Some old original kitchenware and books from one of Calico's last inhabitants Lucy Lane. |
 |
| An old check book... wonder if there's still money in her account.. haha |
 |
| A shrine to Ms. Lane |
 |
| An attempt at a family photo in the Calico Restaurant |
 |
| We were trying to do a family saloon style photo on the porch, but Gia basically hogged the camera! :) You can't even see Cedar in the photo, but he's in Jeff's lap... |
After leaving, the ghost town we continued our 3-hour drive to the California/Arizona border!!!
 |
| Desert drive |
 |
| Okay... so Cedar and Ba were hanging on the dashboard while we were driving... funny but do not attempt at home.. |
 |
| Us telling Cedar he'd better get down from there... he thought it was hilarious... little jokester :) |
 |
| Ready for night-night time!! Cedar, Ba, and Gia |
It took us long enough but we are finally getting out of here!!
No comments:
Post a Comment