(Tuesday, September 12)
We started early with the traditional family breakfast, this time at Daddy’s Waffles in Fresno. The Belgian waffle made an instant believer out of me, and it’s close to my son’s place, so this place immediately went to the top of my “must do” list for Fresno. Turns out the kid had an ulterior motive in suggesting it: they serve Monte Cristo sandwiches every day, which is apparently unusual.
I have now broken one of my own rules, and posted a mennu. To be fair, though, this was a good one. The most frightening item to my mind is up at the top, the Little Debbie Cheese Cake Waffle. I don't know what it was, and I was afraid to find out!
He went off to warp the minds of a classroom full of college students, and we headed south toward Bakersfield and then points east. Heading east from Bakersfield is the 3,739-foot high Tehachapi Pass, which connects the central valley to the Mojave Desert. It has one of the earliest wind farms, with construction starting in the 1980s, and now contains (according to Wikipedia) 3,400 turbines on approximately 3,200 acres.
A small sample of the wind turbines along CA-58.
The pass is a serious ascent out of the broad central valley, and then a serious descent to the desert floor and the city of Mojave. It is also the location of the Tehachapi Loop, a well-known spiral train track opened in 1876 and considered an engineering marvel of the day. It is now designated a California Historical Landmark.
Mojave is significant as the home of the Mojave Air and Space Port. This is the home of several interesting aircraft, as well as a large airplane “graveyard.” If you haven’t guessed by now, it is nearly impossible for us to just drive past. Mojave Space Port demands a side trip. If you’re interested in aerospace hardware, there are some interesting things to see here.
Apparently, Virgin Galactic's recent financial issues have caused them to scale back their operations in Mojave.
A small portion of the planes in the Mojave "graveyard"
Mojave is home to the only L1011 still flying.
We made a quick stop in Barstow, feeling good about the progress we were making, even with our side trip. We made the change from Highway 58 to I-40 (the modern highway along the path of Historic Route 66) and had plans to stay in Laughlin, Nevada, an easy drive from Fresno.
Oh, you silly mortals…
As we started back up another pass, we could see flashing lights far ahead. There weren’t any vehicles between us and the lights as we drew closer, and we realized there was a police vehicle straddling the line between lanes. We thought perhaps there was an accident or disabled vehicle and they were slowing traffic, but soon the full import of what was going on became clear: an immense electrical generator was being moved, A piece of equipment so large it took up both lanes, required pilot cars ahead and behind, two police cars with flashing lights, and it completely blocked all traffic.
You can see the grade here, and the official vehicles blocking traffic. This was our view for an hour or so this afternoon.
We slowed to under 20 miles per hour as the Transformer Parade™ made its ponderous way up the pass. For the next hour, as traffic stacked up behind us, we occasionally sped up as we reached a flat section of road and then slowed to 20 again as it labored uphill. Obviously there was no alternate route - unless you had a half-track. Maybe.
he didn't pull off with the rest of the entourage. He was just a vollunteer.
As the first car behind the massive piece of machinery, we had a good view of, well, mostly of the official vehicles blocking the road in front of us. We got to see those real good, and for a long time.
Finally we reached a spot where the median widened and the entire entourage was able to pull off and let traffic pass. Watching the drivers maneuver the vehicles off the road reminded me of videos of multiple tugs guiding a large ship into the dock. As we drove past I got a quick look at the contraption, with the “pusher” semi locked into some kind of huge metal harness. My husband has unleashed his Google-fu and tells me this was a “suspension-beam trailer.”
While we were stuck in the Transformer Parade™ we did manage to decide on a hotel in Laughlin and make a reservation. This is one of the biggest boons of technology. No longer do I have to make long-distance calls and commit to a hotel reservation days or weeks in advance; I can scroll through multiple options, select the most likely, make a reservation, and pay for my room, all while cruising the highway at 75 miles an hours - or at 20.
As we rolled across the desert toward the intersection of California, Arizona, and Nevada, Mother Nature decided to be a bit of a drama queen and introduced clouds, rain, and lightning to the already-dramatic day. We could see curtains of rain from miles away across the desert landscape, adding flooding (a common occurrence in this area) to our concerns.
Dash Dino shared my concern for the weather looming ahead of us.
In fact, the secondary highway from the interstate out to Laughlin had several places where they had placed “Flooded” warning signs earlier in the day. Fortunately, the water had receded by the time we went through.
Fortunately these signs were no longer relevant when we passed through.
Dash Dino would like to show you a happy accident, where we captured an actual lightning bolt on video, but since we don't know how to embed video it will have to get its own post. I never was able to make the video work, but the final shot here is a still from that video, showing the lightning strike. Lucky shot indeed!
We finally made it to our hotel, checked in and unloaded our luggage into our room, intending to get a quick dinner - only to find that the restaurants all closed at 8 (minutes after we had arrived) except a snack bar. Reluctance to get back in the car was outweighed by the desire for “real” food, so we went back out, found a coffee shop within a mile or so, and had some dinner.
The day does have a happy ending though. We aren’t big gamblers, but we each took a twenty and went down to the casino for a bit after dinner. Between us we won $40.00, which we pocketed and went back upstairs to relax and get a good night’s sleep.
I know our playlist today had more than one item on it, but the only thing I remember right now is an episode of How Did This Get Made?, which is a comedy ‘cast from a group of young comedians. They take a movie - often an obscure one - and talk about the movie and their experience of it; this episode’s movie was Action Jackson.
They often have interesting takes on the movie, and they are usually funny. But the delivery, the frenetic nature of the conversation, the talking over each other (to the point that sometimes I can barely follow the conversation), and the sheer volume as they shout to be heard, can be overwhelming. Warning if you try this one: the comedy can get crude, and the language is uncensored.
That might even have been the only thing we heard, as the Transformer Parade™ kind of ate our brains. Don’t worry, they will grow back overnight.