Waiting on work

... spending the night in Morgan Hill, CA.

We are going to bed at Mt time, waking up at central time and living in Pacific time. We were both awake early and were on our computers long before it was time to go down and eat. Headed down as soon as they started serving at 7 AM and were the first people to check out ... at 8 AM.

I wasn't sure we would have enough fuel to get to Tehachapi so we stopped on our way out of Bakersfield and put in 1+ gallons. There might have been one more gas station a few miles out of town but then none for the next 40 miles. And lots of hills before we get where we are going.

1st stop was the Bakersfield National Cemetery in Arvin. Very small cemetery, this place has less than 20,000 burials. Fort Snelling in MN has over 240,000. So 1/10 of the size, I was surprised it was that big.

2nd stop was a cemetery in Tehachapi. I knew where it was, I had seen it from the highway. But the road I wanted to take would be enjoyed by ATV's, not rental cars. We had to go through town until we got to the next highway exit and back track in on a narrow one lane blacktop road.

BB found the one person I was looking for in about two minutes. Luck. We had no idea where to look. That wasn't long enough walking so we walked for another 10 minutes but there was a nip in the air so we got back in the car. But first we saw a Clark section, gated with people from the last 100+ years buried there.

3rd stop was the Flying J in Tehachapi. Gas was $.73 a gallon cheaper than at the Chevron across the street. About $.25 cheaper than where I put in the gallon earlier.

We really didn't have a plan from here, I had thrown out a bunch of options last night but we hadn't picked one.

BB decided we should head south, from right here, back roads. We did, up and around and down and up and around and after about a half hour she redid the route and got us on a four lane highway, then six and then eight. And we weren't in LA yet. It was only 10:30 when we left the Flying J and too early to head back to the motel. It was much later when she realized she hadn't done the math to get us home. Only to get us to our next stop three hours away.

Part of this route was the route I had wanted to take to the to Thousand Oaks so that was good. Later in the afternoon there were clouds coming in so BB looked at the weather, snow for the area we had come through earlier today. Guessing it would have been worse on the back roads we had started out on as we would have gotten up to higher elevations.

Roads this leg were good, just long.

4th stop - When we were eating at Andersons Pea Soup yesterday I had looked at the place mat and commented we could visit their 2nd locations. And that is why we ended up in Buellton. Hwy 101 follows the coast for about 50 miles from where we got on in Ventura to where it heads inland before Buellton. But we didn't stop and sit on the seashore.

I had the exact same things as yesterday and BB had soup and sandwich instead of soup and salad. Somehow not as good, just little things. No drunks here though.

Yesterday I had looked at cemeteries down different roads but I hadn't looked this far south. There was a cemetery less than two miles from where we ate.

5th stop - Solvang cemetery. BB had to look up the town as it was very Dutch. History says that a bunch of Dutch from Des Moines, Iowa decided to move west. Very touristy town. This time it was raining so BB did not get out of the car. I had looked on FindAGrave to see what the marker looked like and there was an edging that was unique. Quickly found that edging and the marker and was done, as was the rain.

6th stop - Arroyo Grande ... opps, didn't log that one on the map. Arroyo Grande cemetery was adjacent to the highway. The first marker I was looking for did have a section number so we looked there and found the marker in the first row we looked in. The second marker did not have a section so that took a little longer. It was a more recent burial so we looked for the newest markers. I wasn't there but BB found it in the next section was we were walking back.

We went past the next cemetery on my list at dusk and we still had an hour plus to drive. Didn't stop.

7th stop - we did finally stop in Soledad as BB had to use the restroom and we wanted to eat before we got to the motel. McD's it was. To go.

8th and final stop was Morgan Hill. Had talked about Gilroy but this is a nicer hotel and 100% non-smoking. Got here a little after 7 PM. 11 hours on the road, almost 500 miles ... on our day off.

Lots of interesting ag stuff today. Lots of stuff we don't see every day. We have been most of today's route before but it's been a few years. We will not be driving as far tomorrow.

We are less than an hour away from the buses right now. But will likely run into SF or somewhere so maybe 2-3 hours driving mid-day and then be in Livermore by about 3 PM.