Enjoying family and friends

We left Tucson at the crazy hour of 4:30 a.m. Friday morning as we knew we had an incredibly long day's drive.  All was well as we drove through Arizona and in to Southern California.  Traffic was moving well through Los Angeles until we were 1 3/4 miles from our turn to yet another LA freeway.  Traffic came to a sudden standstill.  About 15 minutes later, the CHP was directing all the freeway traffic up an onramp.  We were grateful we didn't have the trailer behind us as the turn and traffic would have made the experience very tough.  We had no idea where we were but kept our wits about us and just ran parallel with the freeway for a ways until we could get back on the freeway and let Genie (our Garmin) take back over.

As we drove over an overpass and looked back towards the freeway, we couldn't see any accident but just a lot of emergency vehicles.  Hmm.  Soon we were back on the freeway and what we saw was rather shocking considering this is the I-210 in Los Angeles about 1 p.m.:

No traffic in front of us at all.  It felt like we were some of the lone survivors of some disaster. Via my phone, I was able to learn that there was a despondent 16 year old that had climbed on the outside of a fenced overpass and was threatening to jump.  Thankfully, the emergency workers were able to talk him out of jumping but what a back-up he caused.  

As we intersected with Hwy 58 in the Mojave Desert, you could see what looked like blue water off in the distance.  What a mirage? This is the middle of the desert.

What all the "blue" was were solar panels.  Thousands of them generating power.  Probably a very good location especially in the winter when the sun isn't as intense.

After a 13 hour day, we finally landed in Bakersfield.  Boy, were we tired but at least day one was done.  As we only have a shower in our fifth wheel, we both enjoyed a long soak in the tub . . . ah such an indulgence.  John likes to say he hasn't had a bath in a year ha, ha, ha.

When we got up in the morning and headed out to get on I-5, the fog was so dense that you could barely see a few feet in front of you.  Still, the truckers and others went barreling down the road as if they had a clear line of sight.  Crazy; that is how bad pile ups happen.  We pulled off the road a couple of times to let the crazy ones pass. 

We had to stop for fuel and decided we would sit it out a bit with some breakfast.  When we we got back on the road, the fog had burned off quite a bit so that it felt so much safer driving at freeway speeds.

It was so nice to pull up to Bonnie and Butch's house and to know that the "road trip" was done for now.  We were greeted at the door by Bonnie and the most recent adorable addition to our family, Emma (almost 16 months).  It was a while later that Melissa came over to visit.  How nice to be able to visit with her in person and be able to give her hugs.

Bonnie's birthday was on Sunday and it was sort of a landmark year.  No, I'm not telling how landmark.  What a joyful birthday celebration she had.  Bonnie's daughter and son, performed an original song that had all of us in complete laughter.  What fun! The only missing components were granddaughter, Jacqueline, who was home with the flu and her mom, Jen, who was tending to her :-(  Later in the afternoon, the biggest surprise was to learn that Emma is going to be a big sister sometime in August.  Woo Hoo another baby to add to the family.  Congrats Team Kinnear.

We've got doctor and dentist visits scheduled for this week along with spending time with Melissa (she has a Dad to do list) and visiting with friends.  It is going to be a busy week.  Looking forward to it all.