Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

California

Wrong Way Corrigan

stanline.jpg

We’re back in K’Stan for a couple of days. We have to meet the plumber in the morning at the old house to repair the plumbing that caused all the damage. We also are going to visit the various Family members that live hereabouts. There are lots of other things that we need to do here, not all of which we can accomplish this trip.

It’s costing us a bunch of extra dough coming to Cal since we still can’t stay in our house until we get enough of it fixed such as to be habitable. We’re in a hotel for three nights. It takes a day to get here, two days to do stuff and a day to get home again.

I looked into towing our trailer out here to lighten up on the expenses, but would you believe there is a dearth of RV campgrounds in the area? I only found two in a ten mile radius of where we need to be: One in Long Beach that won’t take our “vicious” miniature Pinschers (total bullsh1t) and one on Dockweiler State Beach, right under the departure end of Los Angeles International Airport with no wi-fi and all day, all night jet noise plus an exorbitant $60 per night fee.

Hopefully, in a few months, we will either have the old place fixed enough to stay there, or we will have flipped the house and be free of the mortgage and the ridiculous Cali property taxes. We are looking forward to getting all of this business resolved.

04 Aug 2014 by California

No Hat Rack

No Hat Rack

When we come to California, we find several cultural differences from those in Arizona. One example is that when we go to a restaurant or even to the dentist, they have a rack for us cowboy types to hang our hats. Not so much in California, where sun worship and skin cancer reign.

The only hotel in this area where we can take our dogs is an antiquated property which, by all rights, should have a hat rack in the rooms, has none. Thus, I have to improvise with where I hang my hat when not in use. Click on the image to enlarge.

14 Jul 2014 by California Culture

Mammoth on the Hill

Mammoth

While we were driving along SR 60 going through California on Monday, we passed this metallic mammoth adorning one of the Jarupa Hills near Riverside.

We see a lot of metallic sculpture when we’re in Arizona, some of it around town and some in the Arizona Outback between Wickenburg and Brenda just before getting on I-10 from US 60. We have seen dinosaurs, horses, a stagecoach and various other sculptures during our travels. Always entertaining. Click on the image to enlarge.

20 Jun 2014 by Arts California Photography Travel

Home Sweet Home

Welcome

We are safely back home after our productive trip to California. Just across the state line, we pass this welcome sign that energizes us for the next 100+ miles to home. After a four and a half hour drive from the old house, we are always happy to be back in the jurisdiction of a free state.

At this point of our trip, we have a few miles to Quartzsite where we refuel for the rest of the trip with more-reasonably-priced gas (than California’s outrageous $4 per gallon prices) and after refueling, we have just about 12 miles or so until we can get off of Idiot Interstate-10 to join US 60 the rest of the way across the Arizona Outback before entering the Hassayampa River Valley and home.

18 Jun 2014 by Arizona California

HOV Lane

HOV Lane

HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes on California’s Freeways are supposed to be reserved for vehicles with occupancy of 2 or more. When we travel to our former state, we meet their criterion for HOV lane occupancy. Using those lanes gets us around some of the congestion which is rampant throughout urban areas. It cuts our travel time by, perhaps, a half hour out of six hours total travel time.

Some of our fellow travelers seem to equate the so-called Diamond Lane, not with High Occupancy, but with High Speed. While We might be a couple of MPH over the posted speed limit, some of the drivers get right up on our tailgate trying to get us to go faster. Of course, it does them little good, since I have the cruise control set to maintain a speed such as to not attract undue attention to law enforcement.

Some of the drivers get it, and fall back to match our speed. Others, however, have a road rage incident where they pull out to the right and pass us, cutting us off as they pull in ahead of us and speed on down the road. Of course, when we’re on the road, we drive defensively and slow down to let the idiots kill themselves and not get us involved.

We’re in K-stan tonight and tomorrow and Damsel and I look forward to heading back to Free Arizona on Wednesday.

16 Jun 2014 by California Degenerates Travel

California Agriculture Checkpoint

California Agriculture Checkpoint

When we crossed over the Colorado River last week, we drove through California’s Agriculture Station, as usual on I-10 going into Blythe. The interesting thing about this encounter is that there were NO checkpoint agents waving us through as is the norm. We crossed through at a little after eleven AM and saw no agents manning any of the open lanes. Nada. On our return trip passing eastbound across from the station we again did not observe any agents – cars were just passing through.

I nosed around on the CDFA website a bit and could not find any reference to budget cuts having to do with lack of personnel. Moreover, these stations have been and continue to be a complete waste of taxpayer money.

Many times we have gone through this checkpoint and the most the agent ever did was ask where we were coming from. How that keeps agricultural pests out of Cali is beyond me. Until this time where no agents were present, we would usually get a wave through with no questions asked. Talk about a useless job and waste of travelers’ time.

What gripes me, is that I still pay property tax on the old house that supports this sort of nonsense. Within a year, I think that we well be out of that property altogether.

Damsel took the photo of the station on Tuesday last. Click on the image to enlarge.

02 Jun 2014 by California Travel Whacko Politics

Categories

Archives