Back to Claremont.
Okay, on my way down to visit Marg and Mark again, until Thursday when Russ arrives in Los Angeles. Russ and I will spend that and the next night in LA, and spend a day in the city in between, before heading up the coast.
I plan to drive straight through to Claremont, on route 5, which is the most direct and fastest way, although still over 6 hours south.
Well, I made it, although with the LA traffic, it actually took 7 hours. I didn’t stop, except once for gas, and didn’t take any photos at all…. just drove straight through. Taking this inland route, south on route 5, the trip is pretty straightforward, and sort of boring. For much of the way at this time of the year, the grass and shrubs covering the mostly flat prairies are a brown yellow color for as far as the eye can see, for miles and miles, although the road also frequently passes through orchards planted in perfect rows, and rows, and rows, their deep green leaves juxtaposed against the dreary autumn colored fields. These are massive and frequent orchards, all along the route 5 corridor, I think maybe growing almonds, which are apparently very water dependent and controversial for that reason, although some of these orchards could be growing other fruits as well.
As I got closer, I started seeing some more variation in the land, with some mountains popping up and rivers flowing, but I kept on a’ goin’ without stopping until I hit the LA traffic heading east, and that final stretch of maybe 30 miles that took well over an hour, arriving around 5:15. I was glad to be here.
Seeing Marg was lovely, of course, and the dawgs gave me a fond hello. Mark popped up a little later, and we had dinner. They ate eggplant parmesan (yucch), so I had a hamburger instead, ordering also the Frynormous size of fries.
We