Heading east, not south

Last night we camped at the Alameda Fairground at Pleasanton with the plan of heading south on Highway 101 to spend a few days in San Diego. but this morning we awoke to yet more rain so we changed our plan. After a quick trip into Fremont to see the John Hopkins high school where Harry taught forty-eight (!!!) years ago (see photo above).... we decided to avoid the craziness of the LA and head inland in search of sunshine. Harry's cousin who lives in England is visiting her mother in Kingman Arizona just now so we're going to see if we can meet up with her for a short visit.

I had to post a few photos (from the car) of the lovely California hills.  We'll be leaving these behind as we cross into the great central valley of California.

 

Just now, at 3:00 pm we've finally outrun the clouds. It's a long and boring drive through huge tracts of flat agricultural land in the Great Central Valley. There isn't much in the way of crops in the fields yet. We saw acres of pink blossoms on small trees, and lots of dormant grape vines, and huge brown dusty fields. The signs are there for activity though, lots of fertilizer and seed sales and irrigation canals. All I can say is that I'm grateful this isn't where I live.



UPDATE:  Sunday morning
This morning we drove over the Tehapache pass into the Mojave desert. Blue skies surround us now, and not too much else--except sagebrush. We passed the little town of Boron, home to the Twenty Mule Team Borax company. It's a big industrial looking complex beside a low hill with white cliffs where they're still scraping out their famous washing soda. We didn't see any mule teams though, just a lot of railway cars heading out.

We've changed our destination again since Harry's cousin won't be inArizona until later in the month. We are heading south and east to Yuma, right above the Mexican border to see some friends from Victoria who are spending some time there.  More tomorrow.