Aaarrrrgh, there be pirates on that thar beach. This visit to Santa Barbara is for spending time with family, leaving no time for frolicking in the surf. Speeding by, looking out the window is the closest we would come to the Pacific on this trip to California. It’s a good thing we enjoy the company of my great aunt Ann and uncle Woody, along with my cousin Nancy, her two children Theresa and Daniel, and my great aunt Jean, who is also Nancy’s mom. We talk, eat, talk some more, barbecue, reminisce, sleep, and start it all over again the next day.
Another Labor Day Weekend
We know the sites along the freeway by heart now. Interstate 10, the road that starts at mile marker zero in Key West, Florida, seems like a short extension of the highway leading from Phoenix to a strip mall just slightly farther away than where we shop in town. We drove to Southern California yet again. We could not be more familiar with the 10 by now; as I have stated before, we may have driven this freeway more than 70 times. About thirty miles from the 10’s terminus in Santa Monica, we veer north on the 101, passing through downtown Los Angeles to points further north en route to our destination in Santa Barbara. It is Labor Day weekend in America and the last three-day weekend of summer, which typically makes for crowded roads. Not this weekend, though. Although getting out of Phoenix was time-consuming, the rest of the drive was a piece of cake. Maybe everyone else is weighed down with high mortgage payments and high gasoline, electricity, and food prices, so they can’t afford any leisure travel. For whatever reason, we made near-record time of only 8.5 hours to drive the 507 miles from our house to Santa Barbara, with two stops for gas and one for dinner in Los Angeles.
Mini Monsoon
Driving down the road I spot a strange sight, its a mini monsoon featuring a tiny dust storm to the right, which must be kicked up by high winds, and then behind that the rain is falling. The strange thing about this mini monsoon is that it is happening from a small set of clouds against a blue sky. If only I had been able to capture a bolt of lightning with it, my mini monsoon picture would have been perfect.
You Want To Do What?
Better brush them teeth, kids, because gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, is not your friend. Four times a year I have to go to my dentist for my regular periodontal exam and teeth cleaning. My dental hygienist starts by jabbing one of these or some other monstrous tool into my gums to determine the depth of my gum pockets and then goes to work cleaning away plaque to keep the gum disease in check. At the end of the exam and cleaning, I am told how the gums held up, if they bled a little, a lot, or, as if it would ever happen, not at all. While I hope for not at all, I am not so fortunate, but at least another cleaning has passed and the gum disease hasn’t progressed so far as to warrant another ROOT PLANING! Root planing is another one of those things that you wouldn’t recommend to a friend. Root planing is revenge for not flossing, using a water pick, or an electric toothbrush. The hygienist starts the procedure by pulling your gums down far enough to do deep cleaning, yes this is as bad as it sounds – you do not want to know more. Just brush them teeth, floss, and be happy.
Waning Monsoon
Get a good look at those thunderheads as the monsoon season is winding down. Arizona during the summer is prone to flash floods, power outages due to lightning strikes, dust storms with blinding conditions, spikes in humidity that go from 15% humidity to 95% in minutes, and on occasion the temperature drops from 110 degrees to less than 80 in less than a half-hour. But as we approach September the storms become less frequent, the daytime temperatures start to drop, we will soon be out of summer as days cool to a more comfortable high in the 90s and the nights start to see low’s go into the 70s…..ah, the sweet cozy days of fall are around the corner.
Rainbows Everywhere We Go
Attention: Some images had to be moved around, and additional information needed to be added to these 4-days as when I first blogged about this trip, it wasn’t in my head that exacting placement of details should be very precise as long as we had an idea of what was what. Well, here I am in November 2022 with COVID-19, repairing those bungles because I’ve got nothing better to do.
Last night we were gifted these two goose eggs for our breakfast; Caroline nor I had ever had goose eggs before. No, they don’t taste like chicken; they are like creamier, heavier versions of chicken eggs.
Thanks, ladies, for your contribution to our breakfast.
Being called Lavender Spring Ranch, it seems appropriate that lavender should be just about everywhere.
Bundles of lavender dry until they are threshed to remove their flowers.
Dragonflies, on the other hand, do not require threshing.
It was time to go, as our weekend was quickly coming to an end. Many thanks to Cliff and Bess Crouch of Lavender Spring Ranch for not only hosting us but also for their efforts of turning a decrepit old farm into a great adventure through an incredible amount of work, love, and dedication. That giant bag of lavender in Caroline’s hands was a gift from Bess.
On our way back to Phoenix across New Mexico on a beautiful day.
Beautiful day until we passed through Pie Town, New Mexico, because for the 43rd trillionth time, we were still unable to buy pie. Now dejected and without pie, we arrive back in Arizona to find bad weather.
A dozen miles west of Springerville, the sky opened bright and wide, the sun’s reflection on the wet road blinding us. Behind us, though, we saw the most vibrant, beautiful rainbow either of us had ever seen. I lept from the car with the rain still falling and was instantly wildly invigorated – what a great treat this was, and it was way better than pie. For the next half hour, we spoke in stunned excitement at the luck of the road chosen and being able to see the most incredible rainbow yet seen by the two of us.
I learned something this weekend about sleeping. Nine days ago, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea, and with much pleading, I was able to get my CPAP days ahead of my next doctor’s appointment. Well, seeing I had only used the thing for three nights prior to driving over to New Mexico, I figured it was too much of a hassle to bring the thing, and what the heck, I’d already “slept” for years not using one, what could the weekend be like without it? Horrible was the answer, I can’t believe how quickly I saw a change in my quality of life. This would be the last time I traveled without it.