Anderson to Hayward

Our stay in Anderson was probably the least pleasant of any on this trip. We rested for a while after we got to the hotel and then ventured out to find something to eat. We were headed for Red Lobster, when Dear spotted a Marie Callender’s. We don’t have those in BigD, so we stopped. I had a slice of quiche, salad and a bowl of clam chowder. Dear had a tri-cut steak and mashed potatoes, and #3 had the chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes. Then we all had a piece of pie: razzleberry for me, german chocolate for Dear, and sour cream apple for #3.

The food was good, but more expen$$ive than we had anticipated. And afterward, we all felt awful, and it made for an uncomfortable evening. We watched a Hallmark Channel movie, I crocheted, #3 chatted online, and then we all went to bed early (11:30). One thing I’ve noticed about being in this time zone: the days seem to last forever. That’s random, but it just popped into my head so I wrote it.

My cell phone has served as our alarm clock for this trip. I usually set it and put it on the night stand between the beds so we’ll all hear it in the morning. No problem so far. Until Anderson. For some reason, my phone would interfere with the cheapo hotel clock/radio frequency (I don’t know how to explain it, but if you’ve ever talked on your cell phone around a radio, you know what I mean) and the clock would make that annoying buzzing sound at random intervals and without warning.

The first time we heard the buzz, I just put my cell phone under my pillow on the opposite side away from the nightstand. The buzzing didn’t stop. Finally, about 3:00 I just yanked the clock/radio cord out of the wall socket, put my cell phone back on the night stand, and went to sleep again.

Then the fun really started. The people in the room next to ours (on the other side of the adjoining door) decided to start talking and laughing loudly at 4:15. Woke us all up – and that’s really saying something if they woke up #3!

I had seen a couple of men going into that room earlier and they seemed rather jovial. I can only imagine how their evening went to make them so slap-happy in the wee hours. That’s probably very non-politically correct, but HELLO? We were trying to sleep! We could tell by the voices that there were at least 4 people in on the fun – and at least one of them was female.

Dear got out of bed and cranked up the air conditioner in our room for white noise to drown out the party, but the stupid thing kept cycling off leaving us in relative silence in our room and privy to the goings on in the next room. Thrilling. I considered calling the front desk, but didn’t want to risk life and limb by poking a stick at the party-ers. They finally quieted down about 5:00 and we three went back to sleep.

8:00. Noise from the next room AGAIN. Do these people never sleep?? Are they vampires who sleep during the day? What’s up with this? But this time, they added slamming doors to the cacophony. Since the sun was up now, our A/C was running full speed ahead and helped to drown out some of the noise. We managed to doze until my phone alarm went off at 10. Grrr.

I must admit that when we got up and heard nothing coming from the other side of the adjoining door, I deliberately banged my suitcase lid against said door just for spite. It was a futile, childish attempt at neener-neener, because almost immediately they started talking, laughing and slamming doors again. Sigh. There’s no justice. Or rest for the weary.

#3 turned on the TV (loudly) to some wildlife show and the first thing I heard was, “Oh no, the hippo decoy is stuck in the mud!” HUH?? The human “star” of the show was in Zambia or some such place trying to get a sweat sample from a female hippopotamus (for whatever reason, I don’t even want to know) and had cleverly (?) concocted a hippo decoy to fool the female into approaching what she assumed to be an available male hippo. Duh. That’s the first picture. The decoy is the one on the left that’s laying there like a beached, um, hippo.

We checked out at 11:45 and were traveling by 11:47. A few miles down the road, we started seeing signs for the Olive Pit and an accompanying olive tasting. Then we began seeing olive groves on either side of the road. This was the first time we’d ever had an olive opportunity, so we stopped. And took a picture. Are you surprised?

The Olive Pit in Corning was a little store that sold mostly olives. All kinds and varieties and flavors. I’ve never seen so many olives in one place. There were garlic olives, pickled olives, stuffed jalapeno olives, smoked olives, black olives, every kind of olive you could ever imagine and then some. They also had pickled garlic, sauerkraut, artichoke pastes, rows and rows of EVOO (Rachael Ray should buy stock here!), and even some souvenirs thrown in for good measure. There was a little deli counter on one side of the store where you could “build your own olive sandwich.” Yuk. We passed on that opportunity.

I tasted a pickled garlic clove and a hot ‘n spicy olive while Dear and #3 pretended they didn’t know me. I bought a green shot glass and an olive spoon. The cashier also gave me a couple of postcards, a shipping order form in case I wanted to buy something later, and a free sample of lotion. Lotion? #3 wanted to know if it was Olive Lotion. NO, SA, it isn’t olive lotion! The Olive Pit was an interesting little diversion from the drive on The 5.

As we were leaving the Olive Pit, we saw a man walking his dog that appeared to be a Papillon (the dog, not the man), but it was much bigger than our grand-dog, Jaxon. Dear stopped the car and I asked the man if I could take a picture of his dog for comparative purposes. Thus the dog photo.

From Corning, we found a Subway and had a light lunch to hold us till we got to our destination for the next 3 nights: Hayward and the San Francisco/Oakland/Bay Area. We made it without incident. Gas is back up in the $4.45 - $4.75 range. The hotel where we’re staying is a Best Western MOTEL (it’s hard to tell the difference with those Internet promo photos), but it’s in a quiet neighborhood and close to the freeways.

We rested for a while and then Maggs directed us toward an Olive Garden for a familiar eating place. On the way there, we saw a Mimi’s Café and detoured there for dinner. It was wonderful. And reasonably priced. We took a little side excursion to find a UPS store for the aforementioned mailing of the redwood windmill and then made it back to the hotel – I mean motel – for a quiet evening.

The outside temp is 70 with very little humidity. The forecast for where we just came from is in the 100’s for the whole week, with the hottest day being Wednesday with a potential temp of 109! I’m really glad we’ve come south and west of that heat wave. Of course, we’ll be back in TX by Wednesday, but I’m just saying.

There are beautiful flowers and trees everywhere. The first floral picture doesn’t show the true color. The flowers are more of a deep, hot pink. It’s probably because of the shooting angle. The other two photos are more accurate color-wise. Just don’t know what they are!

We have a bunch of brochures to help us decide how to spend the next couple of days, but we know for sure we want to see a Pacific Ocean sunset at least once more before we leave for TX. And visit Fisherman’s Wharf, Alcatraz and ride the cable cars. And get some photos of the Golden Gate Bridge.

But first we want to get a good night’s sleep without slamming doors, laughing neighbors, or annoying electronic devices. Here’s hoping…

ttfn