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A Day on the Freeway

My Alphabe Thursday theme—Places I've Been
Last year, the Husband and I drove home from San Diego, about 465 miles, in one day.  As young selves, the Husband and I were great long-distance freeway drivers. We each could go hours without stopping. Now, we want a bathroom, as well as our bodies need to stretch out of our cramped sitting positions, every 90 minutes or so.

When I'm a passenger, I entertain myself by taking photos out the window, of which I'm sharing some with you today. Hope you enjoy the road trip up southern and central California.

Our trip home started on Interstate 5. Almost immediately we were startled by the towering San Diego California Temple (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) at the side of the freeway.

This is the northern edge of San Diego County. This terrain has always intrigued me. Not sure why. Just north of here starts a bunch of beach towns.

See the two people sticking cameras out their windows on the left. See the smoke on the right. A sideshow has just started. The traffic was stop and go so some morons idiots dumb clucks people could feel all powerful about themselves.

Lots of palm trees off the freeway in Southern California. Lots of them.
Every now and then, you see a bell on the side of Highway 101. It marks the trail of the old El Camino Real that the Franciscan friars made as they built 21 missions from San Diego to Sonoma between the 1760s and 1830s. Supposedly a mission was a day's walk away from the next one. Here's a link about the California missions, if you're interested.

One of the things I like about driving 101 in Southern California is occasionally seeing the ocean.

Do you see the face at center of the bottom of the cliff?

The Big Yellow House in Summerland, just south of Santa Barbara, is supposed to be haunted. The house was built in the late 19th century for a spiritualist colony. Until recently it was a restaurant. Here's a link for more info. I'm too much of a scaredy cat to skim more than a paragraph.

The mountains get a rounded look the closer you get to San Luis Obispo.

Crossing over into Monterey County.

That's the Salinas River, known as the Upside Down River because it flows north rather than east or south like most other rivers do. The mountain peak on the horizon is Pinnacles National Park, one of the newest parks in the National Park Service. We are 90 minutes or so away from home. Hurrah!


It's Alphabe Thursday with the lovely Jenny Matlock. To read what other bloggers have written about the letter F, please click here.

Comments

  1. Wow that was one long trip car drive. I like the face in the mountain.

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    1. Usually, we take 2 to 3 days to drive this trip, but the Husband had to prep for a colonoscopy so we decided to jam on home.

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  2. Replies
    1. We like this drive better than through the Central Valley, even though that one is faster. But, depending on the time of day, you can lose all that time in Los Angeles traffic.

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  3. I am like u, in our younger days we traveled quite a bit. Now I need a lot of toilet stops.

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    1. We've even stopped at hospitals for the bathroom. lol

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  4. I love these pictures!! The church is quite massive and white. Oh yes, I see the face and it reminds me a little bit of those Easter Island sculptures. The palm trees look neat the way you took the picture and that mountain looks almost soft. Is that a road leading up it or a walking path?? I would go into that haunted house for sure. I love that neat bell-Did you ring it so an angel gets its its wings??

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    1. I don't remember if the bells ever had the ding-ding part to them. If they did, the powers that be probably took them out because people like me would ding-ding them.

      That might be a fire road or a private road leading to someone's ranch on those soft mounds of a mountain. It would be interesting to see what's on the other side.

      Yup. I can see you having fun in that haunted house. You can wave to me from the window. Have you heard of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose? You'd love that one. Poor old rich Sarah Winchester kept adding rooms and passage ways that went no where to her house to confound the spirits of the dead who were killed by the Winchester rifles. I took a tour of that one. Very cool.

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    2. Oh yes I have heard of that house and would love to go there. I love that she added staircases to nowhere and doors that didn't open-poor thing

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  5. I loved going on the road trip with you! I have never been that way so your photos were lovely and interesting to see :)

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  6. I always need to have those pit stops! LOL! I sure enjoyed all the photos. A very nice collection of scenery too. Thank you and have a good weekend.

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  7. Beautiful landscape along your drive ! We too used to do Belgium - Italy in one shot about 700 miles, but then we started to stop for one night, before continuing. It was too tiring ! Now when we have a long drive we stop every two hours to stretch our old bones and look for the pipi room !

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    1. On our way down, we stopped for a night about halfway in a town we've never been -- Port Hueneme. Isn't that a cool looking word? I think it's pronounced Whoo-en-ay-may. The Husband and I still talk about one day driving cross county. We wouldn't be in any hurry so that could take our whole lives. :-)

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  8. Such scenery ... space! Beautiful Thank you for taking me on a wonderful journey xx

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    1. California is very spacious. We just tend to live close together in urban areas. It's just as well. Glad you enjoyed the journey.

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  9. So nice to enjoy your scenery without having to spend a day in the car. Thank you!

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  10. What beautiful scenery along the highway. It's completely different from the rolling plains around my area.

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    1. Yesterday, the Husband and I drove down the coast. I'd forgotten how amazingly huge the coastal mountains are and different from what we saw driving along this highway.

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  11. That is a long drive. Like you I used to drive 500 miles a day and rarely stop. In the past I've driven from Texas to New Jersey and back and Texas to North Carolina and back. I just don't think I can do it anymore. Maybe a couple of hundred miles a day with numerous rest stops! The drive through California sure was scenic. Not how I pictured some of it, but I've only been to Palm Springs and that was as a child.

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    1. I would love to drive across the U.S. again to see how the scenery has changed or not changed from 40 years ago. There would definitely be many stops along the way.

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  12. That face has some serious eyebrows! ... Mrs Widds and I plan to at the very least change drivers every hour. All those stresses we put on our bodies when we were young? It's payback time! :)

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    1. For sure. Both the Husband and me were getting a cramped leg after an hour of driving yesterday. Getting out of the car is so funny. Grunt, puff, moan. Stretch.

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  13. Flowers in first photo are gorgeous.

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    1. I think that was just north of Port Hueneme in Southern California.

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  14. What a fun trip!

    I didn't know that's what the bells were for! How fun to learn something new today!

    I miss road trips!

    I agree with you on the 90 minute bathroom, leg/cramp limit. Getting old. Sigh.

    Thanks for a fun link for the letter F.

    A+

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    1. Hi, Jenny. Thanks for the A+. I love your A-pluses. Takes me back to first grade.

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Thanks for the good cheer. :-)

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