Taking a new road.....

Well....I guess it's been a while since my last blog. To catch everyone up....I ended up moving in with my parents, getting a new puppy (Riley), buying the Nissan Sentra, graduating with my degree (FINALLY!) and then moving back out to California. That is the nutshell version of what I've done since my last post in April 2008. I truly hope that I will be blogging more frequently in the future. Not that I have many, if any readers.....but in case the four people who may read this were interested.

Anyway...I woke up this morning to realize that while I am currently inhibited from doing a lot of activities by a small cash flow problem (I'm still job hunting), I do have a decent car and I live in a state that has some of the prettiest landscapes and diverse drives, all within a couple hours of my place. So I decided to resurrect "The Sunday Drive". Growing up in Alaska, I remember that my parents used to take my sister & I on these drives. We would go up into the mountains, or down along the coast to the Kenai Peninsula. We would listen to Billy Joel tapes and occasionally make stops at country stores for treats. I recall scoring a plastic figure of a Kodiak Bear on one of these trips. I ask my sister if she remembers these trips, but both she and my parents tell me it was really only the one time we did that......it seemed like more then one to me.

After we moved to Ohio, we would take fall drives through the Metroparks system and along the Lake Erie shoreline up to the islands. I would make many of these trips with my grandparents, sandwiched between them on the bench seat of their old truck, while my Grandmother's little rat terrier, Rugs would dance across our laps running from window to the next. My Grandfather always took the back roads from their house in Olmsted Falls to the boat dock on Catawba Island that would take us to our cottage on South Bass Island. These roads wound through farmland and vineyards and little towns with names like Vermillion, Columbia Station, Wellington and Amherst. I ended up moving to Amherst and managing the old once screen theatre there in the late 90's. When we moved to Minnesota in 1990, we would take drives along the southern part of the state, following the Mississippi River along the river bluffs where the leaves would be so vivid with their fall colors. We would cross the river at Lake City, MN and drive along the Wisconsin side of the river, visiting orchards and historical markers, this was "The Big Woods" of Laura Ingalls Wilder fame. During high school, a crush on a boy led me join "Explorer's Club" which would take me on even more drives, hikes and canoe trips through the Upper Midwest. Once I obtained my driver's license, I enjoyed driving around taking new roads to wherever they might lead me to. During my brief stay at Kent State University, I would take always take the back roads home on the weekends.

However, once I moved out on my own, I never seemed to have the time to take these drives anymore. Sure, I've been on the occasional trip that would take me to places (my almost yearly camping trip with friends to El Capitan State Beach) it had been a while since I just got in the car and randomly drove someplace. Having three jobs and school will find anyone with a shortage of time.

So today I bundled my dog into the car, topped off my gas tank and set out ending north & west on the 101 Freeway. I ended up choosing to visit the Ojai Valley, about 75 miles northwest from my house. It was a beautiful day, not surprisingly it is California after all, but it was sunny and 75 most of the day. I drove to downtown Ojai and parked my car. As I ran into the store to get the dog some water, I came back to the one damper on the day....while in the store, my dog surrendered most of his breakfast all over my leather seats....so headed back into the store (thanks ladies of the Rainbow Bridge Natural Foods for the cleaning advice) to buy some baby wipes and paper towels. Went for a long walk around the town, snapping pictures in my best tourist fashion. Back in the car and drove out through the Valley to Lake Casitas. Stopped and got some fresh fruit and vegetables from a farmstand and instead of taking the 101 (lots of traffic) I chose instead to take the two lane road through Conejo and Santa Clarita Valleys. Lots of citrus groves and more farmstands selling everything from fresh fruits salsas, honey, avocados and almonds. The mountain ranges changed from the green ranges of the Topa-Topa Range to the brown, chaparral covered ranges of the Santa Susana. One of my favorite movies, "King of California" was filmed in this area. The citrus groves gave way to oil rigs and desert cactus as I wound my way closer to the town of Valencia, where I turned south and headed home. It was a great day....even with a carsick puppy.

Tune in next Sunday, going to search for the ostrich farm on the Central Coast