Driving home 05-04-14

I stayed with my friend Mary in San Juan Bautista for two nights.  Her husband Joe is in a Skilled Nursing Facility for physical therapy and after many months of caring for him at home she is finding herself at loose ends.  I wish I could have stayed longer, maybe I will take another trip up soon.

 

The area around SJBautista is part of the great "veggie garden" of California where so much of the produce eaten in the US is grown.  I was mostly making tracks today, but stopped at the beginning of my drive to take a few pictures.

 

Mary and Joe live up in the hills in a live oak woodland.  Coming down to the flat valley the road goes through rolling hills which this year are as dry as they usually are in August.  These trees are planted around farm houses.

 

Turning from where I took the first picture I see these very large hoops with their covers furled.

 

 

A little further down the road the covers are up shading what appear to be berry bushes.  Why some are covered and some not is a mystery - the covered bushes are thicker and taller than the uncovered.

 

 

Out on Hwy 156 the road curves through fields, gradually rising to go over Pacheco Pass and then down to I-5 and the inland valley. 

 

The drive was almost exactly six hours today, including a coffee stop and another for gas.  Southbound traffic was light with few trucks and I was home at 3:30pm where I promptly took a nap.

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