A Step Back In Time

 Welcome to sunny California where you lose time just as fast as you gain it.  Yup it's that time of year again.  Spring forward and lose an hour of sleep.  I tried to be proactive and hit the bed early, but that strategy just did not work.  I finally took an Advil, hoping to meet Mr. Sandman quickly.  Alas, he was elusive.  

On the OTHER hand, I can no longer say I got up at 4:00.  One hour in the day went POOF!!  And just like that I now arise at 5:00.  

I thought to kill two birds with one stone on this day.  The van needs to be driven and I accidentally found a quilt store about 40 miles away in the middle of COW country.  Truly I wasn't expecting much, but getting out of the house was a treat.  Here we are taking the NO TOLL ROADS route.  

It's been awhile since I visited this part of the country.  In the very old days we used to haul our horses up here for parades and rodeos.  This is the COWBOY CAPITAL of California.  Oakdale to be exact.  You can tell just how far out this is, and how OLD it is from the street lights.  It used to be beef cattle and dairy country, but almonds have taken it over.  Few people know this used to be the home of a huge Hershey's Chocolate factory, which sadly closed down in 2008.  This is where Hershey Kisses and Reeses peanut butter cups came from.

As far as the eye can see, there are orchards and nurseries now.  All those trees you see in Home Depot?  Many are grown here over hundreds of acres.

Little towns are few and far between.  Driving through the first one, I looked down to see I was very LOW on fuel.  Oh look ... an Arco station.  I pulled in navigating the tiny driveway and parked.  Into the fuel tank I stuck the nozzle.  That's when I saw it.  $6.79 A GALLON!  YIKES!!!  I guess there is something to be said about living in a much bigger town closer to the freeway.  I got $50.00 worth, less than a quarter tank, but enough to get me back to civilization.

You know I drive a little fast ... or at least the speed limit.  It took me 59 minutes to drive 38 miles, there were so many stop signs before finally arriving at Blossom Quilting.  

It's Saturday ... when quilt shops everywhere are packed to the brim.  Except this one.  There was not one person in the store.  Wow ... I was impressed with their inventory.  Much of it was not my taste, but the most fascinating part was as you walk around, the lights over your head brighten so you can see the fabric better.  

Did I mention this is COWBOY country?  They have more cowboy fabric than I have seen ANYWHERE.  That just might come in handy, but not today.  I needed fabric for the Veterans quilt.  I was not disappointed.  Apparently once a month they have a sew day where they make Quilts of Valor.

That means lots of patriotic fabric.  I even found my all time favorite flag fabric.  I bought the entire bolt, along with a couple of extras.  It's probably a good thing I didn't take any patterns with me, because I might have bought out half the store.   Here's an interesting tidbit ... they actually have a sewing RV retreat every year.  That might be a fun one to go to!

Heading out of town, I was again SHOCKED!!  I previously laughed at the thought of $8.00 fuel, but the Chevron station in town was at $7.89 FOR DIESEL.  I'm apparently lucky I live closer to civilization!

I bumped along the back roads heading home an hour later.  You know you're in the country when the road signs are all about "Tractor Crossing" and "Slow Moving Equipment".  I made it home just in time for lunch.

That was my plan because THIS was being delivered around 2:00.  My longarm computer is back after 8 weeks of surgery at the Doctor back East.  I was very leery to plug it in, but finally got up the nerve.  No, I did NOT turn it on.  That is going to require the right mindset.  I know the system was upgraded, meaning nothing will work the same.  I need to be in I CAN DO THIS mode before I tackle it.  

Dinner was just a few bites of roast turkey.  I don't think I have ever cooked one of these before.  Patty and Dan roasted one at their house, and it was delicious!!  All white meat turkey breast roasted in my Breville tabletop oven for two hours.  It came out PERFECT!  Not that I will get a lot of it, because it's basically to feed the Cooper Boy.  He gets some of this with his kibble.

The day ended with this gorgeous sight ... another rare sunset in California.  Kitters, Cooper and I sat on the patio for about ten minutes watching the sun go down.  It instantly turned cold, so we didn't stay long.

By the way, Kitters has got it down now.  I left her outside last night and about 1:00 am she came back in the doggie door.  Now that I've got her going IN, I need to get her going OUT the same way.  BECAUSE in a couple of weeks, I'll be gone camping for three days.  I'm determined to get more use out of my RV van!!