Day 9: Stockton = hell

Well today we didn't do anything worthy of picture taking, so no pictures to share today. Mostly we just drove and drove and got lost and drove more.

We started out the day in Stinkyfield and proceeded to the closest health food store, which was not that close. When we got there it was more of a vitamin shop than a food store, but we found some new gluten-free items to try, and the elderly clerk really enjoyed chatting with Laura about how his girlfriend's granddaughter could be her twin and about his one day (probably in 1972) that he went to New York. Laura was horrified at the idea of having a twin in Bakersfield. We hope her twin can escape soon.

We finally got on the road after having breakfast on the car in the parking lot of Rite Aid. A man walking by yelled to us that what we were eating (rice cakes and peanut butter AGAIN) looked good. He informed us he had just bought some Hungry Man dinners. Oh dear.

The secenery in this part of California is not particularly attractive. Everything is kind of dry and beige. We did pass miles and miles of almond trees, and olive trees. We also were somewhat disturbed by what appeared to be a cattle feedlot with many cows in pens and no grass. The smell of that area makes us both gag a little just thinking about it. It lasted for miles and miles and was so bad we could hardly breathe.

Around Stockton, after a good 4 hours of driving in pure nothingness we got off to try and find a bathroom or wireless or both. Stockton, or at least the part where we got off, was terrifying. We could not find a bathroom and for some reason Sabrina thought stopping at a local park was a good idea. So you have the mental picture: this park was the local hangout for all the hoodlums of the neighborhood. Many people gathered on park benches, doing who-knows what. As soon as we got within a few feet of the bathroom door a cloud of about 100 flies flew away. Sabrina got within a foot or so of the door and saw police caution tape on one of the stalls. She immediately turned around and said "we are leaving NOW." Laura had no objections whatsoever. So back in the car we went, with locked doors. We gave up on Stockton and decided to try Sacramento instead.

Sacramento is a very big city for which we had no map once again. We drove for several miles around and around looking for a Starbucks. If we had been in Seattle we would have passed at least 12 Starbucks in the area we covered, but here after a good 20 minutes we only found one. Even Starbucks was a trial, with faulty wireless, and a long journey to the bathroom where we had a security guy try to helpfully unlock the bathroom door for us, despite there being someone in it, who spent a good 10 minutes in there changing clothes or something while we stood outside. Finally we finished up there and took another journey to Whole Foods which we found comforting once we finally got there. I should mention that we also got cranky because it was approximately 95 degrees and we were wearing long pants because we didn't know it would be so freakin' hot.

We got food at Whole Foods planning to camp for the night with the goal of camping outside Redding. However, by the time we got on the road again from Sac as they seem to call it, we were running late again.

We made a valiant effort to camp. But there is NOTHING on the road for miles and miles and miles north of Sacramento. We found a couple of campsites mainly set up for RVs (no firepits in the supposed tent areas and no one there to take our money). Meanwhile the sun was going down and down. We finally gave up and drove to Redding and found a motel 6, where we can not make any of the food we were going to cook over the fire and so it's left over guacamole and chips tonight. We were kind of bummed not to get to camp but the only other campsites around here are a good 30 miles east and it was just too dark to try.

the only redeeming venture of the day was our trip to a little place called the "Olive Pit" which sells local olives and olive oil. We each got some yummy local olive oil and had fun trying all the different kinds of olives.