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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Headed on the Hwy, Lookin' for adventure !!!!

So My husband decided that we should take a road trip for our vacation. We had been batting back and forth about things to do. We were lucky that hubby's kids were going to be with their grandparents and my kids were going to be on vacation with their dad. We had it made 5 vacation days to go somewhere, just the two of us ! It's been forever since we've gone somewhere when it was just us ! Last place we went on a trip to alone was "Disneyland". Yep that's right, we adults took off without our children and drove to Los Angles on a Friday night, spent the weekend with Mickey Mouse and Friends ! We had a blast. So this time we weren't exactly sure what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go. We had always wanted to go to the "Grand Canyon" and it was supposed to be our Honeymoon after we got married, but due to good ole' Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans our wedding and our honeymoon got pushed off the burner ! *A story for another blog post* Anyway we did want to go to the "Grand canyon" and we thought what a more perfect time than now. We knew it wasn't a lot of time that we had but we knew it could be done. With some time spend driving each day we would make it there. Here is where the fun began. My Husband stopped for a gas fill up and bought me a huge Venti Caramel Frapp from Starbucks ! What a perfect way to begin our road trip ! Music, tank full of gas, and huge frozen cold caramel coffee's with whipped cream ! Yummy ! We drove and drove around hilly curves up a mountain side. I felt a bit carsick and my husband kept asking if I was okay. Kept offering me to drive ! Heck no, I didn't want to drive when I could sit there and relax. After a long drive of beautiful scenery we did arrive in a little town called Bridgeport, California.

Here is my sweet husband along the Bridge over the river. It was absolutely gorgeous there. So quiet and peaceful. It was kind of cool there too which was nice after leaving the valley floor of a 98*degree day.
I don't have pictures of Bridgeport and where we stayed that night for a couple of reasons, first reason was that we arrived at night. The wasn't much to see really. It didn't occur to me to take any photos. Bridgeport is a small tiny town with one street of shops,restaurants,and about 3 hotels, or more like motels. We stayed at the "Bridgeport Inn" Take a look here to see for yourself this little Inn . http://www.thebridgeportinn.com/ After checking in to the Inn we walked across the street to the Rhino Bar and Grill . Here see the Rhino for yourself . Oh wow, no website for the rhino, go figure. It's just a teeny tiny small country bar that the locals like to have a night out at. It served fantastic Pizza which we heartily ate along side some great beers and also sampled a side of Jalapeno poppers , which are my favorite sinful appetizer to indulge in ! After some Delicious food, great beers, we played some pool and enjoyed the small town atmosphere. It was really fun. Also our Waitress Tina was a blast and she tried telling me that I could stretch my huge boobies into a Tiny T-shirt that they had for sale ! LOL. No Tina, I don't think it will fit ! No matter what it wasn't going to fit over my large chest. So after my husband and I were back at the Inn , I tried on the tee shirt. No surprise it didn't fit. The poor Rhino was stretched so much he didn't even resemble a Rhino anymore ! No Waitress Tina, It doesn't fit. SO my sweet drunk husband walked back across the street to talk to Waitress Tina. He exchanged my too tight teeny tiny tank top that Waitress Tina said would stretch and exchanged it for a XL Men's T-shirt for himself ! *When will clothing Manufactures realize that not all women have itty bitty boobies? * I'm still waiting ! Please note: My Husband would never have done this exchange of the shirt unless he was 2sheets to the wind like he was ! I took advantage of that and had him get himself a shirt instead of having a tank that I couldn't wear or give to our girls because it wouldn't be appropriate for them to have a RHINO bar and grill tee with a RHINO drinking a nice glass of BEER with a great head on top ! LOL My husband here is trying to figure out the best possible route we should take !

We make it through Sonora pass , check out that elevation there ! Can you believe how high this place is ? I couldn't. Getting out of the car felt like a ton of bricks on your chest here. It was really hard to breath. It was super exciting to go over this pass for me because my husband went on a family trip when he was a young boy and they went over this pass. Since then he has always talked about taking this trip again and wanted to show it to me. It felt like the closest place to God you could ever be. Amazing place . There isn't any tourist attractions or places to shop, no places to eat out, no places to do anything, but the most perfect place to relax and watch the world pass by at the slow pace it can only do along the mountain side . I'm so very happy we took this trip and I now know what my husband is talking about when he tells this story of "God's Country", that's what he refers to it as. Gorgeous After waking up at the Inn, we had a great breakfast in the Inn's Restaurant. It was good and the coffee was better. We quickly ate and then toured the Inn before leaving. After driving along the hwy we spotted some Deer on the hillside. If you look closely in this picture below you will see two Deers. It was so neat to spot them standing there grazing. They are just beautiful creatures.We finally arrived in BODIE, CALIFORNIA. It is a Town Frozen in Time. Check out the website here.
http://www.bodie.com/ It was an amazing place to see. It is a Old town chock full of Mining history and all of the families that lived here. Trying to become rich and survive in a place that was almost unsurvivable. It was a hard life and I suggest taking the time to go over to the bodie website and see it for yourself. It's so interesting. We enjoyed our walking tour of this old ghost town, took alot of pictures and then enjoyed going through the museum full of small trinkets, tool, utensils, and items that the people who lived here used on a daily basis. The state of California is looking to close this state park next year and I would hate to see it close. It is such a great place full of California history and we need to take care of and protect our history to teach our children and future generations to come. Write the state of California legislators to keep BODIE state park open. In the museum they are gathering signatures to protest this closure. If you can write that letter to help protect California History ! Here is how the town looks. Many buildings are still standing. The town has endured two fires that had wiped out many buildings and then the town folk rebuilt them. Now with time decaying the remaining structures are falling down. However some are still structurally sound. In this picture, here is a old Truck along side the town gas pumps. I thought those were amazingly cool to see. We decided that we could spend a whole entire day in this great ghost town but that we were under time constraints so we had better get back on the road. I would have liked to see more of bodie as we didn't get to see all of it. Nor did we get to take the tour of the stamp mill but maybe if enough folks sign the protest to keep bodie open then we can take this trip another time and show it to our children. Then we'd have more time to spend there. After we drove again we came to MONO lake. Here is a great website to see what Mono lake is all about. http://www.monolake.org/about/ Here are some facts taken from the website link above :
Quick Facts
DEPTH OF MONO LAKE Maximum = 159 feet. Average = 57 feet.
AGE OF MONO LAKE At least 760,000 years old and probably 1-3 million years; among the oldest lakes in North America.
VOLUME OF MONO LAKE4.3 million acre-feet at 6,417' asl (in 1941 before diversions)3.1 million acre-feet at 6,392' asl (future stabilization level)2.6 million acre-feet at 6,383' asl (2002 level)2.1 million acre-feet at 6,372' asl (1982, lowest recorded level)
LAKE LEVEL The lake level before the diversions of Mono's tributary streams was 6,417 feet above sea level (asl). The current lake level is 6382.5 feet asl (1,946 meters), its volume is approximately 2.6 million acre feet, and its surface area is approximately 45,133 acres. It is expected to take over 20 years to reach 6,392 feet asl, the Water Board-ordered stabilization level. Once it reaches 6,392', it should usually fluctuate about 6 feet in elevation and occasionally rise as high as 6,400', and during extreme drought, drop as low as 6,382'. The yearly evaporation rate is approximately 45 inches per year. Click here for more current and past lake levels.
Without restrictions on stream diversions, the lake would have eventually stabilized at approximately 6,355 feet asl with fluctuations of 21 vertical feet. During periods of extreme drought, the lake might have fallen as low as 6,336 feet asl.
This is part one of our great Road trip , follow up on Part 2 to read the second half !



















































1 comment:

  1. A good road trip ALWAYS starts with Starbucks! Looks like a great time so far!

    ReplyDelete