{"id":703,"date":"2012-04-01T22:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T02:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=703"},"modified":"2024-12-03T16:47:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T21:47:29","slug":"april-foolishness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=703","title":{"rendered":"April Foolishness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Sacramento, California<\/em> — April 1, a day for fools, and I\u2019m out of cat litter, energy, and, it appears, good sense. My choice to drive north on back roads, thus neatly avoiding LA traffic clogs and saving time, has left me in the middle of who-knows-where, a high-wind weather system raging wild outside. If I blew away, no one would even know. The wind snapped the car door open; the temp had dropped to 44 degrees. I vaguely remembered sweating in Phoenix yesterday while loading up. Not so today. \u201cDon\u2019t pee just yet,\u201d I warned the cats, \u201cI\u2019ll stop for litter soon.\u201d Sand and pebbles scraped against the car like fine-blade knives; I could hear the noise, whap whap whap. A ding, my new-car glass is not so perfect now. A wooden chair ahead, squarely in the road, blown from someone\u2019s yard. A garbage can. A tumbleweed (or tree!) almost as tall as me. Houses huddled; mountains just beyond with snow on top; it must have hit last night. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A rainbow up ahead, a welcome sign? I was deceived; it didn\u2019t welcome me, it pounded hard, rain as thick as thieves, the mountains closed together leaving space for just the road; then up ahead the sign, I-5, enter here. Two hours gone by now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I needed gas. The Gorman exit, a little spot tucked in a ravine; the snow came down, wet and thick and fast. I shook my head in disbelief, a double whammy, snow and sticker shock, the gas-pump sign blared out: $4.59. What choice for April fools?<\/p>\n

Elevation 4,350 feet. Six lanes of curves; the right-hand lane the rule for trucks, don\u2019t drive over 35. I got behind the trucks. The rain and snow too thick to see; stay focused, fool, stay right, and take it slow. And then the mountains lost their hold; the Tehachapi conquered now, the Coast Range far off to my left, I\u2019m in the Valley, the San Joaquin; you\u2019re probably eating something grown right here, right now.<\/p>\n

Raisins? The raisin grape is #1, then table grapes, and wine. Nuts? Almonds and pistachios are big-crop items, I saw a million trees, rowed up in orchards neat and fine. Oranges too, and kiwi; asparagus, tomatoes; things growing brighten up my soul; soul food, I call it; productive land. Sheep and cattle here as well, some dairy farming too. It\u2019s beautiful to see.<\/p>\n

Oh, patient cats! I haven\u2019t got the promised litter yet. I\u2019ve seen no nearby town, the need is drastic now. There\u2019s Avenal, five miles away, a winding road through golden hills. Music in the air, storefronts colored bright, a fairy tale? (Google shows this town of 15,000 is 72% Latino now, built in 1929 by Standard Oil after discovery of the Kettleman Oil Field; once a boomtown, now home to Avenal State Prison, which provides a thousand jobs, read more: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Avenal,_California<\/a> ) I found some litter at the grocery there; cats were grateful; on we went.<\/p>\n

The miles were slow, the signs were many, posted in the dusty fields that popped up now and then between the green:<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress Created Dust Bowl\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo water = no jobs + higher food costs\u201d<\/p>\n

Water is a serious issue in the Valley; rainfall is sparse, Tulare Lake is dry, the California \"\"<\/a>Aqueduct and other managed sources are all there is. Vista points along the way overlook the precious sparkling blue. I need to know the politics behind the signs that represent the green, and brown. http:\/\/www.water.ca.gov\/<\/a><\/p>\n

A hundred miles to go. I have to stop, a potty break and grab a box of Popeye\u2019s chicken at the travel stop; this April fool will drive and munch; can\u2019t waste a minute sitting still. \"\"<\/a>The scenery makes a drastic change. The area is wet with streams and ponds, the road needs bridges now. Sacramento city limits, surprise, I see pointy trees! A fir tree spotting, palm trees too, Sacramento is a mix of north and south?<\/p>\n

In our room at last, the 10-hour drive no sweat for fools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Sacramento, California — April 1, a day for fools, and I\u2019m out of cat litter, energy, and, it appears, good sense. My choice to drive north on back roads, thus neatly avoiding LA traffic clogs and saving time, has left me in the middle of who-knows-where, a high-wind weather system raging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4586,194],"tags":[205,199,202,200,203,201,204,198],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27212,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions\/27212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}