Drowning Duck

I am spending my days sleeping as much as I can and watching movies. There are plenty of suburbs on the way to Yosemite so I am exploring them all.

The highways here are crazy busy even in the middle of the day. There is so much green along the roadsides and drainage ditches.

The Coast Ranges gradually gave way to the Sacramento Valley.

Townhomes, or whatever they are called, snaked throughout the land and up into the mountains. Seeing single family homes snake everywhere is very familiar to me, but the density of these homes was very different.

December in California. Some plants know what's up and take a break for winter, but a lot of plants are just in high gear for the winter.

California's landscape is beautiful everywhere I go. And it mad even more amazing because so very much of it is highly developed and polluted. The mountains are brimming with wind turbines and dirty air.

The turbines were so beautiful in the sunset.

As it was Christmas Eve I was nearing the end of the cities before I got into the Sierra Nevada's and onto Yosemite. I found one of the onlt things to do in the city on Christmas (a movie theater) and found a nice quiet place to sleep. As this street was quiet and suburban, the homeowner noticed me there that night. I was up after noon greeted by the man of the house bringing me warm sandwich and some questions. He had checked my car out before I woke and though it might have been someone from the insurance company trying to get him off workman's compensation because of an injury he had. He was really nice and I felt bad freaking him out all night.

The area the movie theater is in was a mall being built. It had a Cabella's with outdoor landscaping and what I can't even call ironic set of deer.

The theater had a pond that attracted wildlife that had ducks. There were fountains and what just looked like pumps in the middle. I watched a duck head dive around one of these pumps. It was drowning.

The light made rainbows on the bottom of the clear pond water.

This duck was getting rained on by the fountain.

The ducks were fake. I guess they were there to attract real ducks. The pond is naturalizing and I would hope they keep it that way.

I'm proud of my 5,000 miles of dirt. THESE COLORS DON'T FADE! I'm at the point that I'm not sure if other people can see my brake lights, but they can hear my brakes so we're even. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and time with their families. What I had to give up in family I tried to make up for in great weather.

My Body Lost Control Of Its Soul.

Motel 6 sucks, having no alarm clock is a pain and their sheets look like they belong to a well traveled kid. the images are so tacky, and I've seen a lot of them too so its weird. But sleeping in a warm place is great.

Reno is very close to Carson City and Lake Tahoe I found out.

As soon as I got onto the Interstate I was near Lake Tahoe. The Porsche SUV's and Landcruiserss were an indication, but the kind of homes on the way were a dead give away. These suburbs put Carmel to shame. It is sad that they are reaching ever higher into the mountains to ruin the views.

I want to enjoy the little time I spend in an area, but so many SUV's were behind me in a hurry to get to the ski lodges I got terrible pictures. The windy roads had magnificent views of the mountains, but were always obscured by guardrails or snow banks.

The cutest little towns bordered the lake. people were enjoying the little beach even this time of year which was great. Most of the beaches are so cold that there aren't even people in summer.

The lake was free of boats and was so blue. The people were having a good time making snowmen on the beach and throwing snowballs.

Little towns with populations of 200 were all along the banks of the lake and were so quaint. As I took the road out I got higher into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I have come to realize that when I am bored with the scenery I take more pictures, of course it is all beautiful, but I just LOOK at the stuff I really enjoy.

I was stricken with an overwhelming sense of joy as I got into the Sierra Nevada's.

I kept thinking of how I will spend my last days here and how great a place it is to do so.

The greenery, the warm snow, the mountains, all so great.

As I got further into the Sacramento Valley I started to see the polluted haze that I saw before in the San Joaquin Valley. The haze turned into dark clouds and it started to rain. The area has such green grass and vegetation for this time of year, even the trees are just starting to loose their leaves.

Sacramento is only 25 feet above sea level and has its own shipping route. A large wetland area surrounds the shipping route.

I got into downtown Sacramento and boy was that weird. It's California's capitol, and is a larger city, but nobody was home apparently. There were few cars driving, and less parked downtown.

Businesses weren't open and the city just looked abandoned. It was early afternoon so there should be some people around even though it's Sunday right?

Well Sacramento is one of those cities. The suburbs were loaded with people. I wasn't able to go downtown and do anything so I stopped to see Avatar. the visual effects were amazing, the story was kind of lame. i got a sore throat from talking to someone today, it just shows how little I have been using my vocal chords. Being near the Sierra Nevada's is making me have clear focus. It's been good.

So I thought I was going to California, but I ended up on the moon.

Waking up in Las Vegas is a song right? It sounds familiar. Well I didn't get married, I saw only one REAL church anyway. I did see a god looking young girl in her car in only a bar putting on makeup. I guess I'll bite...

Well pictures are a lot easier to take during the day. Vegas looses its luster during the daylight.

Street lights only illuminate the good looking spots and signs, but the day makes every nook and cranny show up.

There were rollercoasters in a few of the resorts.


The heavily themed resorts are so tacky and expensive cheap chic. Kind of like Carmel.

Brand new buildings being constructed as I type are totally weird compared to everything else. I think Vegas' urban planning consists of build and tear down only, nothing seems to flow easily.

The mall on the strip is co cool though. Open air and so expensive.


I really don't think that cellphone towers are that noticeable or ugly. Streetlights are everywhere and look evil. I do like trees though, and they look so funnily out of place. I could understand a pine cell tower next to other pines...but no.

The highway north felt odd because I knew that Area 51 and all that hush hush government stuff was on the other side of the mountains.

Some aircraft weren't secretive like this helicopter, and I kept seeing Predator drones. They are so alien looking.

The drones are so small. No one inside, just controlled. Video games are totally teaching kids the future.

Red mountain being shaped by bulldozers, not sure if they are mining or what.

Death Valley seemed...dead.

It seemed like i visited a lot of places while I was at Death Valley.


I went to the moon. Jenny O. should totally go to Death Valley. And she should bring some of her fungi fun friends.

The first thing I did when i got to California was go to the beach right? Look at that tidal wave in the background, wait those are mountains.


Then I went to the Sahara Desert.


These dunes were gorgeous.

Some kind of wildlife with a tiny dirtbike rode all around the dunes, I bet he had fun. These are seriously lizard dirtbike tracks.

This is winter as far as the west coast is concerned, and it was 75 degrees out in Death Valley. The sun was intense, and in the car, the sun was unbearable.

I was amazed when I saw how grid-like the plants were.

Dry beds where water collects when it does happen to rain leave deposits of minerals.

I have a Pontiac Sunfire, no rally car by any means, no sports car either. The roads through Death Valley were fun as hell. I guess the maximum grade on a highway can only be 6%, that's a 6 foot drop for every 100 feet of roadway. Theo roads here were 9% in some place with steep hairpin curves one right after the other, centripetal force slung my car around like there was no tomorrow. My poor car had to gun it up the grades at 4,000 rpms. The roads were just damn fun.

I hate that sunsets always look gray even though they are so saturated, wait this was the MOON.

After getting out of the Valley I ended up in a Naval Base town. Palms were the plant of the night.