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.

I still sleep on one side of the bed even tough they're not there.

It is warmer in the valley. Everything is so green, the foliage, the grass, and the deciduous trees have their fall foliage.

The crops were so green. The fog obscured most of the landscape.

The roadside was full of grass and trees in their full glory.

The valley started to give way to the Coast Range.

The mountains being fully green and lit from above like a spotlight came and went as the day progressed.

The cows keep these mountains full of grass.

The greens that were here were great. The clouds overhead parted to light one hill amongst the others.

The light was amazing.

The landscape has a different mixture of grass, evergreens, pine, and palms. The deciduous trees were loosing their leaves. The air felt like spring instead of fall.

I was near the bay and the hills let me see the water from time to time.

Oakland was nearing and the land got more and more industrial.

Yellow flowers sprang up everywhere. It just looked like spring. I got to Oakland and it was gross.

I cut my day really short today. I had a rough night last night and was grateful to get to sleep. I was in a good mood and was in good standing with where I was in my trip. Not being able to look at a picture of Ani is hard enough without having to be reminded of my family that I lost. I love my girls, Geode, Dinosaur, Niis. Seeing pictures of them just kicked my ass and made me feel terrible that I'm never going to be able to see them again.