It has been one short week since our return from the lone star state and we are on the road again, this time headed west instead of east. Matthew’s high school band is touring southern California this year and like last year, he requested that Kevin shadow them to act as his emergency food backup plan. When we started talking about this tour back in the fall, Kev decided that if Matthew is going to Disneyland, he is going to Disneyland. And I figured that if Kev is going to Disneyland, Malia and I were going to Disneyland too. Because seriously, how sad would it be for the two of us to be sitting here at home while Kevin and Matthew are at Disneyland? And thus, a plan was born. A plan that would involve Malia missing three days of school to experience just a little bit of Southern Cali. And a plan that means Kevin and I are having two vacations in three weeks. After some initial hesitation to submit to the plan because she didn’t want to miss school, (I love the fact that she loves school that much!) Malia ended up being on board with the plan as well.
Matthew and the band are leaving Utah this evening and driving through the night, but Kevin and I 1) are getting too old for that kind of travel, 2) will have a serious need for at least one of us to actually be awake for the whole driving part, and 3) are hoping to have enough energy to have fun at Disneyland tomorrow, so we left home bright and early this morning so that we would already be where Matthew needs us to be by the time he arrives in the morning. Malia was not a fan of the “bright and early” part, but she was excited to go and since Tiny Toothless got to accompany us on our Texas trip, we decided to take Baby Buc-ee with us to California.
Unlike the kids on the bus, we got to choose our pit stops and being the wacky folks that we are, we opted for some rather unorthodox stopping points. We did stop in St. George, which is a totally normal stop for breaking up a long drive, but another of our stops was in Baker, CA. What is there in Baker, you might ask? And the answer is…practically nothing. Baker is really just a wide spot next to the freeway. But it does boast several random tourist attractions that are just our cup of tea. Our first stop was to see the world’s tallest thermometer, which is appropriately placed as it is very near to Death Valley. Even in mid-April, the temperature in Baker was 92 degrees. It was in the 50’s when we left home this morning, so that was a big temperature swing for us.
When Kevin discussed our upcoming trip with his work crew, one of his co-workers told him he had to stop and get some alien jerky. Yes, I know that sounds a little weird. It definitely sounded weird to be too. But what I discovered is that just down the road from the gigantic thermometer is a store called Alien Jerky. Their specialty is beef jerky in a variety of flavors, all alien themed, of course. In addition to the giant wall of jerky, they carry a small collection of drinks and a freak ton of alien themed mementos. There is also a big old UFO of some sort being constructed behind the main storefront, so in future there may be even more out of this world experiences to be found in Baker, CA.
It seems like the dullest part of any road trip is the actual driving down the road part. But with a couple of totally random stops, we managed to visit four states (Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California) with only a bit of mind-numbing monotony. And tomorrow we are off to visit Mickey Mouse so that promises to be far more exciting!
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