Waking up at 5:00 am has become such a habit that even in the motel, we were both wide awake.  That’s OK, because it gave us time to read the Bible for a good while until the “free breakfast” room was open, and at that point, we had fun eating everything in sight! Chris and Bethany, two of the “gang” came in, too, so we had a good time sharing trail tales.

After that, it was time to repack the packs, trek to the post office, then Bill went to the hardware store to get a part for his pack (one of his web-tightening turnbuckles was broken), while I went to find the bus stop for our trip to Bakersfield, where we’ll pick up a car to drive to Oregon.  Finding it was not easy–nobody seemed to know–but finally one older lady gave me good directions.  Then it turned out that the next bus to Bakersfield wasn’t for another 3 hours! 

 Oh well, now we had time to eat some more, so we had lunch, then waited in the shade by KMart, since it was a very hot day, with no wind.  The only things moving were the cars in the street and the trains going by.  The windmills across the tracks were sitting still. 

  But the trains were fun–Tehachapi is an historic railroad town.  The engineering challenge of getting the railroad over Tehachapi Pass was huge, and succeeded with some really creative thinking.  

Finally the bus came, and it was only $2 for a 20 mile ride!  Wow! We pay a lot more than that for Golden Gate Transit buses back home!  The people on the bus were friendly, and fun to talk to.  One man reminisced about life in Tehachapi in the 1950’s, and I ended up talking to a fascinating lady who is a dance teacher, Pilates instructor, photographer, and homeschooling mom.  She said she got into Pilates (a special exercise program) when she had a Pilates instructor come to the dance school to teach a class.  In a very short time, the students’ flexiblity and “core strength” had improved so dramatically that she decided to try it for herself and ended up as a certified instructor.  She has four grown and almost-grown kids, all homeschooled and doing great.

In Bakersfield, we hopped off the bus and only had to go 4 blocks to Hertz for our rental car.  They didn’t have the small car we’d reserved, so we ended up with one that felt to us like driving a moose.  It took some getting used to!  And so we “hit the road” for Oregon!  It was a very exciting feeling, and I had a lot of inner questions about, “What will it be like in Oregon?  Will there be hordes of mosquitoes?  Will there be snow?”  But I figured, “Just enjoy the moment!  We are FIRST headed for Andersen’s!” 

 What is Andersen’s and what’s the big deal?  Well, Andersen’s makes split pea soup, and besides selling soup, they also have a restaurant, which is located along Interstate 5.  I was in college in Santa Barbara until just before Bill and I were married, and when he came to drive me home for our wedding, we stopped at Andersen’s restaurant (then on  Interstate 101) for some of the famous split pea soup! 

 So Andersen’s has a lot of “sentimental value” to us.  It’s been almost 37 years ago since we were married, and Andersen’s is still a great place.    The soup turned out to be as good as ever, and we enjoyed a great Danish dinner before driving on till well past dark and camping at Caswell State Park, near Manteca, CA.–another one of our “favorite spots”!  We and our daughters spent many happy days there camping, rafting on the Stanislaus River, and just having fun!  The mosquitoes were out in droves though–we had to rig the net tent!   It was a pleasant, but weird feeling to be at Caswell again, knowing that REALLY we were just headed back for the PCT, as fast as we could get there!