Central California

After our two day delay in the San Francisco bay area, we continued our journey southward. We left Oakland after the morning rush hour so we didn’t have to deal with horrendous traffic as well as horrendous roads. We also wanted to let the fog lift a bit over Altamont Pass.

Photography was almost impossible because of the fog.

Although the fog had lifted over Altamont, the fog in the Central Valley was dense with visibility sometimes as low as ¼ mile. That was a pretty normal day for winter in the valley. In the past, Sandi has experienced visibilities as low as a few feet. We drove as fast as conditions would allow. We took our first break at Santa Nella, the lunch and dog walking stop. Lunch was at Pea Soup Andersen’s. The cold, nasty weather was a perfect reason for substantial lunch of pea soup, frikadeller, and Danish sausages accompanied by red cabbage and potatoes.



Pea Soup Andersen’s
Santa Nella

When the landscape was visible, we were able to see nut groves, cotton fields and the huge feedlot at Harris Ranch. As we passed the Lemoore-Coalinga exit, the fog became heavy again. We decided to call it an early day.

Our stopping point for the evening was Kettleman City, a small California town heavily involved in the agricultural and oil industries.



Olive tree
Kettleman City



Olives

It was still very foggy the next morning so we left about 10:15 in the morning. When the fog did break, we could see pistachio and almond groves. An interesting site in some of the groves were raptor nest boxes, encouraging natural rodent control by enhancing nesting areas for raptors. As we approached the exits for Bakersfield, towards the end of the Central Valley, we started seeing oil pumps and more cotton fields.



Cotton field
and equipment



Southwest of Bakersfield



Another oil pump in the same area


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