Bakersfield, Calif. – We’re fewer than five hours from Sacramento and already Day Two of our journey is complete. I like that we’re easing into the trip, driving just an hour-and-a-half the first day, not much more today. We ramp it up tomorrow, though, as we dive into the first eight-hour leg of the journey as we head to the snowiest place in the desert: Flagstaff, Arizona.
After leaving Roseville around noon today, we met up with my Mom and bro at the Hyatt in downtown Sacramento for a Christmas Eve lunch. Despite overpriced food and a rude waiter, we had a good time on our final leaving-town get together. We’ll be on the road for Christmas Day, so it felt really good to have a little family interaction. Then it was time for the open, traffic-filled road.
Things went swimmingly most of the way to Bakersfield until: White flash. Thud. Bump. The sound of crushing a living creature at 85 miles per hour is never pleasant. About thirty miles outside our destination, a little white rabbit sprinted out from the center divider to its final resting place under my front left tire. We felt terrible, but know there was nothing that could’ve been done. It was raining hard and a swerve into another car would’ve been far worse. I didn’t even see the little bugger until it was too late anyway. I’m sure he’s much happier now in a field of infinite carrots.
After checking into our hotel here in lovely Bakersfield and walking the dogs, we drove around looking for dinner and stumbled across one of my old childhood favorites from Sacramento: Marie Calendar’s. Not quite the same as most of the independently-owned restaurants we’re used to frequenting in San Francisco, but among chains, I think it ranks pretty high.
Merry Christmas Eve!
