After a little mixup with flight arrival times, Gran and GranDon arrived in Carpinteria last night. They were pretty bushed so they went to bed early. Max, Lucy, mom, and dad went to the roof to watch 4th of July fireworks. It was not a very good show. Max and dad used up some old sparklers in the alley and then everyone went to bed, ready to get on the road for our vacation the next day.
We aimed at getting on the road at 9:30a, but in true Theule family practice, we fired up the van after 11a. But no worries, we had no one waiting for us and no schedule to keep. After an uneventful drive along scenic route 99, we arrived in Reedley, CA. The town was fairly empty, with many downtown shops having ‘for lease’ signs in the windows and it was HOT. H-O-T. I got directions to a RiteAid and took a walk to get some cold water. It looked much closer on the map. After about 15 minutes of solid walking, according to Google maps, I was less than half way there. I turned around and headed back.
For dinner, Toby selected a local pizzeria, but when we walked up, there was a paper sign in the window saying that they were closed for the rest of week. We walked over to our second choice restaurant and saw a similar sign that they were closed for the next few days. We saw that our third choice was open for business.
Our hotel was an historic building in Reedley, and had been built in 1902. The interior was a homage to an age gone by, with lots of antique-y knickknacks and everyone of them for sale. The rooms had a/c and big screen TVs, so it was comfortable. The kids enjoyed having their own room, but were disappointed in the cable service– too many Spanish channels.