NOTE: In an effort to get my memories recorded I have decided to postpone pictures until I return.
March 15, 2016
On the road again!!
I left Oakland at 6:20 this morning on my way to Phoenix then to New Mexico to explore the Santa Fe trail mountain route. More about that later.
I drove down IS 5 this morning. Many people think that is a boring drive, but I found it fascinating. Beginning just South of the 580/5 merge the agricultural bounty of California is apparent. From one side of the valley to the other the land is flat a a laser tractor guide can make it, he crops are planted in straight rows that stretch across the valley and along the freeway for mile after mile. There are little green trees, big brown or gray trees, little seedlings in big tubes, bigger trees that are shaved off clse to the ground and bigger trees that are shaved off a little further from the ground, and bigger trees that are allowed to grow normally. There are also grape vines in various stages of growth or development, plowed fields with furrows parallel with a precision that does not look like a human had a hand on the tractor's steering wheel. There are also fields with raised planting beds (I guess) separated by irrigation furrows. And there are fields that a simply plowed flat with no signs of growth, and fields where scrub brush dots the flat landscape.
The irony of the observations is that in spite of living for 73 years in a state that grows a substantial amount of the food that feeds the world I cannot tell what is planted in any of the fields. I do recognize vineyards (of which I saw a few), avocado trees (because they were in my back yard when I was growing up), artichoke plants (because I have driven through the fields around Watsonville many times). But I can't tell cotton from beans, apples from oranges,, almonds from pistachios, prunes from pears.
The patchwork of fields make a remarkable mosaic from the freeway. It is often possible to see three or four huge fields in different stages of growth from one spot in the freeway. Layers of trees, abut fields of low growing crops, adjacent to unplanted fields, all behind a field in the midst of being prepared for a new orchard, or vineyard, or row crop.
But it is more than the agriculture that is a mystery. There are various tanks, or silos, spotted in the middle of all of the planted areas that undoubtedly serve some useful purpose. There are flocks of sheep grazing in the stubble of fields that have apparently been harvested, The are a few cattle on the hillsides in the distance, and a cattle feed lot along the side of the road. There are oil wells pumping and the contrails of jet planes criss-crossing the skies.
But almost as mysterious as the agriculture are the trucks. Only a few give any clue as the what they contain: the Target trucks have Target stuff, the UPS trucks have UPS stuff, the Fed Ex trucks have Fed Ex stuff, and car transporters have cars. Even the cars on most of the car transporters are covered in plastic sheeting which probably protect their paint but effectively disguise the make and
model. But most of the trucks carry things that are either covered or enclosed. I did see one truck with young cattle, and one truck with a large wrapped package the size and shape of a brontosaurus whose wrapped head and neck were bobbing up and down behind the end of the flatbed trailer. What the heck are in all of those other trucks: tankers, enclosed trailers, flatbed trailers with wrapped cargo, taking stuff from one place to another. And given that this was taking place on Interstate 5 and there is nothing on IS 5 between LA and SF it must be stuff being shipped between those two locations. Coming from and going to further distant places, or possibly being consumed in their respective destinations. It would be instructive to spend a couple of days in the highway Patrol truck inspection station where every truck was stopping and check their bills of lading.
All of the activity - growing, moving, wrapping - is a mystery. But it is pretty much what defines our lives in the 21st Century. And I was reminded of who is doing much of that work as a I drove into Los Angeles and tried to find a radio station to listen to. As I scanned the dial all of the programming was Spanish and/or evangelical Christian. I finally found a program in English. It was Sean Hannitty interviewing Ted Cruz as the voting booths for the Presidential primary elections in several states were closing. And when that mutual admiration society was over Hannitty interviewed Donald Trump. Actually in both cases interview is the wrong word. Hannitty and his guests simply yelled their agreements with one another that the election of Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders surely meant the end of the United States as we know it.
The lesson I learned today was that my education was clearly lacking. That I couldn't identify any of the growing crops I saw was bad enough. But that I couldn't speak the language of most of the people who are responsible for those miraculous fields and their bounty and was reduced to listening to Hannitty, Cruz, and Trump, makes me sad and angry.
