Normal Day…..OH, Blackhawk and Apache Helicopters Landed on Freeway

What is up with this????  Just having a nice Desert drive, and around mile marker 85 on I-40 suddenly there are TWO military helicopters between the eastbound and westbound lanes!  Thank goodness Marcia had the camera in her hand and we were able to get these two pictures of this very unusual event.  (remember to click for larger picture)

Both of these pictures have been cropped and lighting adjusted to account for the windshield.  But I have the originals…and there has been nothing on the Internet about it yet, nor the local news.  (We did see a small RV trailer flip being pulled by a car between Tehachapi and Bakersfield, and that was on tonight’s Bakersfield news.  It started a small brush fire, and I estimate we passed by about 3-4 minutes after it happened…no one hurt, RV demolished.  We did not even think about getting pictures since the chaos on the freeway was a bit hectic there at the moment.)

   

This car passed us twice, once before Barstow and once after.  Writing in the back window says “Power Tour”…I didn’t bother looking that up.

Skruffy was whining about the lack of grass again….

…this picture above was taken during or 2012 trip at a rest area we visited between Needles and Barstow.
 

This is just about the same outside shot as back in 2012…still no grass, but the palm trees are more full than back in 2012.

 

 

The drive from Needles to Bakersfield is…well…a drive.  Had it not been for the helicopters and the crash/fire, it would have been totally uneventful.  Tomorrow we are headed for Loomis, above Citrus Heights, where we will camp one night before settling into the backyard of Sandy and Arnie’s for a month before we head up to Alaska.  

Note:  I ‘think’ the helicopters have been identified correctly….if not, me know.   We did see two helicopters coming in for a landing at Barstow near the Marine Corps Logistics Base.  They were so far away that we could not even tell if they were the same two, or even the same type as the other two.  Just a mystery that “someone” will probably find a conspiracy behind the helicopters which, most likely, one had problems and landed and the other joined them to try and get the matter fixed.  But who knows…perhaps they stopped some big drug runner, or captured an Martian walking along the road.   

Tonight we are at the Orange Grove RV Park in east Bakersfield California.  With Good Sam discount, it came to $38, much more than we have been paying, but it did get us into the valley…no more hills or mountains to deal with. 

   

And someone (Bubba) just goes nuts whenever I mention Arnie’s name.  Here he is dancing to the right, then to the left.  I think there is going to be ONE HAPPY DOG tomorrow afternoon when he sees his Uncle Arnie again.

Dog Park, Rest, Dinner....Last Day in Needles California

   

Yesterday as I was looking for the non-existent grocery store in Needles, I ran across Spike’s Desert Dog Park.  So this morning, before it got too hot, I took Skruffy and Bubba to the park.

   

They were quickly met by this little guy, a one year, un-neutered male who just would not leave little Skruffy alone.

I brought her up onto the table top, and he just followed her right up there.

   

Even Bubba was being bugged by this little guy, despite the fact that one of his friends, Crystal, arrived.  We hung around for a half hour or so…it was not as good of a dog park day as it could have been, but they had the freedom to run a bit, and for Skruffy, to sit on the table and bark at everything.

Around 1:30 I decided to lay down and take a nap….something I don’t do very often…lay down for a nap that is.  Normally I will just nap in the recliner, shorter naps that way.  A couple of hours later, I gingerly got up, put the heating pad on my leg, and ten minutes later I was doing well.  Doesn’t take much for the leg to stiffen up, especially with the A/C on.  But the leg I back to 85% now, doing much better.

Around 5 pm we head over to the Wagon Wheel.  What I see is this (above) while Marcia sees that (below…..a CUBS fan)

As we walk in she talks to the waitress to inquire about the car, but they don’t know who owns it.  I whisper to her that it is the two ladies that were sitting close to us.

Not only was it a cub’s fan, but also a Route 66 fan.  I noticed one of the ladies had a bunch of memorabilia pins stuck in her hat….figured that two plus two equaled four, and I was right. 

   

This guy greats you at the door, while this chair for two comes with the warning, “What Happens Here will be posted on Facebook”.

   

   

The restaurant is dressed up to the “T” with cowboy stuff, route 66 stuff, and just plan “stuff”.

And if you like “STUFF”, you will find it in the gift store.  We found the people to be real nice, very attentive.  The food was good…not great, not bad.  Worth the stop once, but I think if there was a next time, we would try another place just to give them a try.  This was the off season, but you have to watch for “special weekends”, such as Harley Weekend next week.   Tomorrow we have our eye on the town of Mojave for a night…an easy 215 mile day.