Today we will get to LA. Most of the drive
was across a flat agricultural-wasteland. The landscape was so super flat that we deduced that it must have been a prehistoric lake bed. From the car windows mostly all we could see was flat, flat, flat land fading into the distance. Sometimes in the far distance we could see dry, rolling hills.
The view from the car varied slightly, depending on the times I looked out. Sometimes I saw bushes or trees, stretching in orderly rows as far as the eye could see. Other times I saw brown desert wasteland with the exposed topsoil blowing away. The most startling image that wafted past our car was of lush fertile plantations next
to a dry barren area. We wondered where the industries got their water, after all, it is almost a desert. Once we saw a group of migrant farm workers picking grapes. They worked under umbrellas to try and escape the oppressive heat and sun. Several times we saw “tomato trucks:” huge two-bin vehicles, full to the brim with bright red tomatoes. Once, we saw a truck identical to the tomato trucks, except that it’s bins were cages with some stray feathers caught in the wires. This was a chicken transport truck. These chickens were on their way to a new home—your mouths.
The amount of diversity in this landscape is amazing. In late afternoon took a side road to
go for a hike before hitting the freeways of LA. The road climbed out of the valley and went quickly from the dry central valley of 
You can only smell the vanilla if the bark is in the sun and your nose is so close can feel the pines’ abrasive bark. The bigger the pine, the stronger the smell. So I immediately made it my task to find the biggest, smelliest tree I could. I also went about searching for the biggest pine cone. Jeffrey’ Pines have cones ~20cm tall and ~15cm wide. I eventually found my perfect pine cone and I will add it to my pine cone collection when I get home in
Eventually we arrived in
