Only 34 Days 'til the Horned Toad Derby!

Note: text in red banner appears blurred due to fancy font

Backstory Part I: One of the disappointments on our last roadtrip was the accidental deletion of a single photo.  On the hike back from Cedar Creek Falls, we came upon a magnificent Phrynosoma coronatum blainvillii, sunning itself on the verge of the trail. Horny toads are usually skittish, and this specimen was no exception.  It scurried for shelter in the brush, pausing just long enough for us to snap a picture. Cool!  TSG loves those little guys.


Backstory Part II: Unfortunately, a few minutes later, we were reviewing the reptilian portrait and we hit the delete button by accident. What a bummer! If only we had pulled the SD card out at that point--it might have been okay.  But no, we continued shooting, and the spiky lizard's image file was overwritten. (Recovery software confirmed it; the memory location now held a different file.)

Oh, but there was a kind of serendipity (and lack of same--but more on that later) on the final day of the trip.  Our plan was to visit an oft-passed-by roadside attraction, the R.C. Baker Memorial Museum in beautiful(?) downtown Coalinga, CA.  Well, butter our butt and call us a biscuit, what do we see as we roll into town? A friggin' GIANT HORNY TOAD.  Not only that, but there are banners all down Elm Street proclaiming that Derby Day is nigh! Awesome!

So, after a couple of hours at the excellent museum, TSG stopped in at the sort-of-cool-looking-but-waaaayyyy-overpriced* Campus Drive In for a grilled-cheese-and-chocolate-shake-type repast. The venerable (?) establishment happened to be right across the street from the mega Phrynosoma coronatum...so we snapped off a couple of shots while the Campus Chef/Milkshake Makerette did their things.

Mission accomplished, we scarfed down the meager sandwich, slurped our shake, and hit the road again.  The plan for the last leg was to take Los Gatos-Coalinga Road (the "back way" to CA25) and then on to Hollister and home.  Well, dear reader[s], that ended up being a 2.5 hour side trip--due to 14" of water at a creek crossing 40 miles down the road. The old 4Runner would've splashed across with glee. The Mazda...not so much.

Oh well, it was a nice day for a drive.

*$3.75 for two slices of wheat

bread and a slice and a half of 

processed cheese-like substance?

You've got to be kidding!

SPRING FALLS

TSG's current roadtrip has featured visits to three of Southern California's neatest waterfalls. But don't take our word for it, see for yourself in this hurriedly-cobbled-together clip compilation. Enjoy!

My Confounded Bridge (or: almost absorbed by the BDS)

(Artist's conception of our soulless opponent)

Normally TSG avoids serious topics like the plague, but today marks the end a journey. Earlier today we spoke with  a pension service center specialist who finally confirmed it. Something we've been waiting for...for 5 long years is really gonna happen. Now the waiting, waiting, waiting is nearly over. We are approaching the eve of the magical [insert trumpet fanfare here] "bridging date". That is the date when we will aquire credit for our prior years of serfdom.  It was touch and go for awhile -- the last 6 months of uncertainty have been really rough.  But we saw our way through despite the complete, shall we say, nonchalance of our local "authority" figure (and we use the term loosely here, we assure you).

What this means is that TSG's NCS (Net Credited Service) date will be changed from 4/17/06 to 9/29/82.  That's a jump from 5 years seniority to 28 years, 6 months and 19 days of seniority. That's 2 extra weeks of vacation, a decent gift from OC Tanner, and 200 smackers for a "social event".  Yee, as they say, haw.

Portrait of the artist as a young vassal