LAND OF FRUITS AND NUTS

BAKERSFIELD, CA - Oct. 23 - Nov. 1, 2013
October 23rd we left the Sequoia National Park and headed south through central California and the San Joaquin Valley to Bakersfield, which is also home to Jim's cousin, Irene. About 20 miles out of town Irene's son David and daughter-in-law Audrey live on a ranch.  After a week visiting and exploring we drove the RV to David and Audrey's place, closed it up and parked it and the Jeep for the next few months.  

Audrey, David and Murphy at the ranch.

Jim, Irene and Rosie

Cesar Chavez National Monument.  In the 1970's, Cesar Chavez led a non-violent farm labor strike and
table grape boycott which resulted in improved working and living conditions for migrant farm workers.

Buttoning up the RV until we get back to California.

Nov. 1 we boarded a plane and flew home to spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's with family and friends.

PICKING UP WHERE WE LEFT OFF - Jan. 28 - Feb. 2, 2014
As soon as Christmas was over we began planning our escape from the freezing death grip  the Polar Vortex had on Wisconsin.  On January 28th we woke up to a typical Wisconsin morning with the outside thermometer hovering at -30 degrees.  

Although it was ungodly cold, we had a smile on our faces because we could shed our long under-ware, wool sweaters, boots, and layers and layers of clothes; by the end of the day we would be in sunny California.  There was over a hundred degree difference in temperature from when we woke up to when we stepped off the plane in Bakersfield that evening; our bodies thanked us and immediately started to thaw out.  Irene met us at the airport, fed us, put us up for the night, and the next morning drove us to David and Audrey's to pick up the RV and Jeep.

LAND OF FRUIT AND NUTS
While driving around the San Joaquin Valley it's easy to see why this area is know as "The Food Basket of the World".  Hundreds of thousands of acres are planted with almond and pistachio trees, citrus orchards, as well as vineyards of table grapes thrive in this irrigated desert valley.  This part of California is also the State's primary oil producing region; hundreds of wells clustered together in oil fields, as well as scattered in and among the fields of grapes and orchards, pump liquid gold day and night.

Bakersfield oil field.

Winter in California is supposed to be the rainy season, but most of California is experiencing a severe drought and is desperate for rain.  It sprinkled 1/16th of an inch on Thursday, which is the only moisture that has fallen from the sky this month.  Agriculture production is being severely threatened by a state-wide water shortage.

GRAPES OF WRATH
Friday we took a drive with Irene to the migrant camp made famous by John Steinbeck's book "The Grapes of Wrath".  The camp is still in operation, but has been improved with modern housing units available for migrant workers and their families.  Three of the original buildings from the 1930's are still standing and are in the process of being restored for historical preservation.

Original building at the Sunset Migration Labor Camp, Arvin, CA

Housing at the Sunset migrant labor camp.

We also stopped at the Bakersfield Museum of Art to view an exhibit of photographs documenting the plight of migratory farm life during the Great Depression.  This exhibition is in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel.  While Steinbeck interviewed farm workers, Horace Bristol photographed the workers and  living conditions in the labor camps.  The exhibit features 37 prints by Bristol which exemplify the central characters in "The Grapes of Wrath".