2006 November Trip toSouthern California Day 5

Victorville Area:

     Day 5 started out as a quite day. Since my both my brother and my wonderful sister-in-law had to work today, my wife just relaxed around the house and I went out to take some pictures and get us some large mugs from drinks for the rest of the trip. I stopped off first at the Intermodal Depot and picked up bus schedules of the local transit system since one of my goals today was to take some pictures of it, and then I continued on my journey for the morning.

     Next my next goal was stopping at the mall and walking through the OfficeMax store nearby. At the time I was still working for OfficeMax in management so I wanted to see what the store looked like. It amazed me that the differences between this store and mine. I don’t know if it’s their store manager or the district manager but the way this store was would never be tolerated in my district.

      After leaving OfficeMax I drove down and found a convenience store to stop at and try to find mugs and to get me a snack and a drink for the morning. Once again I did not find any mugs in the store. Ever since we landed in Long Beach we had been trying to find a place to buy a couple of mugs because my wife likes to have one full of water and I usually have one full of Pepsi but we were having no luck at all.

      Next I drove along old Route 66 and took a picture of one of the transit buses and also of an old Route 66 motel that was still looking in good shape. From there I took a few more pictures of transit buses when I came across an old motor court motel that look like it was from the 40’s or maybe even earlier. I like taking Black and White Film pictures of places like this so I got my B&W camera out and took a picture. I was about to put on a filter to change the picture slightly when a couple of people came out of what looked to be the office plus a resident and started to watch me. I didn’t like the looks of them so I jumped back into the driver’s seat of the Torrent. I kept watching to see if they would go away so I could take another picture but then someone else came and joined them. They looked like druggies or something worse so I took that as my queue to leave and forget about the pictures.

      I started heading back towards my brother’s house when I saw a 7-11 store so I stopped in and sure enough they had 52oz mugs for sale so I bought two of them. Next I headed down toward the Wal-Mart store in Apple Valley in order to take another picture of a transit bus. Since my wife was planning to eat something at my brother’s I stopped and bought a couple of Burrito’s at Taco Bell. Then it was back to my brother’s so I could rest up before the next part of the journey was on.

     By the time I got back to my brother’s, my brother had already gotten home from his office and my sister who lives in the Palmdale area had arrived. We had a good time talking for a few hours until my sister-in-law arrived from her job. Next we loaded up in my brother’s Explorer so we could head up to Big Bear. I noticed that my brother has a Jeep Wrangler in his garage and I joked about taking it off-roading and he said that the Jeep does not go off of pavement. He may be my brother but we are sure different people, after all a Jeep is not supposed to be on pavement, it was born to be on the dirt!!

Trip to Big Bear:

      I had not been to Big Bear since 1984, but we used to spend a great deal of time up there since our Uncle had a house there and we would come up and spend the weekend with him. We started our trip by taking the back way up to Big Bear from Victorville on California Highway 18. It starts off flat but before you know it you are climbing and going around all kinds of sharp corners.   

Big Bear:

      Once we arrived in the Big Bear area we started taking a tour completely around the lake starting driving west along the north side of the lake (highway 38). We stopped at a picnic area and enjoyed the view and took some pictures. Some ducks came over and decided to join our family. Next we continued our trek until we had completed the north journey and highway 18 near the dam.

      We then turned right and tried to find the turn off to the area where the original Parent Trap movie was filmed but could not find it. We then started heading east driving directly through the towns of BigBearLake and then BigBearCity. We drove around Big Bear City for a few minutes trying to find out where my Uncle’s old house was and after a driving down a couple of streets I finally found it on Sherwood Blvd so we stopped and took a couple of pictures.

      Then we head to Dinner. My brother knew of this place that has a log cabin feel. Our hostess was extremely friendly as she promptly sat us at a nice table. The menu was pretty typical of a place like this as it was largely steak and potatoes type fare. I ordered Prime Rib, while my wife ordered a steak but I can’t remember what everyone else ordered. Our food came quickly and was very good. In fact most of us could not finish our meals was the portions were so large. We also bought a pie to take back with us to my brother’s house since their pies are to die for.

Return to Apple Valley:

      By the time we started driving back it was starting to get dark so my brother took it easy as he was heading down the road toward Apple Valley. We arrived at their home about 9:00pm after a wonderful day. We finished up by watching the second to last night of Dancing with the Stars which is a show I have never seen. After it was over it was time for bed to get a good nights sleep for our next journey tomorrow.