Awesome Weekend — Part Three

The last day…it was painful. After a long day to get there, a longer day at Disneyland, we then had the long drive home. And as everyone knows, the trip home is always the longest part of any excursion. But it turned out to not be so bad.

We took full advantage of our cheap hotel
‘s breakfast options. Make our own waffles?! Why yes…we will have some of those. Toast? Yep. A variety of juices? We shall drink them all.

After eating lots of food, we took a nap. Safety first, you know? Didn’t want Jesse to fall asleep driving!

Finally, we headed out. It took FOREVER to get out of the LA/Riverside metro area so once we spotted some windmills we started looking around for lunchtime eats. However, we were distracted by some dinosaurs (and by an outlet mall).

When we first noticed the two dinosaurs you can see from the interstate, we thought, “SWEET! Dinosaurs!” We looked around, saw that you could see even more in the “museum”, but then also saw that these folks wanted $8 per person — you *do* get to climb into the T. Rex’s mouth though if you pay. I may or may not have snapped a few photos of the inside of the “park” from a “higher elevation”. Either way, from what I saw it just looked like some person’s weird hobby. It wasn’t until we went INSIDE the Apatosaurus that I realized these people might be a little…umm…unique? Crazy? Wrong? Not sure of the right word.

The T.Rex almost squashed Jesse!

See, we went into the belly of the Apatosaurus and noticed a few interesting things. First, a poster that the Dino folks are looking to expand in BIG ways. Second, a poster that insinuated that dinosaurs and humans lived AT THE SAME TIME. I thought it might a joke. I mean, someone took the time to make a roadside attraction of dinosaurs, it’s possible that they have a sense of humor, right? So I turned to the salesclerk and asked, “Are these posters telling me that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time?” And she responded without any hesitation or humor, “Yes.” I looked at Jesse with a look of disbelief and suggested we depart the belly of the dinosaur. The really funny thing is that the art decorating the gift shop (perhaps painted by the original owner?) had dates that are not supported by the creationists that believe dinosaurs and humans palled around (I recall one that was 30,000 BC), so either they’re too focused on expanding to repaint or they aren’t all that convinced themselves. Either way, I was surprised to find myself in a creation museum.gift shop.

(I’ve since done some research on how these roadside dinosaurs were created and learned that they weren’t always religious.)

Anyway…we left the dinosaurs, walked around the outlets for a bit, grabbed some lunch, and headed out. We drove past the wind turbines again and I thought about virals. (Side note: in my head they will always be windmills even though I know they aren’t.)

If you’ve read Justin Cronin’s novel The Passage you know what I’m talking about…right? Some of these things are HUGE and some are not as huge. Some have bases you can climb, some have the smooth white bases. I’m mesmerized by them and seeing them in person after recently reading the book makes that entire part of the book even creepier. (Side note again: I started looking up info on wind farms on Wikipedia — I had no idea there were so many different kinds of wind turbines/windmills/wind pumps.)

Of course, seeing them made me curious about where First Colony was located…and yes…someone on the interwebz has mapped the coordinates.

Great book…even better audio. I know I’ve said it before, but Scott Brick is AWESOME.

The windmills were the last interesting thing on our trip back other than getting a view of Palo Verde. There are so many alternative energy options along Interstate 10…who knew?!

And that is the end of my Awesome Weekend posts. Hopefully, we’ll have another awesome vacation soon — perhaps a trip to Florida. Or Wyoming. Or Colorado. Or well…that’s where our families are so I guess we should go see them next. If we head to Florida I’m hoping to squeeze in a Disney WORLD visit