Redlands – Noise Ave.

So What is The Verdict on California

Well, what is the final verdict? Was is all worth it? Was is Is it still fun? What is the city of Redlands like? How does it compare to a place like Dallas? Dallas, TX is where I started. Well Dallas is the offical address but it’s really Addison. But in broader terms Dallas, to the natives, includes Dallas, Addison, Richardson, Carrollton, Plano, Garland, Frisco, Lewisville, etc…. Especially when out of town. Or when referring to the general location. So how does this place compare? It’s only fair to compare with a known alternative to have a relative judgement so one can understand the unknown in terms of the known. Ok, enough big words.

Dallas, is a so much an unfair comparison. Dallas is a big place. A very big place. Redlands, is a small town. It’s a small enough town to where 5 minutes in one direction will take you to Loma Linda, and 10 in the other to Yucaipa. Then 5 minutes past Loma Linda you see San Bernardino. Saint indeed. It’s the biggest of towns. When lost, one is instructed to look for signs pointing to I-215 towards San Bernardino. Then further out you see Ontario. Going east from Redlands then you have Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Rialto, Ontario. These plus other small towns are all together the Inland Empire.

So the comparison is better between Dallas and Inland Empire.

Again, Dallas is a such a big place. Such a melting pot of people and lifestyles. I didn’t appreciate it enough. Inland Empire pales. It’s sort of a town split along further mini-town lines each with their own rules. Very old. Not polished. Sure it has it’s Smiley Heights area which has the million dollar homes. But that area is one main street and some culdesacs hanging off of it.

In terms of Walmart, there’s only one seen around. There’s a Von’s. There’s a Stater Bro’s everywhere. It’s a little annoying. No decent hair stylists. Meaning known stylists. And such other things.

In so many ways there’s no comparison. It would be comparing apples to oranges. So with appreciating Dallas, we leave this topic for a later post.

Final Set of Pictures From Road Trip

The last leg of the journey on the road trip was on Aug 11th, 2008.

This is the final set of pictures from the Phoenix to Redlands trip. First the pictures are posted in a table and then the comments at the bottom.

1 - Cali	2 - State Prison
3 - Tank	4 - General Patton Museum
5 - Redlands, finally!	6 - Redlands University

1 – That’s just first time there was something green in California. Until that point it was all desert and lifeless palm trees.

2 – Don’t pick up hitchhikers. Well, duh! State Prison is a little far out in the desert. Wonder how long it takes to get people there.

3 – Is that General Patton’s tank? Or does it belong to somebody from the same era. Didn’t get the opportunity to read the signs. The temperature was over 100 degrees.

4 – General Patton Museum. Just so hot that Museum on one end of the rest stop and the food on the other left no doubt as to which side had water and which side would be the saner choice. So long General Patton. Thanks for what you did. Mostly, thanks for the random quotes you enrich people’s email signatures with throughout corporate America.

5 – Redlands. Well the destination seemed old and unpolished all of a sudden. Having been here on vacay before the memory made it much more polished and in general a place in California!!!!!. Now it just seemed like any other small town. Maybe a little older and less modernized. A feeling that would be re-inforced throughout the next few weeks.

6 – The University. The town is big enough to have a University. So lay off, Bobby! Quit saying it’s a small place….

Why Would You Do That?

On Friday when I starting driving around town I noticed the gas cap warning light came on. That was a little unsettling. At the next gas station when I stopped to check the cap was completely unscrewed. Mustangs don’t have a lock on the gas door or the cap. So anyone can open the cap.

Well, I always screw the cap in tightly after filling so the only other options is that someone on the street opened the cap. But gas was still at the level that it should have been. No gas missing. So why would someone do that? I guess there’s a small possibility that I may have left it undone. But that’s just so uncharacteristically me that I have a big issue believing that.

Anyway, took it to Ford. They said after tightening the gas cap, it would take 60-80 miles and 3-5 restarts before the light goes away. Today driving back from the Church, the light finally went away. It was a relief, but still a somewhat troubling thought that possibly someone might be opening the gas cap….