Motel hell

[tikistitch]

So, after a refreshing visit to FedEx/Kinko's to offload 8 packages of Star Warsy goodness, some caffeine jamming at Starbucks, and then a quick session of "how to pack 10 gallons of luggage into an 8 oz trunk (it helps if you played a lot of Tetris as a kid) we were off at the crack of noon,

We were actually making good time until we surrendered to the siren song of Mexican food. We asked our driver if he'd be ok after the toilet bowl-sized Margaritas, and he assured us, yes, but after piling on the carbs, we decided instead to stumble over to a nearby Motel 6 which advertised free internet. The town, whatever the hell it is, was innundated last night with clouds of small bugs, which we took for mosquitoes, whose favorite food, as it happens, is fresh tiki. But, oddly, we weren't being stung. "Rice bugs," the motel guy explained, "we have rice paddies."

Rice paddies? OK, California, has any explained to you that you're living in a freaking DESERT?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

California is the second largest producer of rice in the U.S. *shrugs*

[twotone]

Aw, sorry that you had to find out about California's thriving rice industry the bad way (i.e. insect infestation) rather than the, uh, still-bad-but-what-can-you-do way (for a while in the 80s and 90s Japan was in a panic over California rice and the Japanese rice industry desperately tried to convince consumers that California rice wasn't as tasty as the home-grown expensive kind).

berekeley plum wine is my fave! =)

[meekorouse.livejournal.com]

^yeah what they said but to add, Berkeley is a GREAT place to stop in for a visit to the sake factory (where do they get that tasty sake rice?? hmmm CALIFORNIA.. *grin* see there are some good things that come from here) GOOD STUFF the sake is.. technically in Emeryville. =)

Sorry about the bugs.. mosquitoes like me too (along with other blood sucking parasites but I try to avoid those.. bees!)

[fushigikb.livejournal.com]

uh... you do know that all sushi rice here is made with rice from cali?

[keeper1st.livejournal.com]

Now now, Southern California does not equal California. Southern California is a desert, indeed... except for the bits that use water pumped out of Northern California.

But Central and Northern California, agriculture galore! 98% of the world's artichokes come from the small town of Castroville. Loads of strawberries out of Watsonville. Cherries from all over. Garlic from Gilroy (oh my but the Black Bear Diner in Gilroy has the most garlicky garlic fries ever! with solid chunks of garlic, even! yums!). Apples all over the place. And that's just in a 40-mile radius of where I live...