Horsing around in Tehachapi

The drive from L.A. to Tehachapi is long and driver James is tired from the walk. We are inadvertently caught up in road rage as a car in the lane next to us is sticking by our side no matter what we do and he's doing it to wind up the guy in the big truck behind him! When he finally speeds up and moves in front of us the truck driver isn't happy and decides to return the favour. We slow down and keep our distance, not very rock and roll of us but the truck driver was a bit scary! Finally pulling up in the horse ranch we are warmly greeted by Nancy and Don who introduce us to their 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 horses, a donkey and a grumpy goat who doesn't come out to say hello. Even though it's late we have a nice chat with Nancy and Don and they tell us that the most recent addition to the family arrived today, Lola the dog. She is a very nervous dog, especially on the slippery kitchen tiles but Nancy and Don are doing a great job of settling her in. We're happy to hear that deaf dog Boomer accepts our visit by barking at us and then pointing his bottom at us for a scratch, nice to meet you too Boomer! Time for bed in the cosy trailer.

Boomer

Lola was even scared of the camera.

Missy Sissy

Mo says hello

Grumpy Banjo

We wake up to the sounds of birds singing and a noisy donkey which makes a nice change from the noises of a big city like L.A. It's Christine's first time at taking the wheel and she drives into the town centre to see what's going on. It's a nice small quiet town and everyone we speak to is really friendly but seem perplexed as to why we're staying here for a week! We eat in a cafe and watch a really, really, really long freight train go past. This draws our attention to the Train Depot museum and while we're not big train enthusiasts we enjoy finding out about the historic railway and the famous Tehachapi Loop (if a train is long enough and goes on the loop it ends up 'driving over itself'), we'll have to visit the loop at some point this week. Back at the ranch Nancy and Don have kindly invited us to join them for a steak dinner; it's a tri-tip, which we've never heard of but it's a southern speciality apparently. While waiting we watch the hummingbirds around the feeder, they're fascinating to watch. Dinnertime, the steaks are delicious, the A-1 sauce does what it says on the tin and dessert is a huge Oreo cake, we're in heaven! We have a great time chatting the night away and somehow the conversation gets on to whale sex (?!), we decide to call it a night and Nancy tops off a great evening by giving us some girl scout cookies, yey!

It's time to walk off last night's dinner by going for a hike up Tehachapi mountain but first we head to the local bakery, Kohnan's to pick up some lunch. Nancy suggested we buy one sandwich between us and she wasn't wrong...gotta love US portions! It's a hard walk (7000ft and very steep) but we make it as far up to the top as we're allowed (the very top is on private land, spoilsports) albeit a bit out of breath and celebrate by walking back down again and having our huge sandwich while admiring the view. Back at the trailer we watch a film given to us by Nancy and it's another win for Christine as DeNiro is in it (swoon). After some food and a quick chat with our hosts we go to bed (told you it was a hard climb!)

Today Nancy has promised to give us a horse riding lesson on Missy Sissy. She gives James some heels to wear and teaches us how to groom the horses (It brings back CHICKS charity memories for Christine) before taking us to the field to saddle up. James starts tucking his jeans into the top of the boots (works for wellies!) but gets laughed at and told not to as "you don't want to look like a rookie". It's Christine's turn first but she can't seem to get the horse to do what she wants so she's happy to let James have his turn. Grinning from ear to ear, he's loving it! Nancy says "look at that, he's found his peace with the horse" after a while of horsing around it's time for food before James gets a turn at driving Don's VW Beetle (chaperoned by Nancy of course). He's always wanted one so it's a real treat but Nancy nearly has a heart attack when he slows for a cattle grid and we nearly get rear-ended by the car behind. Over here they just bomb over them at 60mph! We drive to Brite Lake which is really pretty with wood carved sculptures all around it. A trip to K-Mart is needed and we find a bargain, 18 horror films for $5! That's our night sorted.

Although we're enjoying Tehachapi it's time to venture out to Bakersfield which has a small zoo called CALM. All of the animals are unwanted pets or animals that have become too dependant on humans to survive in the wild. It's a glorious day and we have a nice stroll around the zoo, saying hello to porcupines, beavers, crazy chipmunks and bears. An attention seeking Roadrunner came to say hello by tapping on the glass where we were standing, beep beep!

 It was nice and quiet so we didn't bump into too many people but that did have a disadvantage when we went to feed the goats and the two big bullies kept pushing the others out the way.

After a few hours we make our way to the centre for some food and find a nice looking restaurant. Christine decides to be healthy and orders a salad secretly hoping it is an American sized portion but when it arrives it's teeny! It is lovely though and James is willing to share his fries and huge sandwich so all ends well (for Christine anyway). We've heard that Bakersfield's main attraction is Dewers ice cream parlour and taffy shop so of course we have to sample the goods. Two ice creams later and we're ready to head home via the crazy shop that is Wal-mart. It is huuuuuge but luckily we know what we're after so we don't get too lost but do treat ourselves to our first tray of 12 donuts. Yummy!

Exciting day today as it's time to see the famous Tehachapi Loop! After waiting for half an hour for a train a nice bearded man pulls up and tells us that the train is stuck in the next town and won't be here for at least an hour and half, doh! Fortunately we have a back up plan and drive to the historic Keene cafe for some food, maybe we'll see the train on the way back?

Finishing our huge portions (seeing a theme yet?) we head back to the loop but still have no joy, we'll have to try again before we leave. The next adventure is a nature walk at Stallion Springs, it's so peaceful and we enjoy watching the ground squirrels, lizards and red tailed hawks but don't see any bobcats, tut. Back at the ranch James offers to cook bean chilli for Nancy and Don. They look a bit confused by the idea but the offer is much appreciated, we're the first guests to cook for them. We have another great evening of food, wine and squidgy brownies baked by Nancy and top it all off with an episode of the Big Bang Theory.

It's our last day in Tehachapi so we're going to go to the other famous activity...Ostrich feeding! The tour is good but concentrates a little too much on the 'uses' of ostriches for Christine's liking. We even met a celebrity ostrich (Ralph) who appeared in a Megadeath video and who fell in love on set with a lady with a feather headdress heehee! Next we collect our super size spoons and head for the feeding pen. The ostriches are so fast at eating the food it's all gone in seconds and we have to keep taking the spoon away so that they all get some. Some aren't even bothered when the spoons are empty and try to eat those instead.

After buying some camping gear for our next stop we go back to the Ranch where Nancy asks us for a beer, "Don wants to make you Beer Can Chicken!". What a lovely surprise and fun way to end our stay in Tehachapi, we'll definitely be trying this one at home although we forgot to ask for Nancy's recipe for her gorgeous honey bread.

The next morning we say goodbye to Nancy and Don and thank them for the wonderful time we had there. They are the nicest and most generous hosts we've met so far, it feels like saying goodbye to family as we drive off in search of Yosemite National Park.