Today we got up at 5:30 am and were on the road by 6:30, so we could be in Ramona by 8:00 and meet up with some guys and their tractors. These guys love tractors so much that they get together to drive their tractors on a scenic mountain road trek.
Randy drove a friend's tractor and I joined Teresa, who was driving a truck ahead of the tractor parade. The one lane road is full of curves, with signs that say to honk when you approach blind curves. It worked; as we eased around one curve we met a car sitting still, waiting to see who honked. They backed up until there was a spot wide enough to pull over a bit so we could pass each other.
The ground is out here is very dry, but some areas are irrigated for crops. We passed several fields of fruit trees, all trimmed off square at top, probably to encourage more fruit growth.
Teresa and I arrived at our destination, a large area with a good view of a nearby dam. The dam was built to create a lake but the current drought, which is in it's fourth year now, has severely dropped the water level.
We set up lunch: steak and cheese soup, BBQ brisket on Hawaiian rolls, potato chips, German chocolate cake, cookies and nut torte. What a great picnic! Just as everything was ready, the guys showed up and lined up their tractors like horses at the coral.
After a leisurely lunch, the tractors headed back down the road they came in on, while Teresa and I took a different route back. We arrived before they did and had quite a wait; in fact, after awhile we rolled down the windows, laid the car seats back and took a short nap. Eventually the tractors showed up and we learned what caused the delay - the lead tractor had a tire blow out.
There wasn't much they could do besides limp back to the starting point. One of the guys called ahead and had a truck show up with a spare tire.
We were only about 20 miles from Julian, so Teresa drove us there. Julian is famous for their apples so in the fall the town is packed with tourists. This weekend the streets were full of cars and beautiful motorcycles, but we finally found a place to park. The town has a lot of cute stores with clothing, candy and trinkets, a couple of horses and this guy, with the worst underbite ever.
The stores that sold apple pies and apple cider were packed, with lines out the door, so we decided to buy our apple cider on the way out of town - and it was awesome!
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