Feb 11, 2021—Onto the great unknown, or at least until we decide where to next!

We head south and decide to land in Bakersfield.  We need to get some work done and then we want to go explore.  We work hard to get our work done early and go for some drives.  We found a place called Wind Wolves Preserve, The wildlands Conservancy.  It is a wonderful area in the foothills of the Grapevine where they kept the area preserved but also allows people to hike and bike.  It is definitely a favorite among the locals to exercise their dogs and kids at.  So we head over to a part where it is less populated with dogs in hopes that Blue can have some off leash time.

That lasted all of 5 mins. There are probably 2 dozen prairie dogs all over and Blue spies them.  He takes off after them, then in mid stride a jack rabbit takes off in his line of sight and hes gone, right out into the road as this rabbit scurries back and forth trying to avoid Blue. So back on the lease he goes.  

I decide maybe we can bike ride with him and he’ll be running so hard he wont’ get sidetracked with rabbits.  We get both bikes out, only to realize Kurt doesn’t have the keys to his battery.  For those of you who don’t know Kurt has a Rad Rover 5 electric bike and without the key there’s no power and it’s only a heavy bike.  Kurt decides he won’t be joining us, so I take off with Blue on the leash, after Kurt shows me how to lock the retractable leash so Blue can’t wrap me up in 25 ft.  

We’re driving by all the prairie dogs and I’m so busy watching them to make sure that Blue doesn’t take off after them that I don’t see that “pesky wabbit” dart in Blue’s sight.  Blue takes off and rather than letting Blue jerk me off my bike, I let go of the leash.  Of course he doesn’t get the rabbit or the prairie dogs, so I pick up his leash again and we go up and around the loop.  We are coming down when Blue spies that “pesky wabbit” again, he must be kin to Bugs Bunny because he circles Blue around a tree then back towards me, only now he’s dragging this leash and he’s so fast it’s whipping through the air about 3 feet off the ground.  It snags on some brambles that act like a bow string and fling it back to me straight for my head.  I knew I was never going to be able to explain that concussion to my doctor so I duck, only to have it wrap around my handle bars.  Now remember Blue is still chasing Bugs Bunny JR around so it starts yanking me towards the bramble bush and tree.  I yell for Blue to stop, then finally hear a yelp.  If I had a camera I would have taken a picture for you, but alas I was a little tied up.  Both Blue and I were wrapped up in brambles, bike and tree and bleeding and Bugs Bunny Jr is sitting across from us in the road looking at us, clearly happy with his work.  I untangle both of us, with very little sympathy to Blue’s plight I might add, and we head back.  I make sure to let Kurt know that I will never be taking him while I’m on a bike again!

I hike around some more, until the park closes.  On our way home we pass hundreds of acres of oranges, lemons and even “Cuties” mandarin oranges.  I’ve never seen trees so full. It was a amazing to see.  They square off the rows to have as much growing space as possible.  We stop to look closer and are amazed at their size, they are gigantic! Being a Washingtonian and used to seeing apple and cherry orchards, this is a wondrous site to us.  We look at the weather forecast and decide it will be better weather more south so we head off for the sun!