Heading South to COLDER Weather and the Bagdad Cafe

Just days after getting back to Washington from China, Bruce and I took off by car for Tennessee.  I did have an appointment with my physical therapists between times.  I came clean to them that I had not done my exercises the whole time I was in China.  One of the first nights, I started to do them.  I pulled out the red Theraband, hooked it around my foot, laid on my back with my arm at my side, and started lifting my arm, trying to get it to lay on the bed over my head against resistance.  I was so tired, I fell asleep after a few repetitions, not even a full set.  I woke up a couple of hours later with the loop of the band around my ankle.  My physical therapist took measurements, and we learned that in spite of not doing my exercises, my range of motion had increased while I was overseas.  Most likely, it was because of how much I was using it.  I was putting weight on it, steadying myself for all of those steps, using it to lean on Chrissy while trying to keep up with the group, getting assistance from group members who helped pull me up the steps to get on the bus, reaching for things, and many other normal, daily activities.  My therapists also gave me "permission" to rest a few days before starting them back up.  In fact, they encouraged it.

So, in keeping with "resting up", a day or two after my appointment, Bruce and I loaded up the car and headed to Tennessee.  Of course, this trip was a much slower pace.  We had right around a month to get to Tennessee and back, wanting to be back in time to spend Christmas with Chrissy.  Because the forecast was calling for snow in Montana and South Dakota, we decided to go south through California before turning east along Route 66 and miss the snow.  Egg on our faces when we hit Mount Shasta!

They were still trying to clean up from the fires in the Shasta National Forest.  Seeing that they were clear cutting and stripping the areas of the burn, I was beginning to get upset.  I mean, yes, you need to clean it up somewhat, but stripping out every bit of the debris would prevent new growth!

I felt much better when we came upon the section where they were replanting in those areas.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that.  In most parts of the Shasta Trinity Forest, visibility was poor and the roads were getting a little slick, and Bruce asked that I keep the camera down so it didn't take his attention off the road.

We made it just south of Sacramento on the first day.  Until Chrissy moved to Washington, Bruce had not spent much time on the west coast, definitely not enough time to get familiar with the fast food places that haven't migrated east of the Mississippi River.  I knew that and took advantage of it.  I suggested eating at the Weinerschnitzel close to our hotel.  The only exposure Bruce has had to weinerschnitzel is the actual veal cutlets on the menu in German restaurants.  He's not overly fond of German food, but he's a good sport and eats German with me relatively frequently.  He mentioned that he didn't think he really wanted anything that heavy, so I told him he could probably get a hot dog there, so he agreed to go.  I thought he was gonna kill me when we went in and he found out it's a fast food place for hot dogs!!

After a good "gourmet" hot dog dinner and a good night's rest, we headed south again.  It seemed the further south we went, the colder it got!  In fact, somewhere between Bakersfield and Barstow, we stopped for gas.  The wind was whipping, the air was cold, and the raindrops felt like they could have been mixed with sleet.  It was miserable!!  It's been a loooooong time since I've felt so cold!

Fortunately, the weather cleared up by the time we got to Newberry Springs, where we stopped at the Bagdad Cafe.

There was a movie shot here in 1987.  It's one of those "day in the life" type pictures, shot in English by a German film maker.  Along with the German actress, it starred Jack Palance and a much younger CCH Pounder.  It won a few awards in Europe, and it's clear that the movie has a much bigger audience in Europe than the US.  I found it on YouTube and watched it for free.  It was better than I expected, and actually was pretty nuanced with issues about immigration, growth of business, relationships, and how to run a coffee shop with no coffee.  They said this was the actual yellow coffee butler from the movie!

I had the Jack Palance burger, which was pretty good, but nothing really special.  I took lots of pictures, but I didn't get to keep more than a few.  It seems the SD card I had in my camera picked that time to malfunction.  At the time, I was just hoping it my camera hadn't broken.  Most of these were taken on my phone, some of them after I learned that the camera wasn't saving any pictures. The food was average with decent portions for the cost.  Aside from having the memorabilia from the movie, the best part was Mike.  I called him Chef Mike, but he said he's probably better known as "Talking Mike".  Mike had a bit part in Erin Brokovich.  He said his boss gets a little upset when he talks about that movie more than "Bagdad Cafe".  He was planning to go home for the day because there wasn't any business, but then we came in and ordered food. We talked about the movie and the area, and some other folks came in.  Some knew of the movie.  I never quite figured out why the others stopped.  It really doesn't look like much from the outside or the inside.  I would definitely recommend watching the movie and stopping in for a cup of coffee or even a bite.  Here are some of the shots I did get, including us with Talking Mike.  It was such fun, we'll probably stop again sometime later.

After a late lunch, we headed on down Route 66 toward London Bridge.