Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Last week after putting a deposit on the RV we headed down 99 to Merced, where we thought we would be spending the night. We had stayed in Tracy, Stockton (two different motels), Fremont, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara by that stage, and wanted to do something different. However, when we got to Merced we didn’t like the look of the motel/area so we carried on south to Turlock, a town neither of us had ever heard of before.

The motel there was exceptional. As we signed it the receptionist had a “whoah” moment when she realized that the other guest she was checking in was also from Sunnyvale, and had a birthday on the 14th of a month. To make it more fun, his surname was “Moore.” The staff there was friendly and really seemed to care about what they were doing, which was not the case for all branches of this chain. We got a lovely room tucked away at the back of the motel where nobody bothered us for the next two days.

There was a different feel to everything for us. We knew that these would most likely be our last days in the motel, so the atmosphere was much more relaxed than it had been for, well, months. It felt as though we were finally moving on and it felt as though we were on vacation, too.

I understand that Turlock was named for County Turlough in Ireland. The first night we didn’t do much of anything and during the day we literally vegged out and did nothing other than much-needed laundry. But in the evening Don realized he had lost his radio so we went to see if we could get one from a dollar store. (We actually tracked down the radio to the previous night’s motel so we picked it up on Monday.) As we had no map and didn’t know the town we just drove around randomly to see what we found.

We discovered that the town had a processing plant for Foster Farms. It involved a lot of steam, red light and frankly hellish-looking working conditions. Despite this Turlock had a mellow, laid-back atmosphere and was quite run-down but did not seem to have a threatening vibe. We found a dollar store and Don got a radio but it wasn’t what he was looking for, but we did get a few bits and bobs. Then we went on a quest for soda to Rite Aid and then I had an urge to buy postcards so we drove around in circles some more, discovering the post office en route, and found a Walgreen’s which did have postcards. We had great fun just exploring without plans or expectations. The little downtown area looked like it might have some neat old buildings and I know that there’s at least one museum there.

When Monday morning came around we went to the post office where I had to explain to a woman how to use the stamp machine. I also found a little graveyard of old mailboxes and mail sorting shelves in back. I think I’d like to go back sometime just to explore and see what’s there in more detail. I liked Turlock but more than anything I enjoyed the random unplanned wander around town, finding out about it.

I think I could get used to this.

Just a few random posts

• 19 August 2007 (4)
• Paradise (0)
• Phone Post (transcribed) (0)
• November mileage (0)
• 04 November 2007 (0)

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