Murphster is on The West Coast

Greetings from the west coast, Team Murphy!
I have arrived in CA and it's very different than I imagined. I, like alot of folks, thought CA was all about beaches, famous people and fancy houses & cars, but boy was I wrong.

CA is the 3rd largest U.S. state and also the biggest state of all in the US for agriculture/farming and it produces nearly half of the nation's produce. We passed all sorts of farm fields. From fields of lettuce, garlic & lots of other veggies to nut trees, fruit trees, vineyards, flowers and even many stockyards & dairy farms full of thousands of cows...it was all so interesting to me.
CA also has many desert areas, one of which I'm attaching a photo of because it's such a different type of desert of all I've seen. It's called the Imperial Desert & it has such soft, smooth, fine, plantless sand like you see on t.v.! This was right next to the Mexican border, which I saw again today, like I saw in TX. Boy, we really are in the southernmost part of the west here.

CA does indeed have very large cities (we delivered in San Diego & Los Angeles) and one thing I noticed and was surprised about was the litter on the roadways, the dirtyness of even the road signs & you can really see the smog in the air on the horizon...boy this made me homesick for good ol' Massachusetts and I realized how naturally pretty & clean our state is. Not all the houses are fancy like you think of when you think about Hollywood, there are many poor areas that I was so surprised to see. The highways here, called freeways, have more lanes than MA! Sometimes we were on roads with 7-8 lanes of traffic, it sure was crazy because we also sat in a lot of traffic jams because there are so many people here. CA roads are not as much fun as all the ones I saw coming across the country. Oh, and they are some of the bumpiest roads, too. Not always an easy job for Doug & Jen in their big truck!

Palm trees, Imperial Desert & Foxy Lettuce Farm

One pretty thing I noticed was the palm trees & colorful flowers here in the winter, I love it! We got to visit Jen's childhood friend who lives on a big hill in San Diego & Jen took my picture in her backyard that overlooks the city.

Visiting friends, LA & if you look reeeeal close, you can see the famous "Hollywood" sign up on a hill behind me!

CA has beautiful beaches, but it was dark when were near them, so no pictures for you. Jen & Doug have been all the way up as far north as you can go in CA but this trip was pretty much the southern part. They say there are beautiful forests & mountains up there. Have any of you heard of Yosemite National Park or Sequoia National Forest? How about the Redwood Forest or Big Bear Lake & Valley, where it snows in CA? These are all amazing landscapes that CA has to offer, not just cities, beaches, freeways & farms. CA is about 15 & 1/2 times bigger than MA.

I wish we had more time to sight see here but it's been mostly driving and work while here.
Well, I sure have enjoyed my time on my cross country trip. Thinking of you all in New England where I will be very soon!
Yours truly,
Murphster