Our house is at the head of an area known as the Leona Valley. At one point, mid way up the valley, there are two lakes that fill a crack left by an earthquake.

Out past the lake that has been tauntingly called Elizabeth Lake ever since a girl named Elizabeth Wingfield fell in while camping with her family in 1849 (she survived with only a bruised ego) and Lake Hughes  there's part of The Angeles National Forrest.  

The forest has 250 miles of off-road trails for 4x4s and ATVs, so I took El Truckbo out for some San Gabriel Mountain fun.



The road I took starts at a pretty high altitude and goes straight up. I didn't need four wheel drive for most of the trip, but was glad for high clearance and big tires.

There was one really scary part with deep snow, I didn't get pictures because I was busy backing down the road because I didn't have space to turn around. I was pretty scared, as the road dropped off really far on the right.







I went back down the mountain and found the old route that once was the only way to cross the San Gabriels to the north. It's an abandoned concrete road that winds across the ridge line. It was built for Model A Fords to carry people and produce to farm markets from the Antelope Valley.

On the way back, heading down Route 138 going east toward Lancaster, I saw a UFO and stopped to get a better look. I couldn't figure out what it was, it was really windy, so I knew it couldn't be a hot air balloon. It was moving too slowly to be a plane. 

Now, 138 is a road that extends past civilization both east and west of Lancaster and Palmdale and cuts through some desolate, inherently creepy desert. When a UFO finally puts a tracker beam on my truck and sucks me on board for evil, sadistic experiments, Route 138 is exactly where it's going to happen.
 
Once I stopped, the UFO started to descend and come straight at me, so I did what you should always do when a UFO approaches: enjoyed my last moments of rectal virginity and grabbed my camera.

It was moving too fast to catch it approaching, so all I could get was this picture after it flew over the truck and landed in the field next to me. 



It danced there for about 10 seconds, then took off again in the direction it had been heading before landing next to me and lifted up out of view, presumably over the San Gabriels behind it in the photo.

I felt a little foolish for the legitimate fear I felt as it approached, but you'd have to have seen this cartoonish little girl balloon to descend out of the sky at you to before you judge.

It seems to be some sort of helium balloon that broke free. It looked cheap, like the unlicensed characters from a carnival game that are sort of like a Peanuts character, but also nothing like a Peanuts character.  

When I got back to civilization, I picked up Kelly (whose fingers would still be dug into the center console and door handle of the truck if she had been with me) and we went to the AV Winery.

Their wine tastes like butt, however, they had the AV's only sticks of Margarita Pepperoni as well as some sardines I haven't tried yet.

They also had a coffee seasoning salt that suggests you use it on Fish. It's made in Penn Yan on Keuka Lake, where I want a retirement home someday.



I guess Java Rub and fish could have potential to be a flavor combination that makes you wonder why no one has done it yet, but it may just taste like you spilled some Sanka on your fish fry.