When I left Bakersfield on Tuesday morning for Los Angeles, I made a quick decision to drive through Tehachapi instead of over the Grapevine.  The weather was lovely.  The road was dry.  I didn’t need to be home at any particular time and I was in the mood for exploring.

I’m so glad I did.  Heading east on the 58, the road encounters citrus orchards, ranch and farm land, and then rolling hills.  The land looked green and healthy from our earlier rains.  My heart opened up and my mood lightened.  There’s less traffic than on the 5, and fewer trucks and the grade not quite so steep.  Beautiful.

I admired the railway “loop” from the road.  The town of Tehachapi itself is charming.  I took Willow Springs Road south toward Lancaster and there the farmland gave way to a magical landscape of wind turbines.  It reminded me of when the artist Christo put up all those giant yellow umbrellas along the Grapevine thirty years ago.

It’s about thirty extra miles going that way instead of the 5, so I won’t do it regularly.  But it made me appreciate the joy of exploring, of trying, of being a little adventurous.  Trying something new doesn’t always end in success, disappointment is always a possibility with the unfamiliar.  But the pleasure of a new experience, the delight of a unexpected treat, the realization that the world offers such an abundance of pleasures is worth the effort.  Worth even going out of your way to find them.