The day started early because I was Toastmaster for the Silver Tongued Cats meeting this morning. I had chosen “On The Road Again” as the theme of the meeting, and our Table Topics Master asked amusing questions about road trips (for example, “What would you ask Willie Nelson if you went on a road trip with him?).

After the meeting, Diane and I took a walk through the resort and enjoyed the flowers and birds.

We had lunch at Ernie’s Bar and Grill at PGA West with a friend from trivia, then visited her at her house on the Palmer golf course. On the way back from PGA West, we stopped at Shields Date Farm for a delicious date shake and a quick walk through the garden there. Unfortunately, they’re not showing “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date” because of COVID-19, but it’s available online.

We made dinner in our unit – in previous stays at Westin timeshares, the kitchens have been well stocked with pots, pans, and the like, but this time, we’ve been surprised by what’s missing, like measuring cups, colanders, and wine glasses. I’m not sure what’s going on – I didn’t think the resort’s COVID precautions and closures should affect kitchen equipment.

Our hotel stay was reasonably comfortable, but I have to say that I miss the breakfast buffet of old (especially the waffle-maker). A grab and go bag is just not the same thing – fortunately, we’d brought cereal and fruit with us, so we had a decent breakfast anyway.

We took the obvious route from Bakersfield; I had meant to stop at the truck stop just before the descent on the Grapevine, but I missed it and we had to go all the way to Castaic before finding more civilization. Yelp pointed us to Sam’s BBQ and Grill – unfortunately, the sign on the outside of the building read “Castaic Food and Deli” and we drove past it several times! It’s a small takeout restaurant inside a truck stop, with Mexican food and BBQ; Diane and I both had the Tri-tip sandwich, which was pretty good and quite filling!

There was a crash on the 210 (I’m in Southern California, so I’m following local custom and using the definite article) that tied up traffic for a few minutes. When we got up to the scene, four lanes had to funnel down to one to get around the wreck; I was impressed by the courtesy of the drivers making the merge go fairly smoothly and fairly. It’s not that way at home!

Dinner tonight was another first-in-a-long-time – we ate with another couple, friends from Shir Hadash who moved down here a few years ago. We ate at Koutouki Greek Estiatorio in Palm Desert, sitting outside…without masks! We were all fully vaccinated, of course, and it was not possible to wear masks while eating – but it still felt very strange, almost naughty!

After dinner, Diane and I had dessert at Lappert’s (not worth the caloric cost, I’m afraid), which let us enjoy the last bit of sunset.