Visiting our Bakersfield friends...

We have had barely any internet access since we left the RV park near Joshua tree, which is why I suddenly have three blog posts to upload in one go.

After leaving the Joshua Tree area we headed up to Bakersfield, California, to visit a family that we once exchanged Flat Stanley’s with. I read Tammy’s blog, and she reads mine, and we once swapped Flat Mum’s as well. Tammy was kind enough to let us camp outside her house and we took advantage of some of her cleaning equipment too. We spent almost a full day cleaning the RV, inside and out. Dan washed 3 months worth of squished desert bugs off, while I vacuumed the seats and mattresses, and washed the floor. It was exhausting work but it really had to be done. Poor Thelma was covered in such a bug holocaust that she was almost camouflaged in the desert!

Our kids were delighted to have some company for three days and made good friends with Tammy’s three children. They were all very patient and kind to Barney, which was great for him, and he has since decided that one day he will return to ask the younger daughters hand in marriage! Annabelle slept in the living room with the girls all three nights and barely got a wink of sleep, from what she has told me. She had a blast.

Tammy and Mike took us to a baseball game. Wow, it was so American! Dan was excited beyond belief about going to the game, and plagued Mike with thousands of questions right through the match. Amazingly, I was able to understand what was happening most of the time too.

We also took a trip to the $1 cinema and watched ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ (possibly the scariest film Barney has ever seen!) The film was great, despite the loud noises and monsters. I was worried Barney would have nightmares, but he climbed onto my lap and hid his head at the noisy bits. He was so worn out that night as he didn’t go to bed till 1am (after attempting to sleep over at a pajama party), so he had completely forgotten about Goblins and monsters by that point.

That same evening we took Tammy, Mike and the kids to an all-you-can-eat buffet to say thanks for having us. The six kids had their own table and made lots of noise, and lots more mess. The kids were all given helium balloons by a huge walking bumble bee, which pleased Barney no end. That evening we sat out in the back garden till the small hours of the night talking about music and stuff. Dan entertained everyone by walking into the patio door fly screen, not once, but twice! Barney and I headed to bed at 1am. He had intended to sleep in the living room with all the kids but begged to go to bed by that point. Dan made it to bed at 4am, and from all accounts the rest of the kids stayed up till 6am to watch the sunrise!

It was great to have a rest at Tammy’s house. She was very hospitable to us, cooked us a lovely Mexican meal, and made the kids feel very at home. I’m glad we had the chance to meet up with them our travels.