I awoke today to find all of my limbs still intact and my brains still in my head. Kris doesn't seem to have been overtaken by the zombie virus...or at least he isn't walking around saying, "Brains!"
After foil packet grill-smoking some sustenance, we braved a trip to the Hicksville Trailer Palace main center to assess other damage. The trailer palace was left intact, but the inhabitants were in pretty rough shape. They seemed bedraggled and weary. A few of them were grumbling and groaning. Kris and I didn't stick around to find out if they were going to bite us. We dropped our key and fled for Palm Springs.
The drive from Hicksville to Palm Springs was interesting. We passed massive quantities of windmills as we crossed a mountain range. I hope the massive amounts of turning metal will keep those zombies away.
When we arrived at the giant Marilyn Monroe statue in Palm Springs there were hoards of Asian tourists but a lack of flesh eating humans. So far so good.
The Ruddy's General Store we attempted to visit was closed, but had some neat memorabilia of days gone by displayed in their windows. We walked around Palm Springs a bit before heading down the road.
We stopped at a farmer's market in Old Town La Quinta. Temperatures were nice enough to walk around sans jacket. I hear zombies don't like warm temperatures, as it doesn't preserve flesh. I hope that's true.
We went to Shield's Date Garden in Indio for lunch. Interesting place.
We ate outside on their patio so we could keep watch for trouble. It was really nice. We were surrounded by palm trees and located close to the escape doors. I got the corn soup. Kris ate a tamale and had a date milkshake.
Inside of the main store at Shield's, you can watch a movie on date mating rituals or sample more varieties of dates than I would have ever thought possible to exist. Kris tried a few and liked them. Based on his recommendation of the blonde date, I tried one. Ugh. Not for me.
Next up on the agenda...the International Banana Museum. Kris almost drove right by the museum. It sits in a parking lot next door to a liquor store, and his idea of what this museum would be didn't match.
The owner, Fred the banana guy, has been working on converting his family's old pub that has been in their family since the 1950s into this Guinness World Record Collection and International Banana Museum for the last two years. He just opened it in November.
Fred is an interesting fellow. He never was incredibly fascinated with bananas. He saw a person selling a really large collection of banana material on eBay and saw it as a business opportunity. He told me he questioned whether or not he wanted to be known as "that crazy banana guy"...but figured why not!?!
He has a few costume items he'll let people pose with for photos.
The museum is small, but it is jam packed with banana stuff. Collages, posters, bags, costumes, knick knacks, furniture, clothing, and more can be found on display. The small details are impressive. Check out the bar stools if you visit. Pens, paper, stickers, and the list goes on and on.
The walls are covered in banana awesomeness, and he has several display cases on display as well.
A fascinating guy, Fred also makes a delicious banana soda float. It was fantastic! Kris and I shared the banana goodness.
Fred was even nice enough to let Platty, the museum mascot, take a photo with Skitler.
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| Platty and Skitler |
You should really check out the International Banana Museum Facebook page. Lots of banana humor! Fred has people sign a guest book when they visit.
When a family of potential zombies came, we fled. We had no evidence of their virus predisposition, but we had no inclination to take any chances.
The big hunk of our day was spent on the road getting to San Diego, a zombie safe house due to it's mild climate. We spent hours in the desert area of California where masses of people go offroading. It was crazy how many dozens of people were flying on different ATVs. There were jeeps, bikes, traditional ATVs, and even a modified VW Bug. Plus, it was nice and warm.
People seem to load up the RV and spend a lot of time out in the middle of nowhere flying over massive sand dunes. If you're into offroading, this seems like the perfect location.
Our good weather disappeared when we hit a snowstorm in Julian. Was this a sign of the upcoming apocalypse? Our good zombie survival weather quickly dissipating? We really didn't expect to have an issue with freak snowstorms in Southern California.
Rather than deal with the road conditions, many people had pulled over and started snowball fights.
And it's no wonder why. People were sliding off the road! It was pretty darn tense, and it caused a pretty big delay in our travel progress.
We survived, thank goodness, and found ourselves traveling in some regular wet rain on the drive to our AirBnB in San Diego for the next few evenings. Save $25 on AirBnB by signing up with my referral link: https://www.airbnb.com/tell-a-friend?airef=qok3zd875ezz5
All things at our lodging checked out and were zombie free.
I contacted my awesomely amazing friend Laura, and Kris, Laura, Robert (Laura's husband), and I all met up for some dinner at Jimmy Carter's. Luckily Mexican food, and not brains, were on the menu.
After our meal, we all walked to Balboa Park. San Diego appears to be zombie free.
All in a day's work...
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