I will definitely make sure to see more of her in the future than I have in the past several years. She's only an hour and a half away, so with my new tires I really have no excuses.
This is the main street, the one I drive on every time I go to town. And I never noticed the massive rust on the roof of the old apple shed across the street. I asked Judy to pose, so this post will include some rust as well.
Judy tries on a leather jacket that she ended up not buying. But she did get the nice blouse that you can barely see under the jacket.
And I bought this bracelet to go with the rock I bought in Ojai. A great find that fits my arm really well.
Before we left for town, I asked Judy to take my picture with the Vera Bradley bag my friend Rosemary sent me last year. I then forwarded the picture to Rosemary. I want her to know how much I enjoy ALL the bags she sent me.
The office of the attorney, who did my living trust, is located across this alley way. Just far enough for these murals to look real. It's amazing how real they look!
I got a good laugh, a while back, when I asked the ladies in the crochet group if the shoe repair shop was ever open! That's how real it looked to me from across the way. As it turned out, most of the ladies had made the same mistake, one even knocking on the door before she realized what was going on. Whatever happened to shoe repair shops anyway?
Next door to my attorney's office, a new shop has recently opened. It sells restored furniture and materials to use for this purpose. I also think there are classes. Anyhow, the furniture for sale was gorgeous, I wanted it all. A shop I will definitely visit again. I guess I was so in awe that I forgot to take pictures. Oh, well, I did get old Avelino Martinez without a car parked in front of him at least. Not an easy feat, as our town is growing fast, and with it the traffic.
This man was quite a character in his day. I don't know if you can enlarge the picture to read what it says, so this is a short version. He came here at the age of thirteen, four feet tall, searching for his father. Later he worked as a horse groom for one of the outlaw Joaquin Murrieta's four horse gangs. Members would capture wild horses and then drive them back to Sonora, Mexico where rich ranchers would buy the horses.
After Murrieta's gangs were captured, Martinez worked at Rancho El Tejon and later for E. J. Cummings of Cummings Ranch, here in Tehachapi. Avelino Martinez died in 1936, at a reported age of 112. He is buried in our old cemetery, where he lies north to south, rather than facing east, as is customary.
I want to visit that cemetery, I know it must be an interesting place. The original settlers of our valley are buried there and their histories with them. I know I would like to read the words on their gravestones and imagine the people and the lives they lived.
Judy and I had a really fun day and I'm so grateful to have good friends like her in my life.
