Pulling Over

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Show off your favorite place to nap, that's not your bed. Couches, hammocks, recliners -- let's see where you doze in repose.

Listen, you've already seen my couch...




...where I often sleep if there's reason to think I would otherwise be disturbing John (during an allergy attack, for example). Nothing new or exciting there. But that's not my favoite place for a nap, anyway. I actually take most of my naps in the bedroom (imagine that!), but my favorite place is somewhere a bit west of where this picture was taken:


This is Interstate 8 in California, somewhere near Cleveland National Forest. (That's named for the President, not the city in Ohio.) Yes, I've undoubtedly slept at this very spot, while John was driving. But you have to be a bit closer to San Diego to get to the ideal place for a much-needed nap in the middle of a road trip.


Unfortunately, I can't give you a picture of the place itself, only one of the venues for sleeping when we get there. My favorite place to sleep, other than in my own bed, is in the front seat of my car, or the passenger seat of John's car, while parked at Buckman Springs Rest Area in Cleveland National Forest. The shot above is from my car. It's actually more common for me to sleep in John's car, but he doesn't like me to photograph that.


I've actually only slept in my current car about once, during our Labor Day weekend Disneyland trip. Yes, we did take a nap at Buckman Springs on that trip, but I didn't think to take a picture. This shot was taken tonight in my own driveway. Unfortunately, my expensive car seat cover recently tore. I reclined the car seat for this photo shoot, and had trouble getting it back to where I want it afterward. Those shots didn't look good, anyway. You really can't tell from the photos that I reclined the seat at all.

I-8 is what John and I call "The Southern Route" to Southern California. We usually go that way, specifically to sleep at Buckman Springs. This is because the elevation there is high enough that it's seldom too hot to sleep, at least not in the middle or the night. We typically pull in there around 3 or 4 AM, and sleep for three or four hours. Then we continue on to Disneyland, or wherever it is we're going, usually with a stop at Denny's for breakfast on the way. Once I woke at dawn at Buckman Springs, and saw a bobcat just beyond the edge of the parking area. That was probably 20 years ago. Too bad I couldn't get a picture!


When we take The Northern Route, that means staying on I-10 well into California, getting off somewhere between Cabezon and Los Angeles. The bad news is that I-10 goes through Yuma, and yes, it can be hot, even at night. The good news is that we sometimes get to take a nap at The Wheel Inn, in the company of dinosaurs. I don't care if there's no such thing as a brontosaurus. That was my favorite kind of dinosaur when I was a kid. I always love to visit this one, and his T. Rex friend.

And I'm not the only one.


Karen

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