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ange and lereen

Cultivated green fields lay on either side of the wide black roadway Tractors tilled large swatches of land, turned up the soil for planting Loreda thought of the facts she’d collected as they readied for this trip This was the San Joaquin Valley, nestled between the Coast Mountains to the west and the Tehachapi Mountains to the east Sixty eles

Anotherup like so out of a fairy tale These were the peaks John Muir thought should be naht

As Loreda stared out across the San Joaquin Valley, she felt a hunger open up inside her, one she’d never i all of this unexpected beauty, such colors, such majesty, she wanted suddenly to see more A Atlantic, the Rockies All the places she and Daddy had drea She wondered what San Francisco looked like, the city built on hills, or Los Angeles, with its white-sand beaches and groves of orange trees

Mo the wheel

“Mom?”

Moot out of the truck and walked into a field streith bright wildflowers On either side, acres and acres of freshly tilled brown soil, ready for planting The air srowth

Mom drew in a deep breath, exhaled When she turned back to the truck, Loreda sa shiny her mom’s blue eyes were

But why cry now? They’d made it

Mo in her hands and realized for the first time that Mom had been afraid “Okay,” Mo in California Which way do we go?”

Loreda had been waiting for the question “We’re in the San Joaquin Valley, I think South is Hollywood and Los Angeles North is the Central Valley and San Francisco I reckon the biggest town in these parts is Bakersfield”

Mom went to the back of the truck and made sandwiches while Loreda rattled off every relevant fact she’d memorized The three of therass and sat down to eat

Mo I know is fareles No to San Francisco”

“The ocean is west of us”