We got up extra early today, for a Sunday. We are going to my Dads house in Visalia. That’s the middle of the Central Valley of California. All the charms of Appalachia without the beauty. You get the idea. Anyhow, 4 hour drive, miserable, boring, drive. Always hate it. I wish Dad could live somewhere nice and not some American shithole far worse than Haiti or Africa (thanks Mr Trump!).
Anyhow, we left the house about 840 headed for Starbucks. The dogs are in the back, we can’t leave them cause hey are still a bit wiggy with Taffy’s passing. Will take awhile.
It’s an ugly, foggy, cold, gray day. Perfect for the valley. The Central Valley is like that from November through March. And in my memory, like that 24/7 six months a year. I truly hate the Valley. Hate is a strong word. I am only using it till I find a stronger word.
Drive was uneventful. Not many cars and I was unfettered in my choice of which part of the speedometer to occupy. Only saw one cop. But, other than gas stop it was very boring.
Got to dads around one. 
Dads normal day is sit around and watch TV. Talk on he phone. Eat a little. Repeat. Go to bed. We interjected ourselves. We give him someone new to talk to, we bring better food (usually) and keep him awake too long. Probably good for him to change it up.
Todays trip is a quickie. Emily does not want to spend the night. So we are gonna visit, have an early dinner and head home. I would rather sleep over. But Emily is in charge.
So we sat around, watched football and talked about whatever. The usual visit. Just a check in on everyone. Nothing new down here, like anything ever is.
Watched tv and yacked for three hours. Then we made dinner. I was going to go to my favorite meat market for some prime steaks, but Dad insisted on serving his lasagne. Well, that turns out to be a frozen lasagne, and not anywhere near as good as u expect a frozen lasagne to be. If you know what I mean.
No big. We also had a box of wines, splits, from Santa Barbara. Doriene got them for Dad. I opened the first bottle, took a sip then checked the bottle to make sure it was wine and not vinegar. Very awful. Putrid even. We dumped it out. Next bottle, a Rose. Same fate. Then we switched to a nice Pinot form a decent winery, in Windsor, and it was excellent. That bottle was from my daughter. She knows wine. My sister will drink anything.
Well, we still had a nice dinner. And for dessert, Emily had made a bread pudding earlier, after we had arrived. That was a high point. We used a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread as the base. That was sweet. Not bad for her first try.
After dinner we cleaned up, said our goodbyes and 3.5 hours later arrived home. Basically straight to bed. What a day. Almost 8 hours in the car is surprisingly tiring. Emilys idea is to do this once a month to visit. Dad goes nowhere so it’s gotta be that way. Hope my kids treat me this well.