California 2025, Day 7, Fowler

Denny's

After yesterday was exhausting for everyone (I myself collapsed into bed around seven-thirty and only woke up at seven in the morning), it was clear that today would be dedicated to regeneration and idleness. So there is little to report. Since breakfast in our current hotel is, let's say, 'developable', we started the day at the Denny's across the street with pancakes, scrambled eggs, and more. Kindly, as a hotel guest, you get a 15% discount here. It was also nice that the 'normal' stacks of pancakes were included as an extra with the 'All American Slam' breakfast from Von-Von (also known as 'Daniel's wife'), meaning they were only charged at $2 each. Only for my 'stack of cinnamon roll pancakes' (very delicious) did we have to pay the regular price (almost $6). A minor drawback: the coffee here also just tastes terrible. Especially when you accidentally end up with the vanilla-flavored creamer instead of the regular coffee cream. Thanks to 'Free Refill', there was another chance, but even black the coffee is not really enjoyable.

Fowler Sightseeing Tour

The rest of the day in brief: splashing in the pool, playing cards by the pool, chilling in the room. The kids went to McDonald's (veggie burger: none) and Starbucks in between while Von-Von and I used our time differently. Von-Von and I also went out and took a little Fowler sightseeing tour at a pleasant 38°C. At the railroad crossing, we had an encounter with a dust devil, which fortunately did not cross our path. Otherwise, there's little new to report from the tour (it feels like every Christian denomination has its own church in Fowler: Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, and others like 'Church of Christ' and 'Armenian Apostolic Church') and a lot of old (typical American 'Desperate Housewives' residential areas with perfect front yards and security systems and all that).

Evening Run

In the evening (at a pleasant 34°C), I was finally able to use my running shoes for their true purpose. Until now, I had only used them for walking, but today I could finally use them for running again. My plan had been to run regularly while in America. However, I both underestimated how hard and long the jet lag would hit me, and our previous schedule left little room for such activities. The run itself went quite well (ha ha), except that Strava had a glitch at kilometer 6 and didn't track properly until 1.5 kilometers (?) later.

To be continued...

Distance run: 12 kilometers

Steps taken: 13,500

Pancakes eaten so far in total: 5 large and 9 small