The computer/wifi are not being nice again tonight. I am beginning to wonder if it’s me or them. I am writing this in the word processing app with the hopes of copying and pasting it into the blog and downloading the photos all at once. It’s gonna be a bit tricky, but I think I can win this battle. So, grab your beverage of choice, get comfy, and hopefully enjoy this entry - it’s going to be a long one.
Ok, I'm giving up tonight trying to upload photos. I'm going to work on it during the day tomorrow when there aren't as many people on the wifi here.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, we were returning to Santee and the RV last Saturday after being home for a week. The fence work was nearly complete and we had a nice little vacation sleeping in our sleep number bed and showering in a continuous stream of water! We set off early for the long drive down US395 along the eastern side of the Sierras. It was a beautiful day weather-wise, there was little to no traffic, and the scenery was just awesome.
A park that doesn’t allow dogs. Can you believe it? Well, there’s one in Gardnerville, NV. Maggie tends to be a bit anxious when we first start out on a trip and Saturday was no exception. Our usual modus operandi is to stop about an hour after we start, let her out for a few minutes to do her doggie sniffing and business, and then she is much calmer. So, we figured that the nice town park in Gardnerville was about the right timing for her. Well, they don’t allow dogs! Who ever heard of such a thing. Shame on them.
As we climbed into the mountains, following the Walker River, we encountered scenery worth photographing at every turn in the road. I probably took a picture each time, too. I ended up with close to a hundred shots - maybe a dozen good ones. I was using Roger’s new camera to test it out, so settings got off a little but I think there are some good ones to share with you. Since we weren’t in a huge hurry, the traffic was light, and I was hyped up about the drive, Roger stopped often for photo taking. He was quite patient with me and I had a great day.
We were surprised at the lack of snow pack. At 7,000 feet there was no snow and at 8,000 feet there was just a little bit on the ground. We were feeling sorry for those folks who had come to Mammoth Lakes to go skiing. I’m sure there was man-made snow for them, but the awesome beauty of the area in winter just wasn’t there. We saw lots of private planes at the airport as we passed and kept thinking how disappointing it must have been to plan a three day (and Valentine’s Day) weekend doing winter sports and it was 65 degrees with no snow on the ground. I know I would have been upset - if I were a winter sports kind of person, that is.
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| View of Mono Lake from picnic area |
When we dropped down from Mammoth Lakes into the Mono Lake basin, we stopped in the town of Lee Vining for lunch. We were back at 7,000 ft. altitude. We found a nice town park - that allowed dogs - a block off the main road. The town is only one block wide, so it wasn’t hard to find. We were alone in the park, had a super view of Mono Lake, it was quiet, and there was lots of grass for Maggie to run in. It was probably the most peaceful on-the-road lunch we have had in ages. Usually we stop at rest areas or truck stops and the noise of the trucks and the smell of diesel fuel is always there. Saturday the sun was shining, the air was clean, it was about 60 degrees, and we really had a relaxing lunch.
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| Checking out what's for lunch |
From there we dropped another 2,000 ft into Bishop and even warmer temps. South of there we started encountering more desert along the foot of the Sierras. Just at the base of the area where Mt. Whitney is (the tallest point in the contiguous US), there is a memorial park marking the spot where we (the US) interred Japanese-Americans during WWII. Manzanar Relocation Camp was out in the middle of no-where. There is a museum, which we didn’t have time for, and remnants of some of the brick buildings and streets. It was pretty surreal standing there looking around and thinking about what happened to these innocent people in our panic after Pearl Harbor. What an uproar there would be today if we tried to do something similar - but those were different times.
We stayed the night in Ridgecrest, CA just outside of China Lake Naval Weapons Station. Now we are talking out in the middle of the desert! We found a nice Mediterranean restaurant for dinner and since we we eat early we had no issues with the Valentine’s Day crowds - people were coming in as we were leaving.
Sunday it was all desert, all the way to the San Bernardino Mountains. Miles and miles of nothing but power poles! Several power plants and a huge solar array produce lots and lots of power - all heading to the LA basin. On the hill tops were lots of buildings that looked like military communications arrays as nearby Edwards AFB is home to lots of testing of military aircraft. Think Chuck Yeager and Mach 1. All of the first seven astronauts trained there.
Lunch on Sunday was in a parking spot of an empty industrial park just south of Riverside. We pulled up under a shade tree and had our picnic on the tool box in the bed of the truck. Maggie wasn’t so sure she liked it there, but once she started getting food she was OK.
We got into Santee Lakes mid afternoon to an RV that was 97 degrees inside! It was 84 outside! We got our stuff put away and sat outside while the AC cooled off the rig. It was good to be off the road and back in Santee.
Yesterday we got back into our walking routine, I worked on the taxes, and Roger cleaned the truck. Today I spent a couple of hours with the woman who sold us the sofa while she helped me with some genealogy work and is putting me on the right track to getting what I need to prove decendency from a Revolutionary War “Patriot.” We did make some headway - one of the people I suspected might be a veteran of that war is listed in the DAR registry. Now all I have to do is prove the lineage! Something else to challenge me :-) .
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