Adventure FAIL

I love Google Earth. You can go to most anyplace on earth, on this thing, and in most places people have posted a picture they took while there. A while back I had found this place near Edwards Air Force Base out in the Palmdale Ca. area. I was looking at landing site for the space shuttle they have in the dry lake bed at Edwards. It is interesting to look at from a satellite image because they have marked the lake bed with a 350 Degree wheel. This thing has to be 1500 feet across. You can tell when someone has uploaded an image on Google Earth, there is a little blue square, you click on it and an image appears. I clicked on an image near the dry lake bed and it had a picture of a B-52 Bomber in a plane wrecking yard kind of condition. I clicked on another square and a B-58 Hustler popped up, in the same condition as the B-52.
I could see these planes were out in the open and I wanted to go see them. I followed the roads in the images and could see how to get to them. I could see that I had to go through a small town that had some pictures posted on Google Earth also. Some cool old buildings and old signs to see.
Towards the end of January my daughter wanted to come over so I could change the brakes on her car. She and her new husband came over. We started to do the brakes but it didn't need them. I asked them if they wanted to go on an adventure. I had my son that week end so all 4 of us jumped in the truck and headed toward Edwards.
I had it mapped out so we would pass through the small town of Hi-Vista Ca. I guess they filmed part of a movie called "Kill Bill" there. I haven't seen the movie but some of the buildings looked cool and it was on the way so I thought we could stop. The pictures I saw online showed an old sign for a Dinner there and I wanted a picture of it. We pulled into town and it was a run down affair with frumpy looking houses and this old Mission Style Church, But someone had torn down the sign I wanted to photograph. Fail number one....lol
We headed down the road I had mapped out. Over hill and dale heading towards Edwards. I never saw the street I was suppose to turn on, but eventually we came to a very sturdy gate.
Here is the problem with Google Earth as a reference. All the images are taken from the air or from space. They don't show much depth, and things like gates and fences just don't show up.
I did find out what those planes are for.

As we came down the hill toward the gate we could see what looked like planes set out at different intervals paralleling the fence the gate was on. Fail number 2....sigh
We just were not going to get to see the planes today.
This is as close as we got.

When I got back home you could see how the Air Force had this bombing range set up when I looked it up on Google Earth.

Maybe it isn't a good Idea to see these planes. I can see them at an air museum somewhere another time. So we headed back home with the words FAIL on our lips. Oh well. It was a fun ride.

Adventure with the Daughter

A few days before New Years I went out to Barstow Ca. to see my daughter. She lives here so she can be close to Calico Ghost Town, where she has a part time job. It was time for some father/daughter time and we thought we would go on an adventure out in the surrounding desert.
The area around Barstow is full of history. You can't throw a rock in the air with out it falling into an old Silver mine out there. It has been a way station since the days of the stage coach. The old steam trains stopped here, and is still a huge hub for all things railroad. Also Route 66 goes through Barstow.
So I loaded up the daughter and we went to Del Taco for some burritos, tacos, and drinks. We stopped and ate for a bit at the old train depot. I posted here not to long ago about this old depot, and the Harvey House that is at the Train Station there.
I had found on Google Earth that there are some Petroglyphs out in an area near a place called Rainbow Basin. She hadn't been to Rainbow Basin yet so I thought it would be fun to go through there and show it to her first. Here is where the adventure starts.
Just before Christmas last year it rained by the buckets out here in the desert. So much so that the normally dry Mojave River over flowed it's banks in Barstow and flooded a few homes.
The problem with making a dirt road in the Mojave Desert is that during rain the roads become rivers or worse the dry gulleys that cross the dirt roads totally wash the road out.
Well when we got to the road that takes you to Rainbow Basin it was a washed out mess. It was drivable as far as I could see and we were in the 4X4 so we pressed on. We had no problem getting to the entrance to the basin.
About the basin, it is actually a small slot canyon that takes you up into some hills that have all these pretty colored layers of rock. The normally graded dirt road that takes you through the basin was non-existent because of all the water that ran through that slot canyon.
It looked like fun so we pressed on. We had to get out a few times to move rocks from the middle of the path so as not to kill the undercarriage. A little rock crawling in some places and still running water in others we made it to the top. These pictures don't do the place justice.






The drive through Rainbow Basin is actually a loop. You go up one slot canyon and go down another. The down hill canyon was a lot worse than the up hill. We had swung around and down a couple of sharp turns so backing up wasn't an appealing option. In one spot, the way the road had washed out it made it so we were close to the canyon wall and the front tire was going to drop into a hole and put us closer than I liked. In situations like this you may have to get rocks and build a ramp or move rocks to get into better positions. During this I found a cool rock with all this green and white layering to it. The Daughter being a Larsen is a rock hound of course so she snapped it up. Thank goodness this one was pocket sized. I made it so we could rock crawl down this section and we made our way back down and out. That road was a mess the whole way down.
Now to find the area that had the Petroglyphs. According to the Google Earth images I had seen they were to the west of Rainbow Basin and to the north up a small valley. We found the road with no problem it just took us a while to get there because of all the road wash outs. There must have been actual rivers running out of those hills to wash out those huge chunks of road.
We start heading out this road towards our petroglyphs and a Jeep Cherokee covered in mud is coming down the other way. Normally out here in the desert you get your car dusty not muddy.
We found the cause for the mud a mile farther up. A big hole in the road with water in it. I'm not one for having to get out into mud if I get stuck so I didn't go splashing through like the Cherokee....lol
4X4 around is better.
We finally came to an ancient lava flow that pushed it's way out into this valley. I wonder what it was like back then. There was a sign for us.

After reading that I couldn't help but think that who ever wrote that projected their own worries and beliefs about the environment onto this plaque. Why isn't it just these local prehistoric people chipping these images on the rocks to show that their ancestors had seen these rocks flow from the earth. It is hard to tell what they were doing here. The Glyphs look like loaves of bread to me.

They are very interesting to see, and you can't look at them and not wonder why the ancients put them there. It is interesting that it is at this volcanic area which is totally different from most of the rest of the desert.
We crawled all over these lava flows looking for more. We could see where more modern rock carvers have come out and chipped into the rocks. Some of them were chipped in with the year, 1918, 1924 and such. Modern nerds come out and dull there knives on these diamond hard rocks but get no where.
you can see where some idiot had modified one of the rock drawings.

You can tell by the lighter areas on the rock. The older the petroglyph the more the desert varnish darkens them again. What are they is all I keep thinking. I think someone was trying to make the one above look like an alien or something.

Maybe this was a long ago tatoo parlor and this was the menu. I just wish people had the sense god gave a dog to not destroy these glyphs. Interesting is all I can say. The daughter loved the outing and was still recovering from her surgery almost 2 months back so she climbed carefully.
It was a blast to be up there with her. Talk to her about what she thought they were. It was getting late so we couldn't stay long.
We trucked on back out of the desert and into Barstow. I dropped her off and gave her a hug and a kiss on the head. It was a fun day.
I took the back way home, up a road that heads due south from Barstow back again into the desert. It takes you to Lucerne Valley, a cross roads of sorts that takes you to Big Bear in the mountains, More Desert towns to the south-east, or in my case west to home in Hesperia.
As I was coming into Lucerne I took this pick of the normally dry desert.

Water. Just more proof. Global Warming is dead. Long live Global Cooling.

Commune Adventure

Oh the back log of adventures...lol Let me start it this way, as I have mentioned here before we love Craftsman homes. One of the distinctive features of Craftmans is the tapered columns on the front of the house. Some of these are made of rock, some wood, some are just thick timbers and are not tapered at all. This all brings me to these pillars out in the middle of the desert along the California Highway 138.

I have passed these ruins for years and always thought what a cool house this must have once been. I found out recently that this was really once a Hotel.
I found a website not long ago called Ghosttown.com, it focuses on anything that was once a mining town, logging camp, or railroad stop. The site is fun to go through. You can click on the state you live in and find a ghost town near you and maybe even go see it. I have found some awesome places to go for an adventure because of this site, and this site it set me straight about this hotel shown above.
What I was really surprised to find out that this was actually part of an real and true socialist commune. Back in 1913 a very nice socialist named Job Harriman, one time socialist vice presidential candidate and two time candidate for L.A. Mayor, after failing his last election, he wanted to try his socialist idea on a smaller scale. Harriman and some like minded investors purchased about 2000 acres of land in the Antelope Valley east of Palmdale Ca.
They called it Llano Del Rio. Here they bought this land and the water rights and started a socialist colony, building the hotel and a meeting house and a water tank as a start. This was suppose to be some sort of Utopian Socialist Colony, it was set up as a corporation and stocks were sold to people that wanted to participate. It looks like is lasted for about 3 years but internal strife and some water problems cause them to pull up stakes and move to Louisiana.
and that new town, struggled until around 1930. The ruins are as fascinating as the story I read about this commune and it's founder. Socialism has failed every time it has been tried. To bad people can't see it with history like this in front of them.
My son and I rolled around the site for a bit and I got some pics.
Here is another angle on the hotel that stands next to the highway.

I'm only guessing that this is the meeting house.

I just can't see any Utopia around this site. From what I have read most of the residence live in a tent city. Although this is basically a desert this place sits in it still snows here.
Brrr it must have been cold in Utopia. One quote though did say they held nice dances here during it's short time.
I talked to my son to see if he knew what socialism was, he gave me some teenager sigh and said "kind of". The tone told me he wouldn't listen so I just asked him questions instead. They don't teach about this stuff anymore. I wish they would. I think some of the troubles we are having now in this country are because some people in power are swinging back around to semi-socialistic ideals. Our youth will never know what hit them.

DMV Adventure, First day driving.

The Wednesday before Christmas I took my son down to the DMV so he could take the test to get his drivers permit. I could tell he was ready for this. He was up early and showered. He wanted to be at the DMV before it opened, and had taken the online practice test the night before.
So we get there 25 min before the doors open. This was one of the big days for rain here in So. Cal.
so we were standing outside under my umbrella the whole time until the doors opened in the rain. It was pretty funny. When we finally get to the counter, he hands them his paperwork and the lady behind the counter punches in some stuff into the computer and prints something. She tosses it up onto the counter and asked for a signature. My son swings it to me, but the lady pulls it back to him and says, "you have to sign it sir", pointing at my son. He goes "OH"...lol I had been texting my friend from up north about how my kids are all growing up and he pushed that paper to me and in a teenage voice says, "stop texting like a teenager and sign this". That was when she pulled it back for him to sign. My comment was, "that's right you get to stand in the DMV line with the big dogs now"...lol
He goes and gets his picture taken, I'm mad about this because he smiled correctly for this picture and always has some stupid look on when I take one, then he stands in line for the test.
He sits down for the test where I can see him. Instantly he starts into the test, he is looking at it for a while and I can see he is starting to second guess his answers. He finally turns it in.
He comes out and tells me that the kid that left before him missed 13 answers and couldn't come back for like 3 weeks. Wow son that is horrible "how did you do"?...lol
"I only missed 6".
We walked out and he was legal to drive with parent supervision. I didn't know this at the time, there was some issue with the drivers ed rules now a days. Oh well he wasn't going to be driving that day anyways. It was raining so much that all the streets were flowing water.
On our way home I made a detour. The news had been saying that the Mojave River was flooding. It flows right to the east of town here in Hesperia, so we went to take a look.
The road that crosses the Mojave here goes right across the river bed, no bridge. We had to go across a field to bypass the road closed signs, so we could get to small hill above the river.
I took a picture and some video.
This river doesn't always have water in it, more often than not it is a dry sandy bottom.
Here it was last Wednesday.

If you look in the middle of the picture there is a black object just before the white water. That is a small pick up truck. Good time to talk to the new driver about not crossing stuff like this and not to go around road closed signs...lol
You can't see it in the picture, but sitting up on the levees on both sides are all these 4X4's looking over at the river. They all looked like they wanted to see if their Jeep or big truck could make it across. Luckily for all of them the best deterrent ever was in the river already.
here is the video.

We went home after this and found out he could drive a car now so I promised him the next day, in the morning we would go our barring the rain has let up.

The next morning the sun was out and he was ready to go. It was all he could do to not stand at the door with my car keys in his hands.
I figured we would start out learning how to drive a vehicle with a clutch. That called for us to get the Geo Metro out. Isn't it cute.

That pic was a year ago.
This car is a whopping 46 hp sun tanning machine, and it is a five speed.
Unfortunately it is also 18 years old and the rubber on the convertible top has shrunk and the top dripped a little on the seats so we had to get towels...lol
I drove us out to a place just south of us that was suppose to be a new housing tract, but like so many area's like this the economy tanked and the area is all paved streets with stop signs but no houses or traffic. Perfect spot.
We put him in the drivers seat and showed him how it worked and the lesson began. It was so funny. Every time he would stall the car he would go "sorry". I started to tell him to stop that or I was going to spank him...lol
He stalled the car many times. He rolled up to the stop sign with out putting the clutch in and the car bucked to a stop several times. He would steer to hard and end up over correcting on the turns, which wore out his arm.
He started to get the hang of it. This area was basically a city block with stop signs. We went both ways so he could get a stop sign at all corners or reversed it and he could practice down shifting and cornering.
After a while fate through in a curve ball. A guy taking a walk in the area showed up. My son focusing on not hitting the man the first time forgot to shift. We are coming up on the poor guy and I can tell he can hear the motor racing as it gets closer behind him. He started to move into the bushes on the road side. Every time we crawled around the block he had moved around the next corner. By the time he had hit the last corner he was coming up on a stop sign, so my son slows down in hopes that he will cross the street before we gets there. This guy looked like he was going to break into a run about this time....lol poor guy.
Also about this time we had a little of nature doing funny things on one side of our city block.
We turn on to the east end of this block and this Roadrunner crosses up in front of us. The next time around we had reversed our direction and hit the east side from the other direction, and zoom, either the same Roadrunner or his friend crosses the road, the third time we notice it crossing again. Now on the fourth time I had been instructing my son not to turn so you end up into oncoming traffic and on coming Roadrunners, zoom there he went again. We were laughing about this time. That bird or a whole herd of them would cross the road every time we hit the east side....lol 6 times.
About that time I felt he could handle the car enough to drive us home. He did well, we did have a little shifting problem on a hill but we made it. Confuse the poor boy when down shifting and he forgot to let off the gas.

I let him drive the truck most of the way down to my brothers on Christmas day. He will get the hang of it. I can tell he really wants to be able to drive. Independence!
Little does he know that once he knows how to drive he becomes the family chauffeur. evil grin

Adventure's in Weddings

It is about time I post this. My daughter was Married, on a very nice day, November 6th, near Calico Ghost Town. It was held at a Restaurant Called Peggy Sue's in Yermo Ca. This place is a cool stop to get a burger on your way to, or coming back from Las Vegas. It is kind of a 50's Dinner set up.
They are not too far off of old Route 66, so you see links to that in there as well. At the back of the place is an area that is set up for gatherings. It has a stage that is mocked up to look like a giant Juke Box. There is a wandering path that crossed a couple of times over a water course complete with ducks in it, and at the far end is a large gentle waterfall/wall which the ceremony was held in front of.
Let's start at the beginning. My Daughter met this guy in High School. He is a nice guy, and respectful, so I think he will do. I'm not sure what my daughter would say to any of the boys she would introduce to me. I remember one of them came up and shook my hand, and he looked like his fight or flight instincts had kicked in and he was about to bolt at top speed away from me. His voice was wobbly and cracking, He said some pleasantries and patted my daughter, saying good bye and that he had to get to his bus, or something like that. Poof he was gone. I didn't like some of the boys she would talk about. At least the wobbly kids introduced himself, some wouldn't. My daughter must have been telling these boys I was going to kill them and hide there bodies in the woods and make it look like a bear got them or something...lol Well she decided on this one. Like I said he is a nice guy, and he does take good care of my daughter. Ah youth. They have been together for a few years now and it was time for a marriage.
They would have liked to get married at Calico Ghost Town but I think that is more complicated now a days than it use to be. Many moons ago I was married at Calico and it was pretty easy to arrange.
I got an invite early, it was a rainbow type thing, as was the theme of the wedding. I was to be at Calico Ghost Town on the Friday before the wedding for a dedication. I took the day off from work and got there early. My Aunt was down from Washington State, lack of money and too much work means we don't get to see one another very often. It was great to see her. We made it to Calico and friends and family gathered around for this pre-wedding ceremony. The sun was setting it made for a very beautiful back drop.
The X and beautiful daughter arrive.

In the next photo you will see a man with a guitar, he is the preacher, JD, that will do the "I do's".
He also has a little Bluegrass band,The Cornbread Washtub Band, hence the guitar...lol and he does DJ work. In the desert you have to be versatile. The Groom is next to him and one of the Bridesmaids is sitting.

The Bride and her Father.



Next the Bride and Groom.



The Dedication was held at the Old Well in front of the Pottery Shop, near the top of town. We are good friends with the owner and my daughter works there from time to time.

Part of the ceremony was pouring of different colored sand into a small bottle so it would be layered. It is called "blending of the sands". It represents the blending of these two lives and involves the the witnesses and the Best Man, and Bridesmaids all pouring sand into layers to form their new life together.

The sun was setting and I was trying to get a halo effect off of my daughters veil. I wish the last one wasn't so blurry.



I got a snippet of video from the dedication. Amen

From there we moved on down to Peggy Sues for the rehearsal.

Above, the Preacher JD, Bride and Groom, and Best Man, the Groom's Brother.

And the Maid of Honor on the right.

In practice they are now Married...almost. After that we had Pizza. Luckily Peggy Sue's has a Pizza Parlor at the back as well, so we all sat down to eat there without having to move the party.
My poor daughter was recovering from some surgery here and was being a trooper about all the moving around.
The next morning I had breakfast with my brother and his kids, then went and got into my assigned duds, time to give away the bride.
There was some rain coming in that night, so there was a little cloud cover in the morning, but it didn't make it look gloomy. It was actually good. Calico is in the desert, and it can get warm pretty quick. The clouds kept the heat off us until after the wedding. By wedding time it was pleasant and the sky was blue. I took some pictures of the Bride in her dress.
Here with her Grandmother.



Here with her mother.

Sniff...my beautiful baby all grown up.

Like I said this was a Rainbow Themed Wedding. Here are some pictures of the ceremony.
Here is the Groom walking down the isle.

My Niece, a Bridesmaid and her Groomsman counter part.

Another Bridesmaid and my son a Groomsman.

The Maid of Honor and the Best Man The Grooms Brother.

Here comes the Bride, and the proud Father. I'm Walking her down the isle to the guy who is stealing my baby away from me, I mean taking my baby's hand in Holy Matrimony. Grin

She was feeling a little woozy so I had reached across and was holding her hand.
She was so Beautiful.

The start of the Ceremony.

The Bridesmaids, including my niece in black.

I have wonderful shot of my niece. I love this shot.

The Groomsmen, including my son.

The Bride in the sunlight. It was funny, those bridesmaids fussed over that dress the whole time....lol

The Groom.

Them almost Married.

With this ring.

You may kiss the bride.

The Happily Married couple.

Hey now stop that you don't get to kiss her again!

The new Mr. and Mrs. near the waterfall.



They really need to stop that kissing stuff...!

Family photo, I'm not sure why my son can't smile, must be a teenager thing.

Dad and his newly married cute daughter.

My brother and his newly married cute niece.

Groom and Bridesmaids.

Bride and Groomsmen.

Now some video of the ceremony.
The I do's.

With this ring....


Ring fits...

It was a wonderful day, all turned out well and I now have a new son-in-law.
The reception was fun and the food was excellent.
My son was the DJ, I remember back in the day when a DJ spun records, now it is on an Apple Laptop.

The Bride and Grooms first dance.

Bride, Groom and Dog dance.

Father, Daughter dance.

And now it is time for the cutting of the cake. I like this part because cake ends up everywhere.

Or maybe not...lol

Not even a bit of frosting on a nose..sigh Oh wait that was it!

Some Family pics. The Bride, our Aunt Sue, my Brother and I.

This is the third take for my brother and his family, my son was in the pic and needed smiling lessons again.

I'm not sure I want to tell you what my new son-in-law is doing here.

Garter?

The Bouquet Toss.


The Dancing continued. My Brother and his Bride.

The Reception wound down and we moved to a friends house to open presents.
On the way out of the parking lot This beauty was sitting for all to see.

Our friend lives near a lake, and the kids got to do some fishing.

Here is the Bride and my Aunt, about to open the presents.

They got some nice stuff.

The Girlfriend and I got them some cool stuff for a trip to Disneyland.
The girlfriend had to make the grooms hat, they had run out at Disneyland.

It included some passes to the Disneyland Resort, and some Micky and Minnie, Bride and Groom mugs.

They also got some house money.

The cooking gear is a must for Newlyweds.

All is good in the world on days like this. Daughter is happy. She has a nice man at her side.
Besides no Wedding Cake rubbed into anyone's face it was a great wedding.