The Holidays

What's happening next for Rick and Cathy? We left Joshua Tree on 11/20 and rolled westward to the ocean. We pulled into San Clemente State Beach; this is one of our most favorite places to stay. Not only is it only a few miles from Jill, Joe and the kids, but it is also a beautiful campground on a bluff above the Pacific. We've stayed here numerous times over the years.

We spent ten days in San Clemente and then headed south to a county park that we discovered in Oceanside. For the non-Californians reading this, San Clemente is the southernmost city in the Los Angeles megapolis; it sets just north of the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. Oceanside is the northernmost city in San Diego county and abuts Camp Pendleton on its southern boundary. The two cities are only about 20 miles apart.

We lucked out here; this is a large scenic park with a very nice campground. Our site is quite private and is close to numerous walking trails, a lake, etc. On top of everything else, this place is pretty cheap, at $29 a night. We're here until 12/20 and headed back to San Clemente, where we'll stay through Christmas.

Why leave San Clemente, only to return in three weeks? California state parks have limitations on how many days you can stay in a certain period. We wanted to be around family for Thanksgiving and Christmas; in between, it isn't quite as important. Not surprisingly, our children all have busy lives. We've discovered, in past visits to the area, that we really don't see them all that much except for special occasions and get-togethers.

After Christmas, we spend a few days back at Golden Shores RV Park in Long Beach and then hit the road - on January 1, no less! - for Tucson. We'll be there a month, then head further east to the Brownsville, Texas area for a month.

We'll probably post an update or two before we leave town. We've got LOTS of pictures of the grandkids, and will undoubtedly have a lot more as we gather for Christmas.

Our very best wishes to you this holiday season!

Joshua Tree

We left Death Valley and, after a beautiful scenic drive through the Mojave, rolled into a little RV park in Twentynine Palms. We were about five miles from one of the entrances to Joshua Tree National Park. Our time here offered a real change for us: Heather, Dan and Parker joined us. Dan could only spend two days with us, but Heather and Parker were with us for three nights. It was a welcome change for us; it is REALLY nice to have someone else to interact with. 

This was Parker’s first visit to a National Park, so the first order of business was to hit one of the visitor center’s to gather the appropriate amount of swag. The rest of the day was filled with sightseeing, short walks and a picnic lunch - for the adults: Parker eats on a much more frequent schedule.

Joshua Tree is a big sprawling place. It encompasses the transition zone between the higher altitude Mojave Desert and the lower Coloradan Desert. Of the two, we found the Mojave to be more picturesque. Not suprisingly, Joshua trees in the Mojave are as prevalent as saguaro cacti are in Saguaro National Park. Seeing Joshua trees should be old hat for Cathy and I; where we grew up in Lancaster, CA, Joshua trees are just about everywhere. Still, seeing a forest of them rolling through the desert was a reminder of spectacularness. 

Early settlers thought these guys looked like Joshua leading the Israelites to the Promised Land.

Joshua Tree is a mecca for rock climbers. There are two climbers on the rocks in the photo below.

There's supposed to be a small spring buried amongst these date palms, but the area was fenced off.

We wandered around this beautiful cholla cactus forest.

Besides being a gateway to the National Park, the city of Twentynine Palms is just two miles from the entrance to the Marine Corp Air Ground Combat Center, commonly also called Twentynine Palms. It is the largest USMC base in the nation and serves as their primary training area. As you might suspect, the town is full of bars, pawn shops, tattoo parlors and barber shops advertising “Military Haircuts”. It was an interesting and different place. 

Death Valley

We kind of screwed up here. We didn’t allot enough time to see this magnificent sprawling space. That’s really OK, though: the place isn’t going away. Also, one of the major attractions - Scotty’s Castle - isn’t open for viewing right now. So, we’ll be back!

We left Tehachapi and followed the route that Google Maps had laid out for us. Being no stranger to the Mojave Desert, we were somewhat familiar with where we were headed. We bypassed the city of Mojave and headed out through the desert. We passed along Searles Dry Lake, where huge quantities of minerals and salts are mined and processed; brother-in-law Steve worked in the area until his retirement. We went through the dying-on-the-vine little town of Trona. You can tell that a town is dying when even the Dollar General store is boarded up!

From there, we ended up in the beautiful and nearly deserted Panamint Valley, through

Stovepipe Wells and into the Furnace Creek area. Furnace Creek is kind of Death

Valley central. There’s a really nice RV park here; with our Senior Pass discount, we

were paying only $25 a night for a spacious spot with full hookups. Furnace Creek has several other campgrounds, a couple of lodges, a general store and even a golf course. It's fed by a year-round stream and there's plenty of water for all of this.

Sunset at the Furnace Creek campground.

Here’s where we screwed up. We only budgeted one full day in the park. Stupid. Death

Valley is the largest National Park in the lower 48 states; there's no way to come close to seeing it all in one day. It’s also the lowest, hottest and driest place in the US - it’s actually the hottest place in the world! 

Death Valley - indeed, deserts in general - have a different kind of spectacularness from, say, the redwoods or the ocean. They all offer endless vistas of blue skies and multicolored rocks, hills and mountains and, usually, unusual plant and animal life. 

The view from our campsite. 

In our limited time here, we decided to hit the biggest sights that were closest to us. The biggest attraction in the park is Badwater, the lowest point in the US at some 280 feet below sea level. A good portion of the southern portion of the park is below sea level; in fact, our campsite at Furnace Creek was about 20 feet below sea level.

Badwater is the attraction in Death Valley. It was the only place in the park, on a weekday in mid-November, that is remotely crowded. There's a small pool at the low point, right off the road. additionally, one is encouraged to wander out onto the salt flats; obviously, there's no way to hurt them, since winter rains refresh them every year.

Badwater from out on the salt flats. The small white sign in the blue circle is at sea level. 

On the way to Badwater there are a number of other attractions and hikes. We made a day of hiking and driving through this picturesque and spectacular landscape.

One of the 20-mule team wagons that hauled borax from Death Valley to Mojave, 165 miles away.

Mid-November is a nice time to hit the place. As I mentioned, it's not at all crowded. Additionally, the weather was superb: clear blue skies with the daytime highs in the 80's and nighttime lows in the 60's. 

Before we left we topped off the Beast at what has to be the most expensive gas station in the US. Of course, they've got a monopoly on the stuff; the next nearest fuel stations are probably 50 miles away. The Beast was thirsty; it cost us $131 to satisfy its thirst!

Leaving the park, we plotted a different route that would take us out of the park and south to

Twentynine Palms, the little town that sits right outside of Joshua Tree National Park. The route took us through the heart of the Mojave National Preserve, which looks like a place that we'd like to spend some time visiting.

Like driving through the Panamint Valley, we found ourselves mostly alone all day long. Except for when crossing I-15 at Baker and passing through the little town of Amboy, which sits astride historic Route 66, we hardly saw a soul on the roads. If you want some solitude, the middle of the Mojave will certainly provide it.

The Loop

On our way from Sequoia to Death Valley we stopped and spent a couple of nights in
the little mountain city of Tehachapi. Tehachapi splits the nearly 400-mile drive 
between the National Parks almost exactly in half. Additionally, we’ve got a little 
history with the place.

Tehachapi sits some 45 miles from Lancaster, our home town. Additionally, Cathy’s 
mom lived here a number of years before she moved to Ohio following the death of 
her husband Bob (Cathy’s stepdad).

Most importantly, Tehachapi is home to the Tehachapi Loop. While probably only railroad 
buffs and civil engineers have any real interest in the Loop, the descendants of Fred 
Shook have certainly heard of it. There’s a little bit of a Fred Shook story here, which 
I’ll get to in a second. 

What is the Tehachapi Loop? As the Southern Pacific Railroad was looking for a route
up and out of the Central Valley of California, the chief engineer, a guy named Hood, 
decided the only way to make the grade was to loop the trackage over itself, in a giant
loop that is nearly a mile long. As a consequence, long trains can be seen to pass over (or under) themselves when moving along the grade. The Loop is a world-famous engineering marvel, and known to train watchers everywhere. 

Trains going downhill travel from right to left on the track in the foreground, travel behind the small conical peak and cut under the higher track. 

My dad was a lifelong aficionado of trains and railroading. He and I built a model 
railroad when I was a kid, and he later built a different one with my younger brother, 
and yet another one when all the kids were gone. Operating that last one, especially 
with my nephews who lived in town, earned him the nickname “Choo-Choo Papa”. 

After mom died Dad, who was therefore living alone, had a lot of time on his hands. 
He would drive up to the Loop a couple of times a week just to see the trains roll 
through. I had many enjoyable trips up to the Loop with dad.

Anyhow, when we were planning on going from Sequoia to Death Valley and we 
discovered that Tehachapi is the halfway point, Cathy suggested spending a couple 
of nights here and going to see the Loop. 

The Loop is very much a local attraction. There is a local road that passes close by, 
above the Loop. There is a historical marker explaining a little about the Loop. We 
stopped there and took a few pics.

Unfortunately, that’s about all we did. The Union Pacific was working on the trackage 
in the Loop and, apparently, had all the trains stopped. In an hour or so of futzing 
around the area we didn’t see a single train. In fact, we neither saw nor heard one 
all day long. 

Also, when I was last there, 15+ years ago, one could drive onto private property 
right up to the trackage. That is no longer the case. All of the access points near the 
Loop are fenced and gated. 

Further, once access to the Loop was obtained, one could slip through a barbed wire 
fence and capture shots like the one below…

That is all the same train!

This photo has a lot of significance to me. It was taken in 1989, during my son Scott’s 
first trip to the Loop. We slipped through the fence at the top of the slope in the photo
and ran down alongside the trackage just before the train arrived. I managed to get 
there just in time to snap this shot. This was in the days of film, and I had no idea 
what I had until I had the film developed. 

Despite our disappointments about seeing the Loop, we enjoyed our time in 
Tehachapi. It’s really a nice little place; it sets at some 4000 feet in elevation, which 
gives it relatively cool summers. There would be worse places to live. We were 
staying next to a small private airport that has a business that offers sailplane rides; 
all day long we enjoyed our own private air show watching them pull sailplanes into 
the air. All in all, a nice little visit. 

This was shot out the back window of our home.