Jazz Fest Trip - Day 2

We left the RV park a little before 9:00 AM and headed for the Manzanar National Historic Site. . 

We arrived at Manzanar as it opened and started with the 3.4 mile driving tour of the site. 

Almost everything was demolished or sold after WW II and now only foundations and markers identifying most of the original buildings remain.  Several small Japanese gardens with water features built by residents also are still there with no water.  The National Park Service has an ongoing effort to construct replicas of a typical housing 'block" including barracks, mess hall, and latrines but there is still much more to do.  Some buildings have been built however and the effort continues.

There is also a simple memorial at the site's cemetery.  It was built to honor those who lived, died, and were born at Manzanar during their internment.  It is a focal point for an annual pilgrimage by friends, relatives, and in some cases, internees who lived there during the war.  The event has been held each year since 1977 and attracts people from all over to a memorial service and other related activities.  Many visitors to the site also leave small momementos of their visit on the monument or on one of the nine graves of people still buried there.

After the driving tour, we returned to the outstanding visitor's center we had seen some sections of yesterday..  The center is housed in one of the few original buildings left at the site.  It was used during the relocation period as an auditorium and gymnasium and now has been converted into a theater, exhibit hall, and a gift shop.  It is very well done and an excellent tribute to the Japanese Americans who lived there during that difficult time in our nation's history. 

This is a banner at the visitor's center with the names of all the internees at Manzanar from 1942 - 1945.

  
Manzanar: a hauntingly beautiful place. Everyone should come here, every school class should see this.  Amazing.  It makes me realize that the negative feelings I have now against Islamic people because of the terrorist attacks were much the same for white Americans toward the Japanese in the 30's and 40's. What we did to these innocent people  was unchristian, unamerican and unconstitutional.  (Poetic justice note:  10,000 Japanese Americans were removed from their homes on the west coast and relocated here against their will.  Today, in the parking lot of the visitor's center, almost every car had a Japanese brand name.)

On to Death Valley National Park, a varied and dramatic desert landscape with several abrupt 2,000 - 3,000' elevation changes in the 100 mile crossing, from above Panamint Valley through Emigrant, Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek. Incredible rock formations, sand dunes, and salt flats framed by mountains in every direction.  It needs more guard rails on it's scary, windy roads. But everything is relative - at one vista point where we stopped, a busload of German tourists were taking pictures of Big Mother and The Green Machine in the parking lot,. We think they approved.

We drove out the eastern side of the Park and headed for Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, NV, about 75 miles away.  We got here around 5:00, had appetizers outside at the picnic table (the weather was perfect) and dinner in the RV.  Our Las Vegas entertainment tonight was writing this blog for you (and for ourselves) and adding photos for the visual effects.

It will be on to the Phoenix, AZ area tomorrow, a travel day.

Jazz Fest Trip - Day 1

We got a little bit of a late start and were on the road by 9:30 AM.  We travelled down 174 and joined I-80 at Colfax.  Due to some construction and narrow travel lanes along I-80 from Truckee to Nevada, we decided to cut over to to Lake Tahoe at Kings Beach, and down the east side of the lake then heading east on US 50 to US 395, just south of Carson City, NV.

There are still several feet of snow on the ground throughout the Sierra but the roads were dry down US 395, which is the main north-south road along the eastern Sierra.. It  has some sections of divided highway and  several high mountain passes in the 7000' - 8000' range. We did have a few rain and snow showers near Mono Lake, but nothing significant.  It was a spectacular drive with constant views of the high, snow-covered eastern Sierra.  Some of the passes going over the mountains to the west are still closed and even the eastern access road to the ghost town of Bodie is still closed .  Temperatures were in the 40's and the people we saw along the road are still involved in winter recreation activities, especially in the Mammoth Lakes area. We stopped for lunch in the RV at a highway rest stop and had a wonderful experience filling the gas tank with $4.19 a gallon gas,

South of Mono Lake we descended into the Owens Valley, passing through Bishop, CA which has a Marine training facility nearby.  The area has a notorious history.  In the 1800's white settlers took the land from the Indians for farming. Then in the 1930's, the City of Los Angeles quietly bought all the land and water rights aong the Owens River, diverting its water to the growing city of LA in the San Ferdando Valley through the LA Aqueduct, an engineering marvel of the time. Owens Lake dried up and there was no longer enough water available for farming; within 5 years, the Owens Valley was deserted and became a desert.  There have been recent efforts to restore some of the Owens River Lake water as part of the effort to save Mono Lake, but the area is still mostly dry and the majority of the water is still owned by the City of Los Angeles.

Down Highway 395

Mono Lake

We stopped at the Manzanar National Historic Site, just north of Lone Pine, CA where we were staying for the night.  Manzanar is the site of one of the 12 internment camps where Japanese/American residents, 2/3rds of whom were U.S. citizens were interned during WW II.  The site is one of two in California, the other is at Tule Lake in NE California near the Oregon Border.  The Manzanar site has been restored and is maintained by the National Park Service.  We arrived just before closing time at the Visitor's Center but had time to see a well-done 22 minute film about the history of the site.  We are going back tomorrow for a more extensive tour of the site and to learn more about this sad chapter of American History.

Manzanar Visitors Center  

Our stop for the night was at the Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine, CA at the base of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental U.S. at 14, 950 ft.  It is a desert RV park with full hook-ups and beautiful views to the east and west and a dry lake bed to the south.

Boulder Creek RV Park

Tomorrow, it is back to Manzanar then east through Death Valley to Nellis AFB near Las Vegas for our next stop.

Jazz Fest Trip - Day 0

We are leaving tomorrow morning on another RV adventure, heading south and east to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest.  En route we will be stopping at Canton, TX for the First Monday Market Place (details to follow) and a production of "To Kill A Mockingbird" in Monroeville, AL.  You ask why?  Stay tuned for a further explanation.  On the way home we will be visiting Lafayette, LA (Cajun country), Santa Fe, NM and Sedona, AZ.

We will be on the road for 30 days and will be back in town on May 23rd.

Right now, we still have a lot to do to get ready so we can leave at first light in the morning.  Check back when you can to see how we are doing.

Phillies Spring Training Trip - Day 8

We checked out of the hotel by 10:00 AM on Wednesday, March 23rd and decided to have breakfast at a restaurant in Dunedin we had previously seen.  When we got there we discovered it wasn't open for breakfast.  While deciding what to do next, a couple walked by and recommended a restaurant down the street near the Toronto Blue Jays spring training stadium.

It was a small restaurant named Margarita's with outside seating.  We had a great breakfast then headed out to the Tampa/St. Petersburg airport to return the rental car and catch our flight back to Sacramento.

When we arrived at the airport we found out the flight was delayed an hour and we now wouldn't get back to Sacramento until 11:00 pm.  The flight was a direct flight from Tampa to Denver, then a connecting flight to Sacramento.  Since the Tampa flight was delayed we didn't have enough time to make the Denver-Sacramento flight and had to be re-booked on the next flight to Sacramento.

When we got into Sacramento, our bags had already arrived on the originally scheduled flight.  Then after what seemed like a long drive in the rain, we arrived back home, just in time to experience the next snow storm and a 3-day power outage beginning Thursday afternoon.

It was great to be home, but it was an outstanding trip we really enjoyed.