Bob and I were to meet Connie and Larry one more time before saying our goodbyes. Sierra Vista RV Park at China Lake NAWS was our meeting place. Connie and Larry left us for a week to visit family in the Los Angeles area while we were in Lone Pine. Bob and I would spend a week with them at China Lake before we all went our separate ways, us to start the long trip home and them to head for their summer gig in Colorado.
If you take a look at the map, you will see we didn't have far to travel to get to Ridgecrest. We were in no hurry to get on the road, but we still managed to leave Tuttle Creek before 10 a.m. As we drove south on US395, we once again saw Owens Dry Lake--where Los Angeles bought all the land around the lake and pumped the water to L.A., leaving the lake dry. Today, work is being done to 'refresh' the lake. Some areas have water and dust mitigation is in progress. High winds frequently blow through the area causing severe dust storms. Just beyond Owens Dry Lake is Crystal Geyser bottling plant where a lot of the area's bottled water originates.
Once we arrived at Sierra Vista, we got set up with full hook-ups and were ready to spend a week with friends.
Bob and I went geocaching on a windy day while Larry and Connie did computer work. I first saw a plant like this on our way to Death Valley. It looks like somebody sprayed it with orange silly string! These were all over the area where we cached. When the orange first 'explodes' on the plant, it is moist. As it ages, it dries and becomes lighter in color as well as brittle.
We had a successful day caching, but we stopped at 52 due to the WIND! Yes, the wind was howling. When we got back to Sol, we had to bring in the kitchen slide because the wind was making the slide topper billow up like a cloud. In fact, the slide stayed in for most of the time we were at Sierra Vista.
The following day Connie and Larry took us to Trona Pinnacles. It is another area where many movies have been made.
Lost in Space,
Star Trek V,
Battlestar Gallactica, and
Planet of the Apes are a few. The tufa spires have distinct shapes that are easy to identify in movies.
Bob and I went looking for geocaches while Larry and Connie flew his drone around the pinnacles. Here Bob and I are on the side of one of the towers while Connie and Larry watch.
Here I am getting ready to get the cache. It was quite the climb to get to this one!
Success! I found it and signed the log!
Here is a view of another section of the pinnacles. It is easy to see why this area was used for space movies.
The entire area is other-worldly. Bob and I had fun giving the formations different names depending on the way we were looking at them.
Another day we visited Randsburg, California, The best way to describe this small town: a living ghost town. Here, Larry is waiting for the rest of us to walk around town. He didn't have long to wait, it is a small town!
There were a lot of abandoned vehicles and other things on the main street.
On the way out of town, we stopped to visit the jail.
We decided to have lunch in Ridgecrest. I had seen several billboards for Schooner's so we set out to find it. It was off the main road and the sign was hard to see, but it was worth finding. The lunch specials were great and not too pricey. In fact, it was so good, we ended up eating there a total of 3 times during our stay. On our last night with Larry and Connie, we even played pegs and jokers after our meal. By the way, the girls won this trip. (The guys won the Alaska trip.)
We said goodbye to Larry and Connie as they had a meeting to attend before their work starts in Colorado. Bob and I stayed on a few more days since the wind was howling again and we didn't want to drive in heavy winds.
We took the time to do a bit more laundry, go bowling, and visit the U. S. Naval Museum of Armament and Technology. The museum was close enough for us to walk, but that wind changed our plans again. We drove the quarter mile to the museum. If you are a real techie, this is the museum for you. It was not for me---there were too many missiles with detailed information on how they were made and when they were used.
Bob and I enjoyed our time with Larry and Connie and our trip to Ridgecrest, but it was time for us to move on. Our next stop--Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to get Sol's bedroom slide checked since it was starting to jump when we pull it in.
No comments:
Post a Comment