From Arizona we drove to Southern California to check out
Lazy Daze RV and Airstream trailers. At Knox Berry farm, I realized maybe I’m
getting a bit too old to do these thrill rides. We backtracked to Joshua Tree
NP and Palm Springs. A local shopkeeper helped us find Elvis’ Palm Springs House.
We headed north through eastern CA and camped at Lone Pine. We visited the Rodgers
Film Museum, which contained memorabilia from many of the western movies that
were filmed in the area. We also toured the Manzanar NHS. This was the site of one of ten internment
camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII. The City of LA purchased the water
rights to most of central eastern CA, and this had a devastating effect on the
area. Mono Lake was practically drained until local action committees found a
compromise with the City of LA. The lake is still recovering as its level
slowly rises.
Further north in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Lake Tahoe
continues to be a gem. This is where advanced wastewater treatment was first implemented
full scale. All waste discharge was treated and removed from the basin since
the early 1970’s. Back in 1928, Mrs.
Lora Knight bought land next to Emerald Bay and then had a Nordic castle built
on the property. Her Vikingsholm is now
a State Park.
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| Marilyn and Pat in Palm Springs |
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| Lucy with Pat |
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| Tufa towers in Mono Lake |
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| Mono Lake |
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| Vikingholm |
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| Eagle Falls |
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| Mt Shasta Dam, Lake and Mountain |
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| Multnomah Falls |
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| Chihuly Glass |
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| Pat, Don, Cornelia and Tom |
On April 15, our attempt to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains
was delayed by a snowstorm. We finally made it to Redding, CA and enjoyed
exploring the area. We toured Mt. Shasta Dam and did some hikes at Whiskeytown
NRA and Crags Castle SP. We found a great logging museum at Collier Memorial SP
in OR. The Columbia River Gorge had numerous waterfalls, including the very picturesque
Multnomah Falls. We spent a week with our friends Tom and Cornelia in Renton,
WA. We found the Chihuly Garden and Glass show in Seattle outstanding. We put our RV in storage and flew back to MD.
We spent a very busy week, rushing between Dr. appointments,
visits with friends, trips to see family and getting ready for our trip to
Switzerland.
