"The heat is hurting me!"

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bishop, CA is known as a jumping off point for fishing. When we ate at Jacks last night, we saw the largest trout caught (ever? I think the sign said world record) weighing in at almost 50 pounds.

You know it’s going to be a long day when, 5 minutes after setting out, Eleni tells you in her most helpful voice, “I found a hotel, guys! Let’s stop there!”

Within the first hour of driving, we had already had our fill of at least 10 of Eleni’s sighs, “I want to go home!” She upgraded it, too. “I NEED TO GO HOME!” Later that same day, she tried, “Can we go home?” Alex replied in his best fed up voice, “Of course we are going home! What else do you think we are doing?”

395 South runs parallel with the Sierra Nevadas. The moon sat just above the crest of the mountains. As we left Bishop, we saw more stores advertising Western whatnots, a bright green golf course in the middle of the desert, a sign for the Ancient Bristlecone Forest Park, the town of Bristlecone, Big Pine Creek, a store that, according to its sign, specialized in “Burgers and Fries and Laundry mat”, Big Pine Reservation, and we think we passed some volcanic rocks.
Can you see the snow on the mountains and the moon?

We saw miles of these haystacks along our route 395 South

We found our first destination point of the day, ironically located six miles after Independence, CA. We knew we were there when we saw the watchtower. In 1942, in the small town of Manzanar, the Federal government followed through with one of FDR’s reactions to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 9066. This authorized the relocation of anyone who might threaten the US from within, and consequently, 120, 000 Japanese Americans were relocated to 11 internment camps in the USA. One of these camps, Manzanar, became the new home of more than 10,000 Japanese Americans.

The only building that is left in its entirety is the 1944 auditorium that houses the National Park museum. Getting out of the heat was top priority, so we went there first, watched a film, and walked around the museum for over an hour. I asked Ranger Richard what people in the area thought of the camp. He said initially it was fear (when the Japanese first arrived), then relief (when the Japanese left at the end of the war), then resentment (why should the Japanese get a memorial?), anger (why should the Federal government use this land when only 1½ percent of the land is privately owned due to LA’s control of the water?) and now, a mixture of thankfulness (tourism helps the local economy) and hatred (pure racism).

From my perspective, perhaps the most poignant photograph in the museum was of seven or so young Japanese Americans wearing Founding Fathers outfits and wigs and holding the American flag while they were imprisoned here in Manzanar.

The watch tower

The camp was made up of blocks of buildings (recreated one in the back)

This is now an archeological site - what you see here are the remains of the Japanese gardens the residents created in order to find beauty and peace.

 

We passed the gravesite of the 1872 earthquake victims, signs for Elk crossings, and more Joshua trees!

We headed south along 395 again, stopped for lunch in a town called Lone Pine and ate pizza. Lone Pine is used as the base camp for Mt. Whitney (checking in at 14,494 as the highest point of the lower 48).

It was around 2 PM when we finished our pizza. Our crazy plan was to drive through Death Valley, and then spend the night in the most unlikely place the four of us would ever visit. Could we make that happen? Dave, the pizza guy, said it was doable. Just don’t put your air-conditioning on when you go uphill and bring plenty of water.

A bit of a problem. Not for me, I can’t stand air-conditioning. If I could,  I would have all four windows down for most of this journey. However, we have this 3 and ½ year old daughter who gets irate when her hair gets in her face due to the slightest breeze (she refuses hats and/or having her hair pulled back during these times)…and she was not going to be happy about this.

Luckily for all concerned, she fell asleep.

But, we had bigger issues to deal with, as we neared the entrance, Alex pleaded with us, “Please, please, I beg you. Please don’t make me go through Death Valley!”

We reassured him, “It’s ok, Alex, it’s a National Park.”

He tried again, “No! Not another National Park!”

The Park – You start out at 4,000 feet above sea level and then rather quickly you are at 3,000, 2,000, 1,000 and then up to 2,000, 3,000. Follow the sequence again (with Towne Pass at 4,956 ft), descend, and then you are in the actual valley. Stovepipe Wells, at 5 ft. above sea level, is the last human face to it. And then you are in Death Valley proper.

The highways are long out west, but this one is the longest we've seen.

This determined and hungry crow nibbled Neil's toe in the park (we were eating our 60 cent ice-creams!)

One of the rare, yet useful, signs in the valley

Such beautiful colors throughout - we loved watching the changes

Stovepipe Wells

Just a reminder of the things that can go wrong...

The sand dunes - Alex, "Look, Mommy! Real desert!"

Another long, lonely road. I think Alex said, "the heat is hurting me" somewhere around now. This would be Death Valley...

Despite the 118-degree heat, the vast emptiness, and the overriding fear of the car breaking down, we enjoyed the valley. I loved the 60 cents for an ice-cream, no billboards, the mostly untouched and undeveloped earth – I could truly imagine what the earlier pioneers must have gone through (even though at times I was half mad with the heat, I had far more than they – a reliable AAA map, fresh water, paved road, and mostly good-humored company), the stillness, the vast emptiness, and not meeting other cars for miles on stretch. Neil’s favorite bit was climbing Zabriskie Point from the Antonioni movie (Eleni and I hung out in the car again), and he would probably say that his least favorite part was listening to “Free to be You and Me” and “Really Rosie.”

We survived it all and then we realized that the City of Sin was further than we had anticipated. It was 5 PM, and we were usually in a motel by this point. Should we keep going?

Slap happiness set in, we threw the kids some cheese and bananas, and then, right or wrong, we kept to the path.

We saw the beginning of a fire in Pahrump on the way - soon after three fire trucks were racing down the road past us. We could still see the smoke miles away.

Some other things we saw in Pahrump (we all had fun saying this word, by the way)

More desert and then...the outskirts of Las Vegas

Lots of building going on here

You know you are close to Las Vegas when you see billboards of Barry Manilow and the likes of this! 
Sadly, we left his CD at home...

Alex, "What is this place? Are we in New York now?"

We found a hotel a block from the strip.

Yeah, it was 8 PM at night and we dragged our travel weary children down the street to see the sights! Caesar’s Palace, Flamingo, the fake Eiffel Tower, the fake Statue of Liberty, it was all there! We watched the water fountains for a while, admired the beautiful people, avoided the free risqué magazines on the street, and then headed back to the hotel for a meal made from 7-11 scraps (I will not tell you what we ate for dinner tonight, you might call social services!).

We read that in 2006, 23 million people visited Las Vegas and 23 billion dollars was spent. That is an average of $1,000 per person. We spent $54 on our hotel room (We had a coupon! And, hey, we stayed at the biggest Super 8 in the USA!), $17 on groceries at 7-11, and $5 for an Italian lemon-ice at Caesar’s Palace. That is $76. We felt out of place and we were out of place, but it was worth seeing this slice of American freedom!

And there you go.