Glamping Days

Driving to Lancaster, CA, this bit of roadside kitsch caught my eye.  I stopped to see Liberty Sculpture Park in Yermo, CA. A work in progress, its purpose is to memorialize the victims of the Chinese Communist Party. More info can be found here:  https://en.libertysculpturepark.com/ Two sculpture related to COVID-19.   And this one remembers the brave Chinese man who was the first to disclose info on COVID-19.   This sculpture commemorates the June 4, 1989 (6/4) Tiananmen Square massacre. To the left of the "64" is a recreation of the famous picture of the lone student facing the line of tanks in the square.  This group of sculptures relates to Hong Kong.                                              Too awful for words... A union leader, Chief Crazy Horse, a 1989 pro-democracy organizer.                 ...

Well, the original plan was to spend most of today with an old college chum, but he got called for jury duty.  Sooooo, I ran some errands in Fresno, & walked around the campground toward sunset.  The lake at the heart of the rec area & a nearby landscape... Being on the edge of the Central Valley of California, there are orchards & vineyards in the area. The sunset from the campground was pretty nice. 

Well, I've got a new way to make it rain in the desert. About 10 days ago in Parker, AZ, I washed my trailer windows, & it rained that night - not a lot, but more than a shower. Yesterday, in Red Rock Canyon, CA, I washed the windows again, & it rained steadily this morning from about 5:00-9:00. That leads me to my new life lesson: when checking the weather in the desert, one should look at the precipitation prediction as well as the temperature - not that I know anyone who failed to do that & was then surprised to hear rain on the roof at 5am. :-) Today, I drove north to Millerton Lake State Recreation Area, north east of Fresno. The plan was to reconnect with an old friend here tomorrow; not sure that will happen, but this is a pretty spot to hang out for a day. The sunset wan't all that special, but it was a welcome sight after a rainy day. 

Only drove about 90 miles today to Red rock Canyon State Park in southeastern CA, a lovely little spot.  The views in & from the campground are lovely. A short trail above the campground took me up to a saddle & the hill above for even better views. 

Outside of town, I found this group hangin out, & then visited a WWII Japanese relocation center - not a lot left of it, but an interesting & moving place. Back in Lone Pine, these benches caught my eye, & I can't remember the last time I saw a pay phone.  Some of the buildings in Lone Pine are cool old ones, & a few are just funky. Gotta love a little Chinese restaurant called the Merry-Go-Round.  It's great when chain stores like McDs puts up a building that fits in with the spirit of a place. 

The Alabama Hills are know as the location for 100s of movies & TV shows. It's a pretty small area, so I was able to explore it pretty well in a few hours today.  This is a main filming location of Gunga Din. The entrance to the valley at the bottom center of this pic is the Whitney Portal. The road that goes into that valley will take you to Mt Whitney, if you might want to hike up a 14,505' mountain.  These jagged gray peaks to the west of the Alabama Hills are the Sierra Nevada Range, while the more rounded brownish mountains to the east are the Inyo Mountains. The contrasting landscapes in such a small area help make this a good place to shoot movies. The tall Sierra Nevadas just to the left of this pic created this weird long cloud formation running just to the east of the mountains.  More Alabama Hills...