Hemet Air Show

While spending a month in Hemet, CA, I attended the their Air Show. They had a team of retired Air Force pilots demonstrating formations.

Aerial acrobatics

Lots of Fly-bys with various aircraft



There were NO Blue Angels, but they did have an A-10 Thunderbolt that flew in from Tucson put on an extensive demonstration of the plane's maneuverability.



On the A-10's last fly-by, a P-38 went up to join with the A-10.



The thing that I found most impressive was a 26-year-old lady that put her aerobatic plane thought some tough maneuvers. Not only could she fly her $300,000 plane that had over 600 Hp upside down in a straight line . . .

. . . she took it up several thousand feet and put it in a flat spin while upside down.

After she finished her show, and had landed . . .

I had a conversation with her.

More Bakersfield Area

Well, it is time to continue with my adventures while staying in Bakersfield. One morning, I headed east to the very small town of Caliente, which is located close to the north side of US-58. This use to be an important place for the Southern Pacific Railroad. They would add helper engines to eastbound trains to get up over the Tehachapi Mountains. Today, about the only thing there are several occupied houses and a U. S. Post Office.

Flowing through town is a creek with a good flow of water. I followed it up through the hills for about 20 miles through some very beautiful country side.

Anyway, I thought I would share a few pictures that I took along the way.



The hills were still green from the late spring rains but very few wild flowers were visible. The road traversed several "open ranges" were cattle were wandering around.













I wound up at one of my favorite places, the Tehachapi Loop on the Union Pacific Railroad. The trains cross over themselves with a 77-ft. vertical spacing.

Bakersfield

When I left Las Vegas, I headed for Bakersfield. I set up camp in an orange grove for a month.



In fact, the name of the campground is the Orange Grove RV Park and it is in the middle of an active orange grove. While I was there, it was naval orange season and you could literally open you RV window and reach out and pick an orange off the tree next to your rig and eat it. You can't get them any fresher than that.



Above, is one of the evening activities that had. A group of us would gather around a "fire ring" and enjoy telling stories and sharing laughs. Some of the people stay here for over a year. After a while you get to know most of the people staying here. They have another section where the "weekly" or "overnighters" stay.



One of the interesting places that I visited while in Bakersfield was the Chrystal Palace. This was build by Buck Owens (country/western star). It is a dinner house with live stage western music along with a Buck Owens museum. It is known for its good food. Behind the counter is a full-size, custom built car. I had to wonder how they got it in there?



Another place in town that I found interesting was the Fox Theater. I opened on Christmas of 1930 and functioned until 1977 when it closed. In 1994 a group of business people saved it from the recking ball and restored it. It seats 1500 people and is used for concerts almost weekly.






More Bakersfield Adventures Later

Viva Las Vegas

What Happens In Vegas Is A Lot Of Fun!

I spent three weeks in Las Vegas mostly having fun creating slide shows. I did one on Hoover Dam with the new bypass bridge. I took Pictures of the bridge while on it.....



....from it.....



....and of it from Hoover Dam.



I also took the Hoover Dam tour which covered again all the places that the tour went before 9-11. One of the places in Las Vegas that I enjoyed seeing was the Neon Boneyard.



This is a museum that has a large collection of old sings from extinct casinos and business in Las Vegas. The museum has restored about 15 or so signs to working order and has them displayed on the city streets and inside the Fremont Experience. It was like a treasure hunt to locate them. I photographed them for the slide show. Some of them I photographed in daylight and at night. Here are a few of the signs in the yard:

Here are a few signs from the Fremont Experience area:





I stopped in to pay a visit to the Pawn Star's Establishment.





Of course no visit to Las Vegas would be compete without a date with a showgirl.



I think we will just let that part Stay In Vegas!

Death Valley Continued

After descending back down to the valley floor, we continued our tour of the Westside Road. Our next stop was the grave site of Jim Dayton and Shorty Harris.



We also stopped at the Bennett's Long camp site where in 1849 the group almost died from the elements before they found a way to proceed west. They gave this valley the name of "Death Valley".



We completed the tour of the Westside Road and headed back to our camp in Furnace Creek. We stopped along the way at Bad Watter, which is the lowest spot in the U.S. (-284 feet).

The next day we headed to the ghost town of Rhyolite. I caught this picture of a ghost trying to get on a bicycle



Look what taking a picture of that ghost did to my camera!




There are just a few crumbing buildings left in Rhyolite, once a town of over nine thousand people back in 1909.





After Rhyolite we traveled through Titus Canyon and on to Scotty's Castle and took the Hourse Tour. We did not have time to take any of the other tours before they closed for the day.

We had a very enjoyable 4-day stay in Death Valley and we are planning to return next March.