July 21- August 21, 2008

Monday, July 21, 2008 We drove to Ellis Army Base to tour the Blackhorse OPFOR library. This is the elite Army group who act as the opposing force to train Army and other military units going to Iraq or any other war zone. These guys are the best of the best and train the other units on what to expect and how to combat it. They receive information from the men “in country” and use that information to revise their teaching. Tom Clancy wrote about this group in one of his books. He wrote the book with Tommy Franks, who lost his leg in Cambodia but stayed in the military and showed everyone up at PT even with his prosthesis. Mark has covered the story in his photos. We spent a lot of time in the back rooms of the museum seeing the artifacts not on display. The head of the museum, Neil Morrison, spent a couple of hours with us. When we mentioned that we wanted to tour Goldstone Deep Space Facility, he thought he could get us in even though the tours were full. However, the girl who handles the tours was on vacation so he couldn’t fit us in.

Tuesday, July 22 – Mail came in early this morning. In the afternoon we went into downtown Yermo to mail the mail. Then we took a ride out Ghost Town Road and ended up at Calico Ghost Town. This was started by the developer of Knott’s Berry Farm to authentically recreate all of the silver mines that were in this area in the 1880’s to 1910 or so. We walked through one of the mines. Let me tell you, tunneling through that mountain with hand drills and hand carts to remove the debris was hard work. The only advantage was that the mines were about 76 degrees and the outside temperature was about 110 degrees! We pretty much saw everything we wanted to in an hour…

Wednesday, July 23 – We left Yermo and headed up I15 toward Las Vegas. There is so much desert. So dry. So flat. So hot. We arrived at Las Vegas RV Resort, but there was a little confusion finding it since we THOUGHT we were headed to Holiday Resort. They just changed their sign out front today and there was no sign and no street number. That made it just a little difficult to find! We spent a lot of time watching Hurricane Dolly tear up Port Mansfield. Luckily, we didn’t have too much damage. We lost the T-head part of the pier at 529 North Shore. Home Port has some shingles flapping and we lost a piece of siding. All in all, we did OK for a Category 2 storm that stayed over Port Mansfield for about 8 hours!

Thursday, July 24 – We decided that I probably should go back to Port Aransas while Mark is at Oshkosh. John is tearing his hair out with all of the problems getting Blue Heron finished. Mark went to the Apple Store and had a great time! He upgraded to a new operating system and bought another meg of RAM. I worked on paperwork and called the engineers for Home Port and Blue Heron about 6 times. Still no satisfaction… Same thing on the insurance. How frustrating.

Friday, July 25 - I did paperwork.

Saturday, July 26 – Paperwork and getting ready to leave. We drove down the Strip to see where our next campground is and just to see the lights!

Sunday, July 27 - Left very early to try to catch non-rev flights. Mark to Chicago to go to Oshkosh. Me to fly to Corpus and home for the week.

Monday, July 28 to Sunday, August 3 – Mark in Oshkosh. Me in Port Aransas helping John get the condos finished so we could sell one on July 30. Mark flew back to Las Vegas on Sunday (non-rev) and picked up the car. I flew to Houston. Spent the night at Brian and Kathy’s because Emily was sick. Walkers came over to visit and left Sarah.

BE PREPARED: The following has 272 photos!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.434003423603.1219466219463&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Monday, August 4 – Sean and Ashlyn came to Creighton’s and picked us up to go to the airport. Tried to go swimming, but swimming pool was closed.

With Sarah and Ashlyn, this is what we did for the week:

Tuesday, August 5
We moved the motor home to Circus Circus KOA
We went swimming (to motor home is only a few feet from the pool and playground)
We went to Circus Circus and saw the rides and then watched a couple of circus shows

Wednesday, August 6
We worked on our Hoover Dam project
We went to the pool
We went to Circus Circus to the rides and rode the rides as many times as we wanted to!
We went to Treasure Island to see the pirate show, but it was cancelled due to rain.
We went to Paris! to see the Eiffel Tower and walk around

Thursday, August 7
We filled our Hoover Dam project with water and made a reservoir and saw how the turbines get the water to make electricity.
We went to the pool.
We went to the Venetian and had a gondola ride with Pia (a girl from near Siena, Italy) as our gondolier.
We went to New York! New York! For dinner and to walk around and see New York.
THEN, we went to the “World’s Largest Gift Store” and bought our souvenirs.

Friday, August 8
We went to Hoover Dam and saw a movie about how they made the dam, saw the diversion tunnels and the power plant with the big turbines. Then we went out to the viewing area and saw the dam. It was gigantic and made up of a lot of huge blocks of concrete.
We went to see the Treasure Island Pirate Show and this time we got to see it! Sarah and Ashlyn thought it was awesome!

Saturday, August 9
We made sleeping bags for the monkeys. We put each monkey’s name on her sleeping bag.
We went to the pool.
We tried to take a nap.
We went to see “O” Cirque de Soleil at the Bellagio.
After the show we watched the beautiful fountains TWO times.

Sunday, August 10
We slept really late.
We went to the pool.
We went to Madame Tussaud’s to see the wax figures. We took lots of pictures. Ashlyn says it was cool!

Monday, August 11
We expect to:
Go to Circus Circus again for the rides
Swim at the Mirage with the Clarks
Go to the Mirage Buffet for dinner
Walk through Caesar’s Palace to see the talking statures

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.617166253603.1219466219463&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Tuesday, August 12
Sarah and Ashlyn and I flew to Houston. Sean picked both girls up and drove Sarah to meet Heather. I just got back on a plane and flew back to Las Vegas.

Wednesday, August 13 – We got organized again and made plans for the coming weeks. Talked to Bob Clark who left to drive back to Port Aransas with Harrison.

Thursday, August 14 – We took a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. It was an EcoStar 320 and sitting inside it was like sitting in a glass room! The pilot sat in the left front seat and there were 2 paying passengers along side of him in the front. In the back were 4 people in a row. Everyone had a good view. We took off from the general aviation airport in Las Vegas and flew part of the way down the strip. Then we headed off toward the Hoover Dam. Flew over it and the new bridge they are building so that they can stop vehicle traffic from going over the Dam itself. We entered the Grand Canyon and flew down the river to the right side of the middle. The Hualapai Indians own from the middle of the river to the south. The National Park Service has jurisdiction from the middle of the river north. The Hualapai Indians charge an entrance fee for each person and then allow the helicopters to fly in and land about 300’ above the Colorado River and 6000’ below the canyon rim! The helicopter company has a picnic area set up with camouflage netting over top for shade. They have picnic tables set and each copter carries in a try of veggies and dressing, croissant sandwiches, sodas, water, champagne and plastic glasses and plates. It was a really nice little picnic. Then we all walked around and took our photos. We flew out via a different route and flew back over Meadview. The town of Meadview was laid out with streets and lots for houses in the 1940’s. The war was over and people were looking for a place to build their dream house. Transportation was still inconvenient for most people and the lots were sold sight unseen to people who thought they were buying a lot right on Lake Mead. The town is definitely in the middle of nowhere. There are NO stores, NO services. They do have electric and water and some kind of sewer service. There is no way to get down to Lake Mead. However, it is becoming a retirement area for people from the north who like the milder winter weather in Arizona. When we came back to Las Vegas we flew over the strip and took lots of good pictures. Landed and went back to our motor home.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.810388753603.1219465308660&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Friday, August 15 – We left Las Vegas and the 112 degree weather behind and just headed north. We stopped when we got to Fillmore, Utah. We knew we were far enough north when the air conditioners actually shut off for a while!

Saturday, August 16 – We drove on to Provo, Utah. I got the mail so that took care of the rest of the day!

Sunday, August 17 – We went to Church at a Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church. Interesting service… The four hymns were very slow and sleepy. There is not a sermon by a pastor but instead members of the congregation talk for about 15 minutes each about their life and their thoughts and how their religion has affected their life. We drove up one of the canyons past a nice waterfall with a nice park. Then we drove on to Heber City. Nice drive.

Monday, August 18 – We stayed again in Provo and drove to nearby Orem to see the Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibit. A company in Italy has taken Da Vinci’s drawings and made working models from them. There was one drawing that a model could NOT be made of – it simply would not work. It was all VERY interesting. especially since we are currently listening to “Leonardo Da Vinci – The First Scientist”!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.145565473603.1219465308660&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Tuesday, August 19 – HEATHER’S BIRTHDAY Today we drove all the way up to Salt Lake City. (About another 60 miles!) After we parked the motor home we drove west out toward Magna and Copperton to see the world’s largest open pit copper mine. In the 1850’s the Bingham family was farming in the area and found copper, gold and silver. They told Brigham Young (no relation to them) about it and he told them to ignore the minerals and instead concentrate on growing food for the huge number of people coming into the Salt Lake area. They did as they were told. Then about 10 years later someone else came on to the land and “discovered” the minerals. They mined them and as word got out LOTS more miners came. About 1900 a mining engineer came to the site and thought that he had a way to get the scattered minerals out of the ground in an economical way. (The minerals got into the rocks when veins of copper, silver, gold and a few other things forced their way through the rock. Then the steam and water filtering through the rocks took small particles of the minerals and scattered them throughout the rock. The concentration of copper in this rock is about 1%. In order to recover it economically there had to be a process where they could take out ALL of the rock, crush it, recover the copper and dispose of the left over rock. They decided that the only way to do that was not with underground mines but by making an open pit. There are veins of copper, etc. that the engineers have located by taking core samples. The non-mineral bearing overburden is removed, loaded into trucks and trucked away. The rock that contains at least 1% copper is loaded into trucks and taken to the ore crusher inside of the pit itself. This rock is crushed to soccer ball size and transported by a series of 3 conveyor belts 5 miles through the mountain (in a tunnel) to a stockpile on the other side of the mountain. This rock is crushed again and again until it is as fine as face powder. It goes to the smelter and is mixed with water and chemicals and sloshed around. The copper binds with the air bubbles on the surface. The surface bubbles are removed and are dried. The dried granules are 85% pure copper. They are further refined until there is a slab of copper that is 99.5% pure. (The slosh from the first process is sent back to the “slosher” to be processed again to get any copper that may have been hiding.) This slab then goes to the refinery where the slab is “hung” on a rack in water with a stainless steel plate on either side. The water is electrolyzed to send the copper particles from the slab onto the stainless steel plates. The copper removed from the stainless steel plates is 99.9% pure and ready to be shipped to the end users. The copper mine is now owned by Rio Tinto Corp which is the same Corp that owned the Boron Mine we went to in Boron, California, on the way to Barstow. The Visitor’s Center was first class with lots of very good information and displays.

Wednesday, August 20 – FAITH’S BIRTHDAY We drove east to drive up the Little Cottonwood Canyon and then the Big Cottonwood Canyon. The Little Cottonwood Canyon goes past two HUGE ski resorts and ends at the second one, Alta. The ride was really beautiful. We could see so many ski runs and ski lifts. In the town of Alta the road ends, but there is a tourist information booth at the end of the paved road where a representative asks you “if you know where you are going” and gives you information about the unpaved 3 mile road ahead. There are lots of hiking trails and beautiful flowers and pretty mountains. We THINK that the unpaved road itself is the ski slope in the winter time. We drove back down the same road to the Snowbird ski resort for lunch and marveled at the way the ski resorts have turned themselves into summer destinations for people to come out in the summer, take a tram ride, climb the rock climbing wall, jump on the jumpolenes, shop in the shops, etc.

Then we drove up to the Big Cottonwood Canyon to where it ended at another ski resort. This one is not as sophisticated as the other two but they are working on it. We decided to try a side road over to Park City where some of the Olympics were held. It turned out to be unpaved for quite a while, but it wasn’t too bad. From the dirt road we came to a huge construction site with TWO huge tower cranes. They have built a 4-lane road from the resort up to the top of the mountain where there are ski slopes. They are building a 20 story condo time share for the ski resort. We thought we were in the middle of nowhere, but we were actually on the far end of the beginning of somewhere. As we traveled further we came to other apartments, houses, condos that must be the living quarters for those who want to use the ski slopes. We never saw any ski slopes or lifts, but they HAVE to be there for that many people! We drove through Park City and then back to Salt Lake on I-80.

We drove around downtown Salt Lake for a while looking at the city again. We spent some time here in 2002 and saw everything downtown then.

Thursday, August 21 – Left Salt Lake City and headed to Montpellier, ID. However, we decided to stop and leave the motor home at a Pilot Truck Stop and just take the car and go to Promontory Point to see where the Transcontinental Railroad lines were joined. It is really 20 miles from anywhere! The site is the Golden Spike National Historic Site run by the National Park Service. The visitor center and the movie were so-so. But, some of the displays were quite informative. Outside of the visitor center are the railroad tracks with a recreation of the special railroad tie and the commemorative spikes. Also, there are faithful recreations of the two locomotives that were actually at the ceremony linking the two railroad lines on May 10, 1869. In 1900-1904 the railroad began a major improvement campaign to remove 12,000 degrees of curves, 45 miles of track and the uphill climb through the Promontory Pass. These improvements detoured around Promontory Summit and that line was used only for local traffic. In the early 1940’s the unused track was taken up and reused for the war effort. SO, the track we are looking at here with the recreated railroad tie and the recreated spikes and the recreated plaque and recreated locomotives is hopefully in the correct place. It is so interesting that the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific had already passed each other building their track. They ran parallel tracks for 250 miles! However, finally, in April, 1869, the government forced the two railroads to negotiate a place for the rails to meet. They chose Promontory Point and set up the joining date as May 8, 1869. However, Durant’s train on the Union Pacific line was held up for two days, so the actual ceremony was held on May 10, 1869. The museum in Sacramento, CA, was the best museum we have been in to tell the Intercontinental Railroad story. This was still a great place to visit. We got to see the original rail beds and the parallel rail beds of the two lines. “The Big Fill” was visible. It was where the Union Pacific decided to fill in the space between two hills while the Central Pacific decided to build a trestle bridge across the same area. The Big Fill took 500 men two months using hand carts to fill in the space. Incredible.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.166712973603.1219465308659&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Since we didn’t get as far as we intended, we just went to a different KOA in Bingham City instead of continuing on to Montpellier, Idaho! We don’t want to travel too many miles in any one day!

June 26- July 30, 2008

Thursday, June 26, 2008 - Jackie’s sister Mary Ann died this morning after fighting cancer for about 9 months or so. She was in so much pain…

We drove south to Santa Clara to the Silicon Valley to visit the Intel Museum. Intel was as good as Microsoft was bad. I really enjoyed learning about the beginning of the silicon semi-conductor chip. Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore were two of the eight original developers of Fairchild Semiconductor. But they decided to leave and start their own company in 1969. When Moore told his co-worker, Andrew Grove, that he was leaving to do a start-up Grove wanted to come along. They decided the “Moore-Noyce” (noise) wouldn’t be a good name so the used NM but quickly decided they needed a better name. All of the ones they could come up with were already taken so they ended up buying the Intel name for $15,000.

In 1965 Gordon Moore made the prediction that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years. This has become known and Moore’s law and it seems as though it is now treated as an absolute rule rather than the prediction that it started out as. However, Intel has kept up that pace for 40 years…

Basically, silicon starts out as sand but becomes a liquid. A “seed” is dipped into the liquid and grows into a big cylindrical shape. That is then sliced into wafers. They started out with wafers 2” in diameter, moved up to 3” and now use 12”. A transistor is like a “switch” that either allows electrical current through (1 in the binary code) or it doesn’t (0 in the binary code). The chip is actually an accumulation of transistors with different pathways to carry a signal that opens or closes the transistor. There are lots of layers, each with a different property, on the chip that are laid down and then some sections are removed to make the transistors and the pathways. There are LOTS of chips on each silicon wafer and they are all made at the same time with the different layers. When they are totally finished they are tested and cut apart either by a laser or a diamond saw OR the wafer is scored and broken into little chips called “dies”. The die must be “packaged” in order to be used. The package is what we often see. We very seldom see the chip itself.

The actual “layering” of the wafers is done in “clean rooms” of “fabs” where there is ONE dust particle per cubic foot. The average hospital operating room has about 1000 dust particles per cubic foot and a regular room has about 1 million. The workers were “bunny suits” to keep all street and body contamination out of the air and contained in the suit. The wafers are transported from place to place in a FOUD that is moved by overhead track. The process takes about 6 to 8 weeks.

In 1994 Intel found a problem with their Pentium chip but determined that it would never pose a problem for most people. This was a HUGE public relations nightmare because no one wanted to have a defective chip in their computer! Intel changed course and said it would replace any defective chips.

In 1991 Intel decided that they needed to advertise their quality directly to the consumer. The came up with the distinctive 5 note jingle and “sounds” that everyone now associates with “Intel Inside”. Intel pays part of the advertising for the companies that use their chips if the company will include the “Intel Inside” and the jingle. It is one of the most recognized brands in the world.

Intel originally used numbers to identify their chips. But then someone else called their chip the “486 chip” also. Intel took them to court but was told that you can’t patent a number. Therefore, when they developed the chip that WOULD have been the 586, the called it the “Pentium” instead because they could patent that name.

Moore and Noyce started out with about 18 employees in 1969. Within two years they had an office in Geneva and a manufacturing plant in Malaysia. In 2007 they had 95 employees, but now they have about 80,000. The plant that we visited today will actually be closed in 4 days and the manufacturing moved to China.

There was so much information and it was all presented in such a good format.

On the drive back to the motor home we got to experience some real California traffic.

Friday, June 27 – Went shopping for groceries for kids. Did paperwork.

Saturday, June 28 – We went into San Francisco. Drove around Golden Gate Park – not so impressive… Drove down Lombard Street and around the Piers. Headed home in ALL of the traffic.

Sunday, June 29 – Left at 6 AM to drive to LA to pick up Brian and Abby and then Rachel. Went to the beach just down the street from the airport.

Monday, June 30 – Went to the La Brea Tar Pits. Really interesting. Tar (oil) seeps through the ground throughout this area (there are lots of oil wells pumping oil nearby) and between 40,000 and 11,000 years ago the mammoths and dire wolves and big cats roamed this area. They would once in a while get stuck in the tar in the tar pit when they came down to the water to drink. About once a decade there was a mass event where the animal who was stuck in the tar was attacked by predators who themselves became trapped in the tar. There are SO many bones in the pit that they have kind of gotten tired of digging them all up! Right now they dig in Pit 91 during the summer when the graduate students come to dig in the tar to see what they can find. They used to look for all of the big bones of the big animals, but now they are particularly interested in finding the tiny little things in the tar. Then we went to the Warner Bros Studio Tour. Most of the time was spent in the “towns” and the sound room. The TV shows are filmed mostly in front of a live audience. Lucy was the first show to be filmed before a live audience because Desi said that Lucy didn’t perform well without an audience to bounce her jokes off of. It was fun, but not as good as I remember the Universal Tour being… Abby particularly liked the museum with the upper floor dedicated to Harry Potter! After we left Warner Bros we took hundreds of pictures of the Hollywood from every different angle!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.421958072603.1219465792508&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.691957472603.1219465792507&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Tuesday, July 1 – We spent almost the whole day at Venice Beach/Muscle Beach. I think the girls enjoyed the weird people but mostly they enjoyed the beach and the water. Poor Brian was so cold but he stayed in the water with the girls!

Wednesday, July 2 – We left to drive north to San Francisco. We wanted to drive along Route 1 but it was closed north of Morro Bay due to the tremendous number of forest fires – 1400 at one time! We planned on taking two days to drive to SF but ended up making it in one day. Brian was happy to get to the motor home to do his wash and have a day of rest before he had to work again.

Thursday, July 3 - We drove over to Muir Woods to see the redwoods. Mark and I walked the path and Brian and Abby and Rachel took a hike up a path. Rachel had on her “wheelies” and was having a lot of trouble walking up the steep path until Brian wondered why she was so worried about falling. When he saw that she still had the wheels in her shoes, he took them out for her and she had fun after that! The land for Muir Woods was purchased by a man who wanted to save the redwoods from being used for timber. His wife was not happy that he had spent a lot of money to buy and protect trees because she could think of a lot of other things to buy with that money. However, when she saw the area she changed her mind and agreed with her husband. When the government agreed to accept it as a National Park, they suggested naming it after the man who was donating it. He said No, John Muir was the inspiration that prompted him to save this area and he wanted to name it after John Muir.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.725627082603.1219465792507&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Friday, July 4 – Mark drove Brian to Oakland to catch his flights for the next 3 days. Then we closed up the motor home and drove over to Petaluma KOA. Wow, what a spot we had at a super campground! The girls went to the petting zoo, swam in the huge pool, watched movies in the rec hall, did fabric paint of pillow cases that were imprinted with a design and said Happy Camping, went on a hay ride, went to an ice cream social… They loved watching the movies (I Love Lucy) in the back of the motor home on the drive from Vallejo to Petaluma. We went to the Petaluma Fairgrounds for fireworks and dinner. We thought there would be rides and there weren’t. It was a celebration of the 150th birthday of the city of Petaluma. We went way too early. Also, we needed more clothes and blankets, but the fireworks were really great!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.233728082603.1219465792507&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Saturday, July 5 – We just did things around the campground.

Sunday, July 6 – We drove to the Sterling Winery for a cable car ride and a not-so-great tour of the winery. The girls were truly bored. The most interesting thing we learned was that the grapes are crushed with their skin on and the seeds left in to make red wine. However, for white wine the same grapes are used but only the juice of the grape is fermented to make the wine.
We stopped at the Petrified Forest on the way home and that was a little better. Three million years ago a volcano 7 miles to the east erupted and knocked all of the trees down facing away from the blast toward the southwest. Water laden with silicates in the ash seeped down into the gaps left behind by decomposing tree fibers, replacing the wood cell by cell with crystallized silica until the entire tree became stone. In 1871 Charles Evans (Petrified Charlie) found the first stump of petrified wood while leading his cows in the meadow. In 1914 Ollie Bockee purchased the property and developed it charging 50 cents admission. She used the money to pay college students to excavate more trees each summer. They discovered many of the world’s largest petrified trees.
The best part for the girls was the swimming pool when we got back to the campground.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.456988082603.1219465792507&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0


Monday, July 7 – Now this was a fun day! We left early to go to San Francisco. First we drove down Lombard Street three times, then the girls and Mark walked down once, then we found a street just as steep but with no curves and we went down that twice! We parked and walked on Fisherman’s Wharf. There were a total of 5 sea lions on the rocks so Mark made sea lion noises so the girls could get the effect! We had shrimp for lunch. Then we walked down to the boat to Alcatraz. It didn’t start off that great… The movie did not run continuously so we would have had to wait 15 minutes for it to start again. Fifteen minutes is an eternity when you are 9 or 10 and waiting for something! The ranger told us that we picked up our audio tours at the top of the hill. The “top of the hill” was 30 stories above where we got off the boat. We walked up the sloping roads to the top, met a lady with an audio tour and asked her where she got it. She said down at the bottom. I said “Where the boat comes in?!” and she said Yes. So, with a lot of grumbling from two little girls AS WELL AS MOM MOM, we walked back down the hill. Then the people told us, No, you get them at the top of the hill. So, with more grumbling we walked back up the thirty stories to find a place at the bottom of the BUILDING where we got our audio tours. However, it was all worth it in the end because the audio tours were great. There were a few prisoners and guards who spend time at Alcatraz doing the narrating. We ALL really enjoyed the tour. Abby was particularly interested in the few people who MAY have escaped. No one knows if they did or not since they were never heard from again.
After Alcatraz we went back to Fisherman’s Wharf and found a great souvenir store with inexpensive souvenirs. Then we drove (with many detours…) to Twin Peaks to look down over the city of San Francisco. It really is a great view – but everyone was freezing with the wind whipping around the top of the mountain.
We drove down the mountain and back into SF to ride the cable cars. The ride was $5 per person one way. Wow. The wait for the return trip was so long that we watched the men turn one of the cars around on the turntable (which isn’t so new to kids anymore since Thomas the Tank Engine does it!) and then took a taxi back to where we left the car. Our driver was Chinese and we asked his opinion of a good, cheap Chinese restaurant for dinner. He took us to one only ½ block from the car. Abby didn’t know what to order because she always goes to a Chinese buffet. Rachel only wanted egg drop soup. We decided on a chicken corn chowder for Abby, PLAIN egg drop soup for Rachel and shrimp fried rice for all of us to share. Mark order his own dish. It turned out that the soups were for 4 people and Rachel’s egg drop soup had other things in it. Actually it was delicious, but I just removed the extra veggies from Rachel’s and she liked it. Everyone ate plenty. We walked uphill to the car and drove back to the campground with 2 very sleepy girls.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.600179082603.1219465792506&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Tuesday, July 8 – We stayed around the campground. The girls went to the craft time and did fabric paint on pillowcases. They were the only two there for awhile and there wasn’t any supervision. But then a mother who is a teacher came with her daughter and they all just painted together. The girls did a good job but Abby wasn’t finished when it was time for dinner. She went back after dinner and finished her pillowcase and then the girls went by themselves to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks on the big screen TV in the rec hall. They loved being by themselves! They had Mark’s cell phone to call us to walk them home when the movie was over, but I went down early with a flashlight because I wanted to check on things… Again, they were the only ones watching the movie so they had a private showing!

Wednesday, July 9 – We had to catch up on the journals, swim, play, eat lunch. Brian and Kathy and Sam were coming in the afternoon to stay with us for the rest of the trip. But, Mark decided we needed to go find this magnetic hill just a few miles away. So we took off to find it. No one near there had heard of it, but they knew another one about 10 miles away. So we took off for that one. We couldn’t find it either. Mark stopped 2 police cars at change of shift and they gave us directions. We still couldn’t find it. Well, it was a nice ride but we were 20 minutes from the campground when Brian called and said they were there! We got back, Sam saw the petting zoo, Andy Icks looked through the motor home, some people went swimming, we had dinner, walked down to the Rec Hall to see Enchanted, came home and went to sleep.

Thursday, July 10 – We left to drive towards Yosemite and our campground outside the park in Groveland. The kids went swimming and Brian and Kathy drove very curvy and hilly Rt 49 to Oakhurst to get their rental car. When they got back we set up the tent and roasted marshmallows over a charcoal fire. We weren’t allowed to burn real wood because of the high fire danger. Note: wood fires make better marshmallows then charcoal fires.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.589751182603.1219465792506&page=2&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Friday , July 11 – We drove to Yosemite intending to drive the road to Lee Vining but instead decided to go to the Yosemite Village and Half Dome. Good choice. The girls and Sam were really tired of rocks, mountains, trees, waterfalls, rivers… Boring trees, boring mountains, boring waterfalls. We took the kids and Brian and Kathy did a hike. The kids were less bored when we all stopped for ice cream!

Saturday, July 12 – Brian and Kathy left at 5 AM to drive to the starting point for the hike up Half Dome. They had 4 PBJ sandwiches and 4 bottles of water. There were lots of people on the trail. When they finally go to the point where the chain railing goes up the mountain Kathy decided she had gone far enough. Brian kept going to the top. But, since they were short on water he didn’t take any with him. Boy, was he thirsty when he got back down. They heard a girl say she would be fine if she just had something to eat and since they did not want any more PBJ they traded for a bottle of water. Then they met some folks with a water filter and filled some of their water bottles with filtered water from a stream. They were pretty tired and looking forward to a shower when they got home!


Rachel and Abby and Sam and Mark and I went to Jamestown (Jimtown) to do some gold panning and use the gold sluice. We were all told to put on boots and given a bucket and shovels to go into the stream to dig the dirt that we would pan. The boots didn’t last too long, the water shoes were more to the kids’ liking. It’s a real good thing we had Mark along or none of us would have panned much dirt! There were SO many rocks and big rocks in the river that you couldn’t dig through them to the dirt! Mark finally started throwing rocks out of the way to get a hole to dig in. The man at the site was really good at teaching us how to pan. Even Sam got into it. Put dirt in your pan, face the ridges away from you, swish the pan in the water 1-2-3 times and then shake the pan. Swish it again in the river 1-2-3 times. This SHOULD get rid of almost all of the dirt in the pan. Actually, we were all so paranoid about losing a piece of gold that we really had to swish our pans 4 or 5 times before we looked for the specks of gold. Everyone found a speck of gold in their pans. Rachel found three. The man panned for gold for himself when there were no paying customers and he had found about $60 worth that morning. Mark dug us some more dirt and we moved downriver to where he set up a sluice for us. The sluice is supposed to do all of the work that the panner does with a pan. You just take handfuls of the dirt and drop it on the top end of the sluice and the running water from the river does the “sifting”. The sluice is much smaller than I expected – about 3’ long and the body was about 1’ wide with a wider mouth at the top. There is a piece of carpet lining the bottom of the sluice with wooden ridges running across. The specks of gold are caught in the carpet by the ridges. Then the carpet is removed from the sluice. The material is put into a gold pan and the contents are panned for gold. We have quite a few specks of gold in our sluice –about $15 worth. No bad, for the $165 fee we got $15 in gold! We all poured a lot of dirt into our sluice but the kids lost interest and had much more fun playing in the river and pouring water on themselves!

We all went to the local ice cream store for ice cream and a milkshake. The kids really liked that!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.502302282603.1219466219465&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0


Sunday, July 13 – Brian and Kathy and Abby and Rachel left to go horseback riding. They actually rode MULES and were not pleased when they had to be behind Brian’s mule. Apparently it had quite a problem with gas… But they had a good time! Sam and Mark and I left to take the road to Lee Vining. Sam had his book on tape and his transformer and fell asleep not too far down the road. Good thing, he wouldn’t have really enjoyed the boring trees, boring mountains and boring rivers that Mark and I really enjoyed! The ride was really magnificent. Again, Sam’s favorite part of the day was the stop for ice cream!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.979260382603.1219466219464&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.447782282603.1219466219464&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Monday, July 14 – We packed up the motor home and Brian and Kathy left in their rental car to drive through Yosemite to the Mariposa Grove of redwood trees. Kathy didn’t get to go to Muir Woods and we all wanted her to see the redwoods.
Since the road was not good for the motor home, we took a longer but less mountainous route with the kids. Again they had a great time laying in the back bed watching I Love Lucy, Robin Hood and Rin Tin Tin! They got to watch about 8 ½ hour movies! For a treat we stopped at a McDonald’s with a playground for lunch so that they could run around for a bit.
We were heading to our “primitive” campground in the mountains. Island Park is run by the Army Corps of Engineers and has no sewer, no water and no electric. I thought it would be fun anyway because our campsite was right next to the reservouir/lake… Well, it would have been right next to it if the water level had been about 50’ higher!! The hike down to the water was a long one, and there really wasn’t any place to swim. We opened all of the windows to let the air into the motor home and started dinner. We carried all of the food and drink up to the picnic table and sat down to eat AND THEN THE BEES CAME TO EAT WITH US. We were all spending so much time swoshing away the bees and Sam was scared of the bees that we finally picked everything up and carried it into the motor home and ate dinner inside! We played a few games of Uno and then decided to go to sleep. It was about 90 degrees but there was a great breeze blowing. So it was hot, but the breeze was good. Everyone remembered what it was like to grow up without air conditioning and sleep with the breeze blowing over you, no covers-not even the sheet, and turning the pillow over to get the cool side. We are survived the night and even got some sleep!

I had picked a campground as close as possible to the place where we were going to go white water rafting so we wouldn’t have such a long ride to or from the raft trip. The next closest campground with full hook-ups was about 1 ½ hours further away from the raft trip and, as it was, we were still 1 hour away!


Tuesday, July 15 – Brian, Kathy, Sam, Abby and Rachel all packed up their suitcases so that they could leave right from the rafting trip to head to Los Angeles. Their flight is at 8 AM so they have to be there tonight. We figured we would leave early to swim in the river and eat lunch before the trip. We were supposed to be there at 11:30 but we arrived about 10:30. We walked to the raft pull-out area and the kids swam a bit. The water was not cold at all! It had rained the night before in the high country and the water was now hitting the river so it made the river warmer. We had lunch – Sam was again afraid of the bees. Then we waited and waited and waited for the safety talk and the bus to the starting place. We finally got on the bus at 1 PM. I think they tell you to be there ½ hour early because no one thinks it could possibly take as long as it does to get to the place. We rode in the bus about ½ hour to get to the put-in point. After another little safety talk we got into our rafts, practiced a few things and began paddling to our first rapids! Rebecca, our guide, was very good and kept the kids changing places from the middle to the front of the raft. She let them take turns riding the bow with their legs hanging on the outside. Sometimes they rode the rapids that way – just like riding a bronco! There were SO many rapids and the river was flowing so quickly that we didn’t have to paddle much at all. There was never any time to get bored. We all did a “high five” with our paddles after a good rapids run. We got out of the boat to jump off a rock into the river and we also swam in a circular eddy that kept us going around in a big circle. The kids and Brian were shocked when I jumped in to swim in the eddy too! But that was something I had never done before so I wasn’t going to miss that chance! The last rapid of the ride was the Rooster Tail and it was great! Mark almost flipped out of the boat! They take pictures of you in this rapid and they were so good that Brian and I just bought the whole CD! Then, Sam started screaming and crying. It seems that a bee stung him. He is so afraid of bees that Kathy wasn’t sure if he was really stung or just scared, but we think he did get stung.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.212380703603.1219466219463&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

With that ending everyone headed back to the cars to change our of their bathing suits for the trip to LA. Mark and I drove back to the motor home, got showers, decided that we really didn’t need to spend another night without air conditioning and closed up the motor home and headed for the nearest campground with full hook-ups, Visalia, about 1 ½ hours away!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.557093382603.1219466219464&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Wednesday, July 16 – We figured since we were so close we probably should go to the Sequoia National Forest. More twisty, turny roads. We drove to the lodge for a tea and coffee and while we were inside it started to pour and thunder and lightning and then it started to hail. We had to wait about ½ hour before Mark could run out to get the car! We drove through the southern part of the park and walked the hike down hill to the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world. It was very well marked, the hike was nice. The tree was certainly big, but when there are so many big trees it is hard to get a sense of something just a little bigger than something near by!

Thursday, July 17 – Everyone made the flight to Houston. Kathy drove Rachel half-way to meet Heather. We drove on to Bakersfield to get our mail and FedEx package for the sale of Unit 6 at Home Port.

Friday, July 18 – I worked on the mail all day. Mark went to get some motor home supplies.

Saturday, July 19 – We left Bakersfield to head to Las Vegas. There really wasn’t anything we wanted to see in southern California that we hadn’t already seen on previous trips. We figured we would just take our time getting to Las Vegas and stop and see things along the way. We stayed at the KOA in Yermo, just 4 miles north of Dagget where Vance worked on the solar one project. We saw the Borax mine off to the north and a sign for a visitor’s center and took the exit to go to it. However, when we got there it looked like we were not supposed to enter so we turned right and headed into the town of Boron. We visited the Twenty Mule Team Museum in Boron. It had some good displays but didn’t give enough information about the mining of borax which was the whole reason the town existed. The lady there suggested that the Visitor Center at the Borax Mine was a good place to visit. We unhooked the car and took the car back up to the Mine and this time we went in anyway. They did have a Visitor’s Center built way up the hill on a mountain of overburden removed from the mine. They charge $2.00 per auto to enter and donate all of that money to local charities and a scholarship fund for the Boron High School. Very good idea. The Visitor’s Center was all we hoped it would be. The was in introductory movie, then the drapes in the back of the room opened to allow you to look out on the mine and see all of the activity. The displays inside were very informative and answered all of our questions. The borax is always in combination with some other stone. When it comes out of the ground it first goes to a crusher that grinds it into 6” stones. Then it is carried on a conveyor belt to a secondary crusher that grinds it into gravel size. Then it goes into something like a centrifuge that mixes the gravel with water. The borax is dissolved out of the rock and floats on top of the water. The leftover rock falls to the bottom and is carried away on another conveyor belt. The borax is then carried on a mesh-like conveyor belt that blows air down through it to start the drying process. Then the borax goes into dryers much like our home dryers (but much bigger) and is dried to almost a powder. That is it. It is ready to either be put into bags to be shipped or loaded into rail cars to go to ships to be bulk loaded. Borax is used in hundreds of things from making ceramics fire better, to computer chips, to laundry detergent, to wall insulation, to fiberglass, to plastics, to lowering the temperature of gold so it can be worked easier, to making Corning glass products able to withstand temperature changes. About ½ of this plants production is used in the US and ½ is exported.

The twenty mule team became the symbol for Borax. Borax was discovered in the Harmony Mine area, Furnace Creek in Death Valley, in 1881. Mr. William T. Coleman was a salesman for the Borax King, Francis Smith, and Mr. Coleman quickly purchased the entire area to mine Borax. However, the mine was 162 miles from the nearest railroad in Mojave. In order to get the borax to the railroad to be transported around the world, Mr. Coleman and Ed Stiles, a mule team driver, came up with the idea to hitch a 12 mule team and an 8 mule team together. The term “20 mule team” is somewhat misleading because actually the two animals closest to the wagons are almost always horses. The other 18 are mules. But everyone says “20 mule team” anyway. John W. S. Perry, superintendent of the Harmony Borax Co., designed and had built the wagons needed to transport the borax. They were 16’ long, 4’ wide, 6’ deep, weighted 7,800 pounds. The front wheels were 5’ tall and the rear wheels were 7’ tall. Each wheel had a steel tire 8” wide and 1” thick. A train consisted of two wagons and a water wagon holding 1,200 gallons of water for a total weight of 30 tons. The mule team was hitched to single trees and double trees that hooked into an 80’ chain which ran the length of the team and fastened directly to the wagon. The “skinner” (driver) held onto a 120’ “jerk line” that he would jerk to make the mules go right and a give a steady pull to make the team go left. The mules had to be able to respond to their name and shouted orders. In order to turn a corner, the closest 3 pairs of mules to the driver actually stepped over the chain and pulled at an angle to the direction of travel to keep the chain pulling the wagon going straight and not allowing the wagon to tip over or go off the road. This is called the Dance of the Mules. The route was 162 miles with absolutely NO house or shack or anything along the way. The temperature in the summer was between 136 and 150 degrees. One stretch went 60 miles without water. The 20 mule team could cover 16-18 miles per day. The mine workers went out to “build a road” and set up steel water containers a day’s drive apart. They couldn’t use wooden tanks because when they were dry they would just separate and become unusable. The drivers would use the water on their way over the trail with the borax. Then after they dropped off the borax at the railroad they would fill up with water and food and hay and drop some off at each stop on the way back to the mine. That way the driver and team always knew that there would be water and food at certain locations. The Twenty Mule Teams only transported the Borax this way for five years before the railroad came to the mine. Mr. Coleman’s Harmony Mine eventually went bankrupt and Francis “Borax” Smith purchased the company.

In the 1920’s the deposit of borax near Boron was discovered. It was so rich in borax that the company closed all of the other mines to work this mine. They tunneled into the mine to remove the borax until 1957. Then the company made the decision to turn the mine into an open pit mine. That way they wouldn’t have to leave so much borax behind to hold up the ceilings of the mines. The pit is not 2 ½ by 1 ½ miles and they have supplies of borax down to 1400’. There is plenty of borax to keep mining for years and years.

A VERY interesting stop!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.397106382603.1219466219463&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Sunday, July 20 – Mark went to church. Then we went to the Dagget Museum – which apparently has not been open for the past 4 years since someone broke in and stole their stuff. Vance’s picture used to be in there explaining the procedures at Luz’s Solar One solar plant. We drove past Solar One and the big tower is still there but the plant hasn’t worked in the past 5 years. We also saw Solar Two but we couldn’t tell if it was still working or not. Then we drove back down Hwy 58 to Kramer Junction to see the currently working FPL Solar Collectors. We couldn’t get in but we did get some photos. Mark and I were both surprised at how large the reflectors are. It was cloudy and rainy (in the desert!!) while we were driving around so the reflectors were all facing down. We tried to follow the electric wires to see where the energy produced went into the grid. The only thing we found was a large transformer station near the intersection of the only two roads for miles. We went through rain and the desert absorbed the rain for a while. Then it started to pool up on top of the dirt. We didn’t see any water in the Mojave River yet…

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.462990782603.1219466219463&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

June 14-25, 2008

June 14, 2008 – We left early to drive across the mountains to Route 101 on the western coast of California. The road was really twisty turny with short curves. A sign on the side of the road warned “No trailers longer than 32’ from king pin to rear axle”. It was about 80 degrees when we left Redding early in the morning and about 83 degrees a little more than half-way across the mountains. We stopped for a picnic lunch and then continued driving. On the west side of the mountains the temperature started to drop and it was 60 degrees by the time we got to the coast! Most of the road doesn’t really go along the coast, but when it does it is very scenic with all of the rocks, waves and driftwood. We watched a so-so movie at a Visitor Center and then went to the Lady Bird Johnson Grove. Lady Bird Johnson dedicated this grove of redwood trees in 1969. There is a really nice 1 mile trail that is just long enough and just short enough to really enjoy. There is a pamphlet with explanations for each of about 15 stops along the trail. Other than the very flowery “artsy” prose it was very informative. There were quite a few people on the trail and you could walk it quickly or take your time. All in all, very nice. We drove the alternate scenic route instead of following Highway 101 along the east side of the National Park. Then we took the alternative scenic route off of that road and ended up on a dirt road right along the coast! The GPS told us to take a right turn to get back to the main road and we ended up on the road to a prison! We drove on to Crescent City to spend the night. Mark was fascinated with the Curly Redwood Motel across the street from the restaurant where we ate dinner. It was made completely with the curly redwood from ONE redwood tree 18’ in diameter providing 53,000 board feet of wood. Curly redwood happens when a redwood tree is damaged somehow and the wood starts to grow in swirls instead of straight. Once it starts, the whole tree becomes “curly”.

Sunday, June 15 – We rode around the Crescent City harbor and marveled at the jetty made with concrete “jacks” to keep the jetty in place during tsunamis. Lots of crab boats, crab pots, seine fishing nets. The lighthouse was interesting. Driving back south along Highway 101 we saw surfers out in the waves and also people in kayaks riding the waves like surfers. We drove into Eureka and saw some really well renovated old houses. After lunch we headed back over the mountains and stopped to see the old LaGrange Gold Mine. They built 26 miles of ditch, pipe and trench to bring water from a lake to mine the gold. Then they used water pressure to actually disintegrate the mountain and run it through the sieve and take out the gold. They took $3,500,000 worth of gold out of the mountain while the mine was operating. Eventually the gold was gone. Then they used the 26 miles of pipe and the “monitors”, called “monsters”, to build the new highway from the middle of the state to the coast. All very interesting. We drove past Whiskeytown Lake and saw lots of people enjoying their weekend in and near the water with boats and floats. We drove back to the motor home.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.253232171603.1219465318399&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Monday, June 16 – We went to Wal-Mart to do some shopping and then picked up the mail and did paperwork.

Tuesday, June 17 – We drove east to Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was only about 50 miles or so from the motor home. We entered the Park at the north end, stopped at the Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was actually the old home and museum of Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Loomis, who photographed the eruption of Mount Lassen in May 1914 after waiting with his camera ready for 2 days. The Loomis’s lived in the area and photographed the mountain until they died. They established a Museum in honor of their 20 year old daughter who died and displayed all of their Lassen Peak photos and “things” in the Museum. It is now used for the Visitor Center and the Ranger Station. There were 2 pretty good movies about the area. Also, there were some neat displays about plate tectonics. One of them said that the oceanic plate was 37 miles and the continental plate is 134 miles. We are assuming that they meant “deep” because they certainly are not that long… We drove on the Park road with a few stops for scenic photos along the way. The trail to Bumpass Hell is about 3 miles round trip, but the trail just opened for the season the day we were there so they were suggesting that you do the trail with hiking boots AND ski poles. We decided NOT to take the trail… However, that is really the best place in the park to see the fumaroles, mud pots and “geysers” so we didn’t get to see them. There is one more place where you actually drive BETWEEN 2 boiling mudpots. One is more visible then the other. One just vents a lot of sulphuric steam. The smell wasn’t too bad, but other people were complaining. The whole drive was very interesting, but there really wasn’t that much to see… We drove back to Redding on a route further south than the road we came over on.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.165527771603.1219465318398&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Wednesday, June 18 – Worked on Sonny’s IRS papers. Mark changed the nozzle on the Hydro-Hot water heater. The electric was finally hooked up at Home Port in Port Mansfield!

Thursday, June 19 – This was a very different afternoon! We learned how to ride Segway’s and then did a 2 hour tour of the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, the Sundial Bridge, and Caldwell Park. We were both surprised at how quickly we learned how to balance and ride the Segway. These were the new Segway I-2 models with a post that you just leaned on to steer right or left and go faster, slower or stop. If the POST moves left, so does the machine. If you lean forward, you go faster. If you lean back and “dig in your heels” you slow down or stop. It became very easy very quickly and was lots of fun. After that we drove just about 15 miles north to see the Shasta Dam and Lake Shasta. It is the “second largest dam in the US” but it doesn’t tell us second in what way – concrete used, electricity generated, water held back, …

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.350852381603.1219465318398&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0


Friday, June 20 – Betty and Joe’s Anniversary. We left Redding and headed WAY down I-5 for 70 miles to Orland, which is just off of I-5 west of Chico. Mark had been reading about things to do in this area and found the Yo-Yo Museum and read that the Championships were being held on Saturday. What he didn’t read carefully was that they were being held in Minnesota! We didn’t find that out until we were happily set up in our campground for two days, so we decided we would just explore Chico and the area anyway!

Saturday, June 21 – We headed east to Chico past miles of olive trees. Some of them were darker green than others. We stopped to look at them but they all had green olives. Each limb had LOTS of olives growing on it. They can be picked by hand or by a machine that vibrates the truck of the tree and the limbs are “beat” with a stick to make the olives fall off. Black olives and green olives are the same olives, but the black olives are riper than the green ones. Once the olives are picked, they must be either “processed” or pressed within three days. If they are pressed, the olives are ground by grinding stones that take the flesh off of the olive and discard the pits. What remains is pressed. If they olives are not fully ripe, they will not have a satisfactory amount of oil in them. They are turned into olives that we eat by being processed with brine according to various formulas. The olive tree is about 2500 years old as determined by carbon dating in the Mediterranean. They were introduced to California in the late 1700’s by the Spanish. Olives are usually harvested in November.

We arrived in Chico and found that the Chico Museum didn’t open until noon. So we walked around town, visited the Yo-Yo Museum and were entertained for an hour by the salespeople and the customers in the Yo-Yo section of the store. We ended up buying a “good” yo-yo for the kids (and Brian) to try to use. I couldn’t make it work any better than a 99 cent yo-yo! We had lunch and walked back to the Chico Museum – only to find that it really was closed for renovations! The lady in the Chamber of Commerce kind of forgot to mention that when we told her we were going there when it opened at noon! So, we went to the Bidwell Mansion instead and it was GREAT. John Bidwell came to California on the FIRST wagon train. He actually lived every part of the California history through the wars with Mexico, John Sutter’s camp and businesses, actually carried the first gold found on Sutter’s land (or in California for that matter) to Los Angeles and send the news of the gold strike to the world. He found gold on the Feather River near Chico, established a town on the Bidwell Bar, got tired of gold mining and bought 28,000 acres of land to start farming. He realized that if he grew things he would need a market to sell them so he set aside part of his land for a town and gave away plots of land to anyone who was willing to build a house, a school, a church or any public building. The ranch/farm was on the Little River and so the area became known as El Rancho Arroyo Chico, shortened quickly to Chico. John Bidwell ran for governor of California 4 times but was defeated every time, mostly because he refused to play the game of politics and promise something that he could not deliver OR promise other people favors if they would lend him their support. He also ran for President of the US once. He did get elected to represent California in the US Congress. There he met Annie Kennedy in Washington, DC, and decided she was the only woman for him. He was about 50 years old at the time. Four years later Annie and John were married and she moved with him to California. They were especially concerned about the Indians who had been displaced from their own land and set aside some land for about 250 Indians to live and work at jobs on the ranch. Annie set up a room inside their house specifically to bring the Indian women and girls in and teach them how to sew. While she taught them to sew she also taught them about Christianity. John Bidwell came from Chataqua County in New York from a farming family. He recognized how good the land was in this valley and tried all kinds of different crops and trees. He grew prize winning wheat, set up a mill to grind it into flour, had the general store, and did just about everything. He really did see what needed to be done to prepare for the future. They donated lots of land for public parks. After John’s death (of a sudden heart attack working in the fields when he was 80 years old) Annie had to work hard to keep the finances in order after the set-back they had suffered just before John’s death. She sold off some more of the land and got their finances back in order. Then she gave the City of Chico 2200 acres of land for a city park. She said that if she gave it away she would never be tempted to sell it for monetary gain. She died 18 years after John.

We still were looking for interesting things in the area, so we drove about 30 miles to the Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville. The dam is an earthen dam, but it does have a concrete core at the base. It has a lot of concrete other places too, but they still call it an earthen dam. The spillway was the size of an 8-lane highway! In the Visitor’s Center we met a ranger whose family is from Palestine, TX… The regular movie that they show Visitors wasn’t playing because they were doing a training video for a new worker. We watched the rest of that video about the town of Oroville, and then we watched a very informative video about Ishi. Ishi was the very LAST surviving Indian in the area. There had been rumors of Indians in the hills, but no one had ever seen one until one day some surveyors saw an Indian spearing fish from rocks in the river. He ran away but they found where they lived. No one was there except for a very feeble old woman. The next day when they came back the camp had been deserted and there was no one there. A couple of years after that, an Indian came walking into town. No one knew quite what to do with him so they put him in the jail to keep him safe. Then a couple of professors from the Anthropology Dept of the college came to see him with their list of Indian words. They were able to converse slightly. They took him back to the college and he lived in the Anthropology Building. An Indian never says his own name, so he couldn’t tell them his name. They named him Ishi, taught him that name and we pleased when after he learned it he never said it aloud again. This made the professors think that he had totally taken the name as his own. He showed them all of the Indian ways to do things. He even took them back to his old Indian home and they camped as Indians for a month while he showed them how the Indians lived. A couple of years later he died of TB. All of this is very famous because of the tremendous amount of knowledge the professors were able to gain from this one man. They felt that he was very wise, very patient. He thought that two of the best things the white man ever invented were matches and glue.

We wanted to drive over the dam to the Recreation Area. We were both amazed at the boat launching ramps on the far side of the dam! They are so steep and so long. There are hundreds of boat trailer parking spaces. Of course, some of them end up under water if the water lever behind the dam gets high… The pictures will tell the story.

So, we had a great day even without a yo-yo championship!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.951499781603.1219465318398&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0


Sunday, June 22 – We drove to the West Sacramento KOA and set up for 3 nights.

Monday, June 23 – We drove into Old Town Sacramento and started our day at the Visitor Center. The Wells Fargo Museum was right next door and we spent an hour in there. It was great! There were pictures of the Pony Express riders and maps showing where they rode, their “horse change” stops, their “rider and horse change” stops and the end of the line. There were 190 stations in the 196 mile route. They used 500 horses and 50 riders. They carried 20 pounds of mail in their specially made “saddle cover” that had four compartments. The Pony Express used young men and boys aged 14 to 24 who were small, short and couldn’t weigh more than 125 pounds. They actually liked orphans best because they wouldn’t have any grieving parents to explain things to if the rider got killed. However, only one Pony Express rider was ever killed. More outpost attendants were killed, but only one rider. The mail could go from Sacramento, California, to St. Joseph, MO, in only 10 days. It cost $5 to send ½ ounce in the 1850’s – a lot of money. But it opened up the country for communication. The Pony Express started in April of 1860 and ended in October 1861. On October 24, 1861, the telegraph lines were completed and messages could be send instantly, which made the Pony Express obsolete in only 18 months. Two days after the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line the Pony Express ceased running! During its operation, the Pony Express took in $90,000 at a cost of $200,000.

Ben Holladay had sold the originators of the Pony Express the mail route contract that got them started, and after the Pony Express ended Holladay bought back some of the way stations they had set up. In 1866 Wells Fargo purchased the Pony Express assets along with the remnants of the Butterfield Stage that Holladay owned for $1.5 million. Wells Fargo then provided armored car service and mail service via stagecoach in combination with their already established banking and financial services. They were so dependable that writers would often instruct their readers to “respond by Wells Fargo Express”. Wells Fargo transported people inside their coaches and valuables and mail in the locked “treasure box”. They continued to use the Pony Express logo until the business was sold in 2001. There are hundreds of stories about the drivers, robbers and passengers of the Wells Fargo stagecoaches.

After that we did a walking tour around the city Old Sacramento with a “doctor from the period” dressed in 1950’s clothing. We learned a lot. We saw the offices of Stanford, Crocker, Hopkins and Huntington who, along with Charles Wilson, were the ones who gave Theodore Judah the money he needed to build the railroad along the route that he had determined. Judah had the whole route mapped out, but after a falling out with the “Big Four” he traveled to New York to get other money to build the railroad. He got typhoid fever crossing Panama and died in New York. The Big Four hired another man to build the railroad and got it done. Irish and Chinese laborers were indispensable in the building.

The old city of Sacramento is right at the confluence of the Sacramento and the American Rivers and was prone to flooding. In 1850 and again in 1852 the city was flooded. In 1853 a project was proposed to raise the entire city by 12’. It wasn’t until another flood in 1862 that project took hold. A brick retaining wall was built completely surrounding every street in the city. Wagons of dirt were brought in, the level of the streets were all raised 12’, new wooden sidewalks were built, first floors became basements, second floors became first floors and new doors were put in. Since the retaining walls were under the streets, there will still empty spaces between some of the buildings and the retaining walls. If you weren’t careful when you walked around the raised city, you would go off the edge and be 12’ lower. Eventually the residents built arches from their buildings to the retaining walls and put plank sidewalks over these archways and the unfinished holes were covered up. There is at least one café in town that is open to the street but the dining is on the bottom floor, 12’ below the street level. It is great because you can really see how it all was done…

In addition to the flood of 1852, there was also a fire that burned down most of the city. The original structures had been built of wood and canvas (sometimes from ships that sailed up the river and then had no crew to sail back down the river because they all jumped ship to go to the gold mines!). The few brick buildings in town were just fine, so everyone rebuilt with brick or stucco and used ingenious ideas for fireproof roofs. One building used brick and mortar, sand and metal to make their roof fireproof.

As an aside, parking here is exorbitant. You would think you were in New York City or Boston! The parking garage, which is very nice and very convenient, costs $1.25 per half-hour for the first 2 hours and then $1.00 per half hour after that – for a maximum daily charge of $13.00! Wow!

After the tour we went to the Railroad Museum. This is not a plain old railroad museum. It is devoted to the history of the Transcontinental Railroad and they do a great job of presenting the information! They have lots of big trains too, including a great setup of a dining car and sleeping car that actually rocks and has sound effects like you are really moving on the train!

Some interesting facts:

Standard time was started because the railroads had to have a set time to run. Agrarian time was normal with farmers getting up when it was light and going to bed when it was dark – whatever time that might be. But the railroads needed to have a more precise time. So, a signal was sent along the telegraph lines and at that precise moment every train station set their clock to 12 noon and that became the official time.

There were actually 2 golden spikes commissioned for the final spike for the Transcontinental Railroad and they were made to order for a friend of Leland Stanford. This has always been a mystery, but then a second spike was found in an attic and the rumor was confirmed. The friend had given the first spike to Stanford to take to the ceremony and it was hastily engraved with the date. The second spike was later engraved properly with the correct date. Since the anticipated date and the actually date were 2 days apart, the first spike was engraved at the site. The second spike was engraved later well after the actual event. There is a receipt showing the TWO spikes were made for the man’s order.

Crocker was one of the original businessmen involved in the project, but then he resigned so that he could be a contractor and make lots of money from the project during construction.

The railroad was operated like a monopoly and there were quite a few law suits against the Big Four for monopolistic practices. Nothing really ever happened…

We came home, got the mail, took care of it, watched Faith’s video of India, and went to sleep!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.694605491603.1219465318398&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0


Tuesday, June 24 – We started out the day at the Heidrick Ag Center looking at LOTS of old tractors and farm equipment and trucks. Quite a collection! The Fordson tractors were made by Ford & Son, who couldn’t use the Ford name because someone else was already making tractors using the Ford Tractor name…

We went to the Leland Stanford Museum but didn’t take the house tour. We read the information available, but this isn’t the best place we’ve been for information…

Then we drove a few blocks to the Sutter Fort. Now, that was well done.

John Sutter (who left Switzerland as Johann) moved to a city in Switzerland other than the home of his family and was unable to find good work since he wasn’t part of any guild or brotherhood in the new town. He married and had a child and then 4 more kids. He heard all the stories about America and left his wife and children in the care and sailed for America. He traveled around the United States, sold supplies in Missouri for a few years and eventually heard about California so headed there on a wagon train across the Oregon Trail. Every time he met a person of some importance, he would get a letter of introduction from them and use those letters of introduction to get loans to purchase supplies. When he got to Portland he tried to get a boat to San Francisco, but all of the boats were full. So he took a boat to Hawaii because people said you could get to San Francisco easily from Hawaii. He spent six months trying to get to San Francisco, but he spent that time getting more letters of introduction. When he did finally get to San Francisco he was able to use those letters to again get credit to purchase supplies. He decided that instead of digging with a shovel he would sell shovels! He got a land grant of about 50,000 acres from the Spanish on the condition that he was able to get 12 families to settle in his “town” and that he protect the Spanish empire from the encroaching Americans. Sutter “impressed” the Indians of the area and using the Indians and some laborers he brought with him from Hawaii he built the adobe Sutter’s Fort with 18’ high walls 3’thick. In 1841 he expanded his fort when he purchased the Russian Fort for $30,000 using a note that he never repaid. He dismantled the fort and brought the materials, livestock and equipment back to expand Sutter’s Fort. He wanted to establish his own trading post/city/kingdom and be the beneficent ruler of all of his people – and make money. His settlement was called New Helvetia. He raised sheep to spin wool to weave blankets to sell to every settler who needed one. He grew every kind of vegetable, raised cattle, planted wheat and started a mill to grind flour. In 1844 his son came over to help him run his business and was soon followed by Sutter’s wife and other 4 children. In 1846 the United States “acquired” California but Sutter had helped so many American immigrants that even though his fort was “Spanish” he was protected by America. Sutter used to give food and lodging to anyone who came by. He figured that they would buy their supplies from him and be customers as long as he treated them right. John Bidwell, who we were so impressed with in Chico, worked for Sutter as his right hand man for a couple of years. He was Sutter’s chief clerk and then handled the moving of the materials at Fort Ross to Sutter’s Fort.

In 1847 Sutter decided that lumber was in such demand he should have a saw mill. James Marshall had the same idea, but Sutter had the money and Marshall had the ability to do the work so they formed a partnership. On January 24, 1848, as James was checking the sluice to make sure that there was no silt in it, he found some nuggets of gold at the bottom. Marshall took the nuggets to Sutter’s Fort and closed the door to show them to Sutter. Sutter checked some books and found out how to test the nuggets to see if they were really gold – soft between your teeth, reacts in a certain way to an acid,… They determined that it WAS gold. They tried to swear all of the employees to secrecy, but the word leaked out and the gold rush was on.

All of Sutter’s employees, including John Bidwell, left him to go hunt for gold in the mine fields. Thousands of squatters swarmed over his fields destroying and stealing his crops and cattle. In three years Sutter was ruined. He spent the rest of his life trying to get either the state or the federal government to compensate him for the damage done to his lands. He died during a trip to Washington DC in 1880 never winning any compensation.

It is one of those kind of sad stories in American history. Sutter did so many things right and had so many good ideas and wasn’t afraid to do what it took to make things happen. Unfortunately, things just happened TO him that he couldn’t anticipate or change. Very interesting.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=384906752447_895013283603&collid=71978771503.457030891603.1219465318398&page=1&sort_order=1&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0

Wednesday, June 25 – We left Sacramento and drove all 53 miles to Vallejo! We will leave the motor home here while we drive to Los Angeles to get Rachel and Abby and also Brian.