DeeBee's Travel Blog 5

Day 5- Lone Pine, CA

Before I give you a report on our day, I must first disavow any responsibility for the selection of photos that accompany this posting. Don felt it was absolutely essential to share the beauty of his entree from last night with our readers, he was so emotionally involved with it. I suggested that he include a pic of my serving of Nutro Ultra Senior formula along with it for comparison, but he apparently couldn't follow my reasoning. Anyway, there it is.

We had a pretty low-key morning, a result, I believe, of over-indulgement last night. Don finally tore himself away from the computer, where he was bringing himself up to date on the comics pages, long enough to take me for a pleasant walk through the huge doggy area of the RV Park and back through the camping area, where I got to meet a few people. It wasn't until after noon that my two humans got their acts together and set out for an excursion. I finagled my way into the truck's cab again by pretending that the ramp was too steep for me today to get into the truck bed. Our first target was a rock that Geri had found through her iPhone research, supposedly located on Whitney Portal Road just a ways out of Lone Pine. We drove over half way to Whitney Portal without finding it, and finally turned around before embarking on the monstrous switchbacks that Don says lead to the road's end. But, on our return route, there it was! A huge boulder, embellished with paint to a monstrous visage. Don says he'll post a pic of it.

We headed north then toward the town of Independence, stopping for a visit to Manazanar, which was a place where they kept a lot of Japanese people during the last big war. Geri and Don both expressed some bad feelings about this place; Don was talking about how German and Italian soldiers who were prisoners of war were treated better in this country than were American citizens who were of Japanese ancestry. Made me glad that nobody has ever questioned my pedigree.

After a brief stop in Independence to get directions, we drove a bit further north to the road that took us to the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery. We've been to several of these, and I even got to tour one in Idaho a few years ago. And, fortunately, I was allowed to go along on the tour of this one! This hatchery is not in anything close to full scale operation these days, as it is run by some local volunteer people, who took it over when the State of California decided it didn't meet it's current regulations for hatcheries. It's a really lovely place, with a very attractive building constructed of native materials (mostly stone) back in the early 1900's. We toured the exhibits in the building, including the small-scale hatchery operation that the Volunteers are doing, and met a Jack Russell Terrier puppy (10 months old) who was doing the same. We all agreed that he was the calmest, most civil Jack Russell we had ever met. Very nice young fellow.

On our way out, the hostess at the front desk gave us a package of fish food to feed to the trout in the pond in front of the hatchery. When we got down to the pond, Don took a handful of the food and threw it into the water where a bunch of fish were gathered. They went into a feeding frenzy like I had never seen before! They were, like, coming out of the water to grab the food! I must admit, I freaked out. Had to back away from this. I thought they'd be coming after me next! And these were really big trout! I think Don wanted to take a couple of them home with him. When the fish food ran out, we adjourned to a nice picnic area, where I was able to do some very manly rolling in some first-rate grass.

Returning to Independence, Don insisted on paying a visit to one of his favorite small museums, the Eastern California Museum. He was pleased to see that they had added some square footage to the building, with a very nice addition structure. I had to wait for them in the picnic area next to the building, but I didn't mind; it was grassy and shaded, so I was very comfortable. Don particularly likes the exhibits they have that show how the Japanese-Americans made the best of their confinement at Manzanar, and how well they depict the early history of the Owens Valley. Geri appreciates the museum too, but says it's really too much information.

After the museum, we headed back to Boulder Creek and the rig. Shortly after we were back aboard the coach, Geri and I went for a stroll through the Park, and returned to find our neighbors breaking camp to relocate to another site. They were experiencing high voltages on their power, enough to fry their electronic equipment. Don checked our voltage, and found it to be normal, but there were others who were evacuating other sites nearby. Sometimes we get lucky.

Dinner was a mishmash of leftovers for them, my splendid Nutro Ultra Senior for me. But I did get some nice leftover dishes. No complaints. See ya manyana!