CALIFORNIA DURING MONTH OF MAY

Landed in Northern CA at my son's home. Will be here with family (includes my 2 wonderful grandchildren) pretty much through May. Of course Jon and I have that wonderful trip to Ireland from the 12th until the 20th. So look for more travel shares during and after Ireland. STAY TUNED.

LAST COUPLE DAYS IN BISHOP CALIFORNIA

So I'm here in Bishop just winding down. Did some pragmatics in preparation for going to my son's on Sunday. Taking out what I don't want to

Leave in the trailer as I'm going to store it for a month. Will be staying with him and then going to Ireland with him and returning back to California. This is been a lovely visit and I do believe I will return here sometime in the future. I got to drive about 30 miles north and west trying to get to one of their Lakes to just have a scenic view however the road was closed at a certain point. I was up in the snow and took a few pics. Was nice and crisp and this guy was strikingly blue.

PICS OF BIsHOP AREA INCLUDING ART GALLERY, INDIAN MUSEUM, AND FILM MUSEUM

BISHOP CA WITH A VISIT TO LONE PINE CA FILM MUSEUM

This is definitely a lovely area and the weather just keeps improving. I decided to stay a whole week here before heading to my son's in Santa Rosa California. It's a casual comfortable little town. I did do some window-shopping and stopped by a very beautiful gallery of photographs by a famous photographer of this area, Galen Rowell who tragically died , along with his wife, in a plane crash about 10 years ago. It's called Mountain Light gallery.. He is the master of capturing the light in all of his pictures. It's hard to believe that he didn't do something to enhance them. What a persevering and visionary artist. Apparently his children manage his art display and sale. I will include one picture from a brochure. Also, I got to stop by the local Indian museum.  It was very well displayed and much of their customs, artifax, and history were available.  Today I drove over 50 miles back to Lone Pine California to look at this famous film history museum. It was quite a display of memorabilia. They were costumes, props, posters and much written information regarding the famous stars and movies that were filmed in this region of the country. I took some pictures and got a few printouts but I saw lots of pictures of Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, John Wayne and The Lone Ranger to name a few. The amazing part also is that some science fiction movies like Tremors was filmed in that region as well as one of the Star Wars movies. One are the most significant things that I read today, however, was a statement from the movie company that acknowledge the era that some of the movies made representing Arabs as bad or enemies of the heroin or heroes in the movies. They realized that at that time no one was thinking of the long-term impact towards cultural negativity that it supported. I will include a copy of that picture of the writing for you to see. Anyway, I'm spending time and I still plan to try to do a little bit of sightseeing up at the Lakes. I'm basically really enjoying living a slow pace and visiting with some of the neighboring RVers who come and go here.

PICS ON THE WAY AND IN BISHOP CA

BISHOP, CA

Yesterday I left Twentynine Palms and drove up to Bishop California which is up in the mountains in the Sierras. The whole drive was absolutely beautiful and views of snow-capped mountains and rugged terrain we're mesmerizing and meditative during my 300 mile drive. I'm staying at a park with a view of the mountains. It also butts up against an absolutely beautiful Golf Course for golf enthusiasts. I was able to take a 2 mile walk this morning down a beautiful country road and even got to communec  a little bit with the local cows. There is a babbling Creek, that is probably from the runoff,  that parallels the road and makes a very pleasant sound. I'm definitely a creek and Mountain Spirit. It gives me the most peace and inspiration. I'll include some of the pictures in the next post. This area also has a hot springs which I hope to get to today or tomorrow. The town itself is quite quaint and inviting to go just browse around and visit the local Mercantile. I'm sure I'll have more to report on this area.

29 PALMS, CA

The pics are of  Dad/ Mike and son's, Jake and Sam


Took the back way, so to speak, from Black Canyon City Arizona to 29 Palms California. My GPS took me on open highways but not I-10.   It's a good thing I went ahead and filled up with gas Midway on my trip as I didn't see another gas station till I got to my destination. Always something to think about when you're picking these wonderful routes that aren't on the main drag necessarily. I spent some time with my niece Marisa and her two sons, Jake and Sam. Dad, Mike, is in the Marine Corps and is presently stationed there. The family set up for those living on base,   seems to be quite a complete set up.   But this part of Southern California is still very dry and mostly desert. I think I've had my fill of dry, desert like climate. I'm going to be here through Sunday and leave to go north into Northern California.  Going north, I look forward to more of the national forest. May even get to Yosemite. I picked a Town rather Central to quite a bit of that scenery and hope to also visit some of the hot springs. I'm going to include a few pictures of my beautiful family. I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to spend time with them. Kids grow up so fast and before you know it they're off to college. That's how I'm feeling about my grandchildren too. I will be seeing them sometime towards the end of next week or the beginning of the following week.

PICS OF SEDONA, MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE AND MONTEZUMA'S WELL