Far Far Away

I went to Ojai (or as my GPS says: Ojay) a lovely little town 

where I stayed in a much more bucolic park nearby.

Amanda flew out to LA to visit her friend Jessica, her new baby, 

Carter, and husband, Montrel. They live in Beverly Hills. So I went there. 

Here's Irv among all the other fancy rides on Rodeo Drive. There are a 

BMW, two Benzes and, almost hidden, a Bugatti. I like to 

think I brought a little class to the grim little lives of the Beverly Hillsians.

Here's a pregnant Rodeo Drive palm about to give birth.

I met Amanda and her friend in Santa Monica for lunch 

and then took a walk to the Santa Monica Pier.

They were filming a scene for something there.

And some pretty good busking going on. The sax player 

here is Carl Catron and these guys rocked!

Venice Beach is a short drive from Santa Monica so we went there too. 

This is the second time I've been to Venice and the second time I've 

been approached by a medical canabis card hawker. 

I'm not sure if I even qualify since I'm not a California 

resident. I think it was $50 for the card and then they'll dispense 

medicine right there too. One-stop existential pain management.

I'm pretty sure this guy was here the last time too.

There's always stuff going on in Venice. 

These guys were filming using a video drone.

The skateboard park is pretty amazing. Huge too.

Driving in LA is the worst! DC has bad traffic - some 

of the worst in the country - but LA is worse. DC is basically 

just a big bottleneck. LA has that but the drivers are nuts! 

Motorcyclists take advantage of the jam ups by driving between the cars. 

And when traffic does get up to speed, people are weaving in 

and out of lanes at high speeds, nobody wants to let you merge and 

road rage is rampant. I couldn't wait to get out. 

From there I went to Las Vegas to visit my friends, 

Joel and Deann. Again, Vegas is beautiful once you get out of Vegas.

Further on in California

Here's something I failed to post earlier. Something everyone 

should see. It's a showcase of beautiful grossness. 

Chewing Gum Alley in San Luis Obisbo. Yum!

A Halloween party in Pioneer Town.

And then to Joshua Tree National Park. I'm happy they reopened.

Sunrise at Jumbo Rocks.

Barker dam. You can see the old water line. 

Things have been dry.

Bird watching by the stream.

Cholla. The Jumping Cactus. Buggers jump right up on you. And hard to 

get off. Little barbs on the needles. They hate you.

California Adventures

This is a shot of Remington hot spring, on the Kern River near Lake Isabella. 

California has been in a drought for several years and the locals

I met call Isabella Lake Isabella Puddle. The hot spring, as you can see,

has water. It's a bit of a hike from the parking area, with an elevation 

change of 300 feet. But so worth it. I got there on a Saturday

and there was a very social scene going on, with a lot of people from

Los Angeles, which is a good three hours away. After the weekend, things

quieted down and I stayed there on BLM land for five nights.

From Remington I went to Morro Bay. I've been there several times before.

I'm always drawn to the two most iconic features of the landscape:

The haystack in the bay and the smokestacks on the shore.

This old art deco building is for sale.  

Wormz flew into LA for two weeks for The Ranch Party 2013 in 

Lancaster. (In Pennsylvania, it's pronounced lank'-es-ter. In California,

It's pronounced lan'-cast-er with the vowels drawn out a little more. Just fyi. 

I try to respect the local pronunciations.) Great party with lots of good music 

and food. I met a lot of people and made some new friends.

This guy was a crazy fire-spinner. He was flipping it all around 

and burned himself a little.

Then to King's Canyon and Sequoia parks. Huge, ancient trees everywhere 

you look. The Sherman tree is the most massive tree anywhere. The Peabody tree

is less well-known but important in regards to time-travel.  

This is the top of the General Sherman tree. The old sequoias are bare 

of limbs from the bottom up to a couple hundred feet up. Then there's 

this rather Bonzai looking affair up to the top.

King's Canyon.

Moro rock is huge. You can see some people at the top.

Sierra, in Spanish, means saw and mountain, and Nevada means snow-covered.

There's no snow in this picture but the name is apt. This is the view from Moro rock.

An eagle was soaring on the updrafts as the sun went down.

A most spectacular sunset.