Thursday, June 30, 2005

Retirement Reunion

Don headed up to Palo Alto for a Thursday luncheon. Don retired one year ago today. Several of us retired about the same time. We had a nice BarBQ with our former co-workers. I managed to bring my camera and forgot to take any pictures, I hate that! It's nice to find out how things are going and see old friends and co-workers, but, I don't miss working at all.
Lou and Dawn remained in Bakersfield. Yesterday we had new vinyl flooring installed and today they were doing the carpet. We intend to sell the house now and it's now ready.


The backyard at Wilton was looking good. I (Don) haven't seen it for a few weeks. There is a Dove nesting in Lou's Pottery shed. Fortunately, my using the table saw nearby didn't bother her much.

Above, pictures of Hwy 58 between Bakersfield and Santa Margarita. I don't remember the last time I was on this section of Hwy 58, I usually take Hwy 46 from Paso Robles to Bakersfield. The traffic was heavy on Hwy 101 and I thought it would be bad on Hwy 46 as well. I took the path less traveled, Hwy 58. It was a very nice drive. On the right above are some white puff ball "flowers". The area was still green for the first 30 miles east of Hwy 101 then became drier and treeless after California Valley.

Tut Visit

We had tickets for the King Tut Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (http://www.kingtut.org/) for Tuesday at 7pm. We left in the morning from Bakersfield for LA and went to the Farmers market.

Above, the fountain at the Grove Shopping Center. On the right,the Farmers Market in LA. We ended up at the Grove shopping center, and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, we couldn't wait. We then found the Farmers Market at the other end of the Grove. We looked around, rode on a trolley that goes along the street through the center of the shops. We generally wasted the rest of the day waiting for our entrance time. We went to the museum at the appointed time.
We were looking at everything and at a little after 8pm, we were half way through the galleries, they started rushing people toward the exit because they were closing at 8:15. No where was the closing time provided and a 7pm entrance obviously doesn't provide enough time to see the exhibit in a little over an hour. We, and all the other people we heard muttering, were a bit upset about the bums rush. We asked to speak to the manager and were a bit supprised to find out that none of the dozen or so employees we asked knew of one. Eventually one knew of a binder to look in, contacted the manager and a lady came down. She offered tickets to see the exhibit again. Of course we'll have to come down to LA again. It's a 2 hr drive from Bakersfield and 7 hour drive from Palo Alto either of which will be a bit inconvienient. It may not matter anyway because she hasn't responded to the email she requested we send yet. The topper is that, we were rushed out so they could clear the museum for a private showing. Cute!!
Dawn is very interested in all sorts of things including Tut. She's an Anthropology major. However my recommendation is, don't bother to see Tut.
No pictures of Tut, cameras not allowed in the museum. I'll get some pictures of the grove up later.

After the museum we went over to UCLA nearby to see some of Dawn's friends. Dawn and Courtney were neighbors in San Jose and Palo Alto and went to school with our daughter Dawn. They have an apartment across the street from the university. We took a stroll around the campus. Above are a couple of shots of the nice buildings on the UCLA campus. We had a nice visit and headed home.

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Fathers Day

Still in Bakersfield. Lou and Dawn have returned here. Work on the house is proceeding.
Today was a Sunday Drive Day. We took a drive out Round Mountain Road past Hart Park on the North Side of the Kern River. On through all the oil fields and dry hills that are Round Mountain Road.

We then took Granite Road to Hwy 155. Hwy 155 becomes oak forested then redwood and pine dense forest as you eventually reach the summit at 7100 feet.


There were lots of flowers along the road. We stopped for lunch overlooking the canyon near Woody.

We took a walk at Deuel campground near the top.

We then went down into Woffard Heights by Lake Isabella and down the Kern Canyon on Hwy 178 back to Bakersfield.



Lou and Dawn took Don to dinner at Carrow's and we took an after dinner walk along the Kern River Parkway at Truxton by the ponds just before sunset. Lots of bunnies scampering out of the way ahead of us on the trail. Birds were saying good night to each other. A nice moon lite return walk to the car.

Some pictures of the house where we're staying.

Thursday, June 9, 2005

Hart Park

Today, I found it necessary to not work. I cleaned up some paperwork spread around the RV and made a few calls to straighten out improper billing for some services. The time was flying by so I hurried over the to RV Peddler, an RV dealer just North of where I'm staying in Bakersfield. They have a dealership in Yuma, Az and bring their stuff up here when it gets too hot there. They're trying to sell all the trade-ins and left over new RVs from there. They had a nice 02 National Tradewind but I'm just looking for now, ...just looking for now!
I woke up the RV and took it to Camping World to get LPG and to dump the holding tanks. I also got gas. I didn't want to wait too long. Prices have been down to $2.21/gallon for the past week and I don't want to miss out. I did miss a little, it started up and was $2.23 today. Two weeks ago when I filled up it was $2.39.
Since the RV was rolling, I went out to Hart Park for the evening. Hart Park is an old County Park Northeast of town. It's along the Kern River and has lots of ponds of it's own. The ducks seem to enjoy it a lot.

The water is very still on the lake and there is a good reflection.

Ducks all in a row! On the right above is the creek that drains from the lake in the park.

Intresting Palms and on the right, a view down the Kern River.

Sunday, June 5, 2005

More Bakersfield

Lou and Dawn returned from Yosemite to Palo Alto, myself to Bakersfield. Bakersfield is OK, but Yosemite was nicer. More work to do on the house when i can get through my procrastination.
My Brother Ernie came through town Thursday evening. We went out to dinner with our Uncle Doug and Aunt Helen. As Ernie came back through town again Friday we had dinner again. His two dogs Wolfie and Walter enjoyed a romp in the yard before they left.
Saturday I stopped by Doug and Helen's again to see cousin Marijane and family visiting from Barstow.
Tonight, Sunday, there was nothing worthwhile on TV so I searched for old radio shows on the Internet. I found Radiolovers.com. It has a lot of free radio shows. I like free! I listened to some shorts from Boris Karloff and a Roy Rogers show. Quite interesting. I'll be exploring this site more in the future.
I like radio!