 | The Southwest |
Part II -- California
Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and I agree(ed) on one thing: President James Polk should not have gone to war with Mexico in 1846. When I went to Utah, California, Arizona, and New Mexico in January, I should have required my passport to enter Mexico. Nonetheless, those "stolen states" have incredible natural beauty, so I enjoyed it, either it be Mexico or the United States. (But I still hope that we allow California to secede. If it doesn't, I'm for kicking them out of the Union. Wisconsin then can regain the leadership in milk production--and Wisconsin dairy farmers won't have to unfairly fight against the massive California herds that benefit from subsidized water coming from the Sierra Nevada. There, I got THAT off my chest!).
I visited two national parks in California: Death Valley NP and Joshua Tree NP, plus a couple of national monuments. I also drove for a ways on old Route 66 west of Needles--as I did in 1946 and 1961. Both its pavement and my body have aged approximately the same--but from different kinds of abuse.
Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and I agree(ed) on one thing: President James Polk should not have gone to war with Mexico in 1846. When I went to Utah, California, Arizona, and New Mexico in January, I should have required my passport to enter Mexico. Nonetheless, those "stolen states" have incredible natural beauty, so I enjoyed it, either it be Mexico or the United States. (But I still hope that we allow California to secede. If it doesn't, I'm for kicking them out of the Union. Wisconsin then can regain the leadership in milk production--and Wisconsin dairy farmers won't have to unfairly fight against the massive California herds that benefit from subsidized water coming from the Sierra Nevada. There, I got THAT off my chest!).
I visited two national parks in California: Death Valley NP and Joshua Tree NP, plus a couple of national monuments. I also drove for a ways on old Route 66 west of Needles--as I did in 1946 and 1961. Both its pavement and my body have aged approximately the same--but from different kinds of abuse.
Death Valley, looking west to its sand dunes
Boron salts, called borax, was mined in Death Valley in the 1880s
This is the lowest point in North America.
Zabriske Point in Death Valley, made famous by the 1970 movie
 It's pretty evident why it's called Death Valley |  Joshua Tree National Park |
Joshua Tree National Park
 Lots of cowboy movies of our youth seemed to have been filmed here. |  Octillo cactus |
 |  Even cacti eventually die. |
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