Craggy Wash

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We left the free Government Wash dispersed campground at Lake Mead National Recreation Area and will be spending tonight in a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) free camping area just north of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.   They refer to it as “dispersed camping” as there are no actual designated camp sites, you just drive in and park wherever you like.  There are loads of these places in the southwest desert, and most are free!!  Love that.  Most here in Craggy Wash are in RV’s, however, there are a few tents and a few other vehicles.
Craggy Wash
Oh yeah, we’re in Arizona now… and lost an hour when we left Pacific Time Zone and entered Mountain Time.
We haven’t decided yet how long we will stay here.
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Freemont Street and More

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
The other years we were to Las Vegas we visited “the strip” but never did get to Freemont Street Experience, which is pretty cool too.  On our way there we stopped to take a picture of a crazy building.
Cleveland Clinic
Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
(crazy!)
We did not eat at the Heart Attack Grill, but saw it from the outside.  See the ambulance sitting out front?  The customers all wear hospital gowns while they eat.  The menu us scary!
Heart Attack Grill
over 350 lbs eats free
“Come Party in the Pint”
World’s Largest Pint Glass
Hennessey’s Tavern
Under the Canopy
Spock!
Mini Elvis!
And so much more.
That was last night.  
Today we drove around the Lake Mead area and explored a very nice marina.  You can rent houseboats here.  It’s been too cold and too windy, so they weren’t doing much business today.
Houseboat rentals
Big horn sheep watching us.
 We walked an old railroad bed trail that took us where the train used to deliver supplies to the Hoover Dam.  It’s a three mile trail which takes you around the mountains and through five tunnels and by some beautiful scenery overlooking Lake Mead.
Old Railroad Tunnel
 I had to stop and take a picture of this fence that lines both sides of the roads in the Lake Mead area.  It’s only two feet high, so we were curious as to it’s purpose.  It’s to keep the desert turtles off the roads.
Turtle Fence
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Hoover Dam & New Bridge

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We were at the Hoover Dam about three years ago.  It’s changed, as the new bridge, nearly 900 feet above the Colorado River, is now completed.  Just like the dam, the bridge’s mid-point is the border between Arizona and Nevada, as well as the time line between Mountain Time and Pacific Time.  If you want to see the bridge and the dam up close, you must exit the highway and pass through a security checkpoint first.  There is a free parking lot near the bridge where you can park and walk up 69 steps to the pedestrian walkway that runs the entire length of the bridge.  We did this, and walked all the way across and back.
Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
(Colorado River Bridge)
This is the highest and longest arched concrete bridge in the Western Hemisphere.  The second-highest bridge of any kind in the United States and the 14th in the world.  The world’s tallest concrete columns of their kind.  It was pretty impressive.
Hoover Dam & Shadow of Bridge
 Next, down to the dam.  There is a new parking garage and visitor center now too.  We paid $7 to park, but when they said they wanted $8 to enter the visitor center we said no.  Guided tours are from $11 to $30, and we said no to that too.  But the gift shop was open at no charge!  That’s where you can buy dam souvenirs and dam tshirts and dam hats.  And we could walk around the area and take pictures.  There were several monuments, plaques, and memorials on the grounds, and we were able to walk across the dam.  You can still drive across the dam after going through the security checkpoint.   It occurred to us too late that on the Arizona side there was free parking available.
Dam High Scaler Monument 
View from Hoover Dam
After the dam visit and taking some dam pictures we went to Target in Las Vegas for supplies.  I see the sales tax here is 8.1%. 

8.1% sales tax

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Lake Mead National Recreation Area

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Where to next?  Hmm…  We’ve been to Las Vegas a few times before so that was not at the top of our list.  After mulling it over a bit we decided to head to the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  It was closer than we thought, just under an hour to get to our new spot.
While there are actual RV parks/campgrounds in the area we decided on this free area on the shore of Lake Mead, designated as “dispersed camping”.   We’ll probably be here a few days and drive around to see the sights.
Government Wash 

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Pahrump and Shoshone

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We’re in Pahrump, Nevada, a small town just across the CA/NV border, close to Las Vegas, filled with RV Parks, Casinos, and Strip Clubs.   We’re staying at Terrible’s Lakeside Casino RV Resort for a few nights.
Our field trip today was to the even smaller town of Shoshone,California, about 20 miles away.  It’s another old mining town trying to promote it’s historic value.  Our first stop was at the Shoshone Museum/Visitor Center–open every day of the week except Tuesday (today).  This used to be the general store and gas station around 1920. Out front were some old gas pumps showing the price of $.44 per gallon, and an old Chevy with 1937 license plates.  They say they have skeletal remains of a mammoth in there.
Shoshone Museum and Visitor Center
 Since the Visitor Center was closed we walked next door to the Crowbar Cafe & Saloon for a sack.  The waitress gave us a paper showing the walking tour points of interest.
Drilling Contests were a popular part of the old “Amargosa Days.”  Miners competed in “jackleg” drilling contests by drilling holes for dynamite in these rocks.  There were a few of these around town.
Rock with Drill Holes
The most interesting thing, and what drew us to this town, were the Dublin Caves.  During the 1900’s through the 1960’s many people famous in the history of Death Valley, including Death Valley Scotty, carved out dwellings in the clay embankments.  Some caves have split levels, stovepipes, and garages.  No one has lived in “Dublin Gulch” since 1970.
Some of the cave homes in Dublin Gulch
Then back to Pahrump for the rest of the day.
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Death Valley

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
On the way to Death Valley we drove through this big valley.  No other vehicles, just us, and two Air Force jets frolicking at low altitudes.  One of them buzzed over us and nearly knocked me out of my chair.  I got my camera ready in case he did it again, and sure enough, he did.  Probably using us for fake target practice.
Death Valley is awesome.  There was no Internet service, or cell phone service, or TV, for the days we were there.  It was rough, but we managed.  Oh, there is so much to see and do there, a lot of driving, but lots to see.  And we did not see everything.  You really need a high profile, 4-wheel drive vehicle with tire chains, and at least a week to see it all.
We checked into our campground, only $6 a night for us… awesome.  We love not spending big money.  Of course, there was no electricity, or any other hook ups but we didn’t mind that at all.
Stovepipe Wells Campground
The first thing we went to see was the nearby sand dunes.  We walked around for a few hours, it was cool.  There are other areas with more dunes, but these were close by.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Later, we drove up to see Scotty’s Castle.  It was a private residence built in the 1920’s, now open for tours.  The castle is interesting in itself, as it seems out of place in the middle of nowhere.  There is a strange and colorful story of how it came to be there, involving a con man, “Death Valley Scotty,” who did not own the castle, and a Chicago millionaire, who became lifelong friends. I want to keep this blog a reasonable length, so you can read about it by clicking [here]
Scotty’s Castle
 Behind the castle is what used to be a solar water heater.  Pretty high tech for 1920’s.
Solar Water Heater
 Ubehebe Crater is a steam-explosion crater, created when water suddenly flashed to steam.  Half mile wide and 500 feet deep.
Ubehebe Crater
 Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level.  Death Valley is one of the hottest places on earth, often reaching  daytime temps of 120F/49C and night times and many nights don’t drop below 100F/38C.  It’s also the driest place in North America, getting less than two inches of rainfall a year.
Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level.
This area used to be a big lake, but has dried up and left nearly pure white salt crystal crust.  We walked out and around the salt flats.  It goes on for miles.
Salt Flats at Badwater Basin
 We hiked a lot in our time here.  Death Valley has many fascinating hiking trails.  Natural Bridge Canyon was one of our favorites.  Lots of different geographical curiosities.
Natural Bridge Canyon
Devil’s Golf Course–gnarled crystalline salt spires that look like a coral reef, remains of the last significant lake here, which evaporated 2,000 years ago.  There is no hiking trail, but you can walk about, but rather difficult, so we didn’t walk far.
Devil’s Golf Course
There are loads of minerals in the hills here.  Artist’s Drive is a nine-mile drive that takes you in and around where the views are spectacular.  One stop along the way was particularly colorful.
Artist’s Palette
Mosaic Canyon was a fascinating hike.  There were polished marble walls, it was beautiful.  And, of course, I forgot my camera!  So Bernie took the pics with his little flip phone.  Good thing, or we would have had to drive back to the RV to get mine!  The pics are ok, but missing some color.
Mosaic Canyon
Borax has a huge presence here.  Prospectors found borax in 1881, and the Harmony Borax Works began to process ore in 1883.  They used 20-mule teams to haul borax 165 miles to the railroad town of Mojave.  The teams averaged two miles an hour and took about 10 days to get there.  There is a museum here that has loads of information and artifacts from that time period.
20 Mule Team Wagon Train
The mule team wagon train was eventually replaced by a steam tractor and new ore wagons which in turn were replaced by a railroad.
Old Dinah
Steam Train
Gas is very expensive inside Death Valley National Park.  Average prices in California were more like $3.85, we were shocked to see this here.  Remember, if you go there, fill up first!
OMG!
We only saw about half of what Death Valley has to offer.  There are many miles of back roads, many sights to see that can only be reached by the back roads, and hiking beyond that.  Our little Saturn car was not up to the task.  You can rent a jeep for a small fortune, but we thought we should move on.  Hopefully, we will return some day to see more cool stuff.
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Death Valley

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

Heading to Death Valley today. It’s pretty remote, so if you don’t hear from me in a few days that’s why.

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Back to Bakersfield

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

I think we’ve gone about as far north as we’re going to go this winter.  California has more things to see and do, but we’ll save those for next time.  We drove back to Bakersfield for tonight, staying in a different Walmart than we did last time.  It’s early yet, but so far there are seven other RVs in the lot with us.  It’s looking like a mini RV park.

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Raisins and Big Trees

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
The RV park we are in is just across the street from the Sun-Maid Raisins processing plant.  So, naturally, we had to go see.  They have a very nice store next to the office.  We saw a little video and made some purchases.  Most of the grapes grown in this area are for raisins, not wine.  This part of California claims to be the raisin capitol of the world.
Sun-Maid Headquarters
The grapes are picked in September,
and left to “sun dry”
for two to three weeks.
 A few miles away you can find the World’s Largest California Dancing Raisin in the lobby of the Spike & Rail restaurant in Selma, California.  We went for a late breakfast.  Nice place, good food.
Worlds Largest California Dancing Raisin
 Next, on to see some big trees.  Today we went in to Sequoia National Park at a different entrance.  There are still closed roads, so we couldn’t see everything we wanted to see, but we were able to see some of the big Sequoia trees. 
I spotted these in a hallway at the Visitor Center.
 We are in the snow again.  At an elevation of around 6,000 feet.  My goodness, there are some big tees here!  You have to see them to really appreciate the size, photos just don’t do it.
Trees dwarf the camper below.
Please stay on the trail. 😦
Bernie inside a fallen Sequoia tree.
See the tiny human sneaking up to the tree?  
Grant Tree is the second largest tree in the world.
We were unable to see the largest one because
of the closed roads.
Awesome views at 7,000 feet
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Sequoia National Park

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We knew visiting Sequoia National Park would be risky when we came this way, but thought we would take our chances anyway.  It was a bit of a drive from our RV to the entrance to the park but that’s ok.  The drive there was nice, lined with orchards of oranges almost all the way, and we enjoyed the view of the mountains of Sequoia National Park in the distance.
The morning drive
There are not a lot of roads in the park and the ones that are there are narrow winding mountain roads.  We learned that there was road construction about 15 miles in and beyond that it is required to have chains on your car tires because of snow in the higher elevations.  This is something that can change daily, so perhaps tomorrow or the next day we can go without the chains.  We were not interested in doing the tire chains thing so we just drove up to where the construction began and parked there and hiked around.  The weather was cool, but not too bad for a hike. We walked down a road that led to a campground that was closed for the season, so there was no traffic allowed on it.  
  
Bernie thinks he can do some rock climbing.
There were some nice views.
Tunnel Rock is a huge granite boulder beneath which the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps – a public work relief program during the Great Depression) dug a tunnel for the roadway in 1938.  The road now bypasses the “tunnel” but visitors can walk beneath it.
Tunnel Rock
On the way back to the RV we chose to take the back roads.  We drove past miles of groves of oranges and plums and olives and lemons and grapefruits, stopping to take a picture of the blooming trees.
Trees in bloom (Almonds?)
We did not see a Sequoia tree.
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Kingsburg, CA

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Before we left Bakersfield we went to get a picture of this shoe-shaped shoe repair shop.  It was built in 1947.  It’s had a few owners over time, but you can still get your shoes fixed here.
Big Shoe Repair
We went 90 miles north to a Passport America RV park not too far from the entrances to Sequoia National Park.  We’ll go check that out tomorrow.  After we got settled we drove to the nearby town of Kingsburg.  To keep up with the town’s Swedish history they have most retail businesses designed in Swedish architecture.  They even have a Swedish coffee pot water tower.
Kingsburg, CA
 The drive to Kingsburg was mainly flat agriculture land.  We saw many fields of grape vines, oranges, nectarines, peaches, cherries, walnuts, pistachios, almonds.  They signed the fields!!  I loved that!  Also, Kingsburg is where the headquarters for Sunmaid Raisins is, perhaps we will explore that tomorrow before we go look at the big trees.
DelMonte
 Also nearby is a tourist stop, Bravo Cheese Shoppe.  The usual souvenir place with nuts and dried fruits, jams and jellies, etc. loads of antiques, and a restaurant, but with lots of character.  You can also look through a glass window and watch them make cheese in the next room, but not today (Sunday).  This is also California Dairy country, we did see several large animal factories, with thousands of milk cows.
Tree House at Bravo Farms
Bravo Farms
Hello
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20 Mule Team Borax

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Remember 20 Mule Team Borax?  On our way to Sequoia National Forest we went through a little town of Boron, CA, and saw this mining operation off in the desert.  We found out that it really is where borax is mined.  
Borax Mine
In the 1880’s the 20 mule teams used to haul borax from a mine in Death Valley to a railroad junction near this place.  Then in 1925 a huge deposit of borax was found here near the town of Boron.  Mining here replaced borax mining in Death Valley.
20 Mule Team
So there you have it, everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about 20 Mule Team Borax.
Gas is going up!  And the tricky signing…the big prices are the “cash only” price… but look down at the little sign and you see the credit/debit card prices are quite a bit higher.
$4.15 cash price
$4.25 credit card price
There is an In-n-Out Burger joint behind us.  Since the press made a big deal about Barack Obama eating there, and we saw Rachel Ray make her version of it on her TV cooking show, we thought we should go have a burger and see what we’ve been missing.
In-n-Out is a California chain, with a few stores in Arizona, Utah, and Texas.  The menu is very simple:  hamburger, cheeseburger, or double-double, as well as fries and beverages, that’s it.  They make a big deal about quality and freshness, nothing ever thawed, zapped or kept warm, they don’t have any freezers, microwaves or heat lamps.  100% pure American beef, without additives.
In-n-Out Burger
We splurged and shared one $1.90 hamburger.
Hamburger
We drove about 200 miles today, stopping for the night in a Walmart parking lot in Bakersfield, CA.
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Yucca Valley

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
It was nice having civilization and full hookups at the RV resort in Twentynine Palms but at $35 a night we thought we should move on.  Before we left we had a look around the town.  They have a lot of really nice murals on several of the downtown buildings.  This one is my favorite..it looked so real… a mural of a man painting a mural!  Love it!  Even the stone wall sections (see the bird?) on the left and on the right are part of the painting but look three dimensional, don’t they?

Mural of a man painting a mural
It is expensive in California.  Gas is around $4 here, while only around $3.39 at home.
$4.05 credit card  /  $3.95 cash price
And when you buy any beverage at the store they charge you a CRV (California Redemption Value) fee.  But you can get that back when you turn in your bottles and cans at a redemption center
Sales tax can be any where from 7.25% to 9.25%, the highest in the country.
CRV fee $1.20 (taxable!)
7.750% Sales Tax
We are parked in a Walmart lot in Yucca Valley tonight, only about 15 miles from where we were last night, but, hey, it’s free.  Tomorrow we will drive through more desert and mountains, no towns, to Sequoia National Park.  Don’t be surprised if there is no blog tomorrow, we may not have Internet or cell phone service for a while again.
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Joshua Tree National Park

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
The last few days we have been at Joshua Tree National Park.  We should have known we would not have Internet service, or TV, or cell phone service, so that’s why no blog from me for the last few days.  We saw and did so much and I took over 100 pictures the last few days, but this will be a condensed version.
Joshua Tree
This is a beautiful park, with desert, mountains, Joshua Tree forest, and spectacular views.  We did a lot of hiking to see geographical and historical sights.
Gold Mine

I wish the photographs could portray the awesomeness of what we saw. The picture below shows just a small portion of what we were looking at.  The haze in the valley is due to moisture, dust, and smog from Los Angeles.  This was a “clear” day.  If you look in the center of the picture, there is long ridge in the valley floor.  This is part of the San Andreas fault, the one that will probably break California off into the ocean some day, so they say.  1906 was the year of the big quake that did a lot of damage. We tried to drive down to see it closer, but there are no roads.  You can hire a jeep tour in Palm Springs if you want, but we didn’t.  
San Andreas Fault Line
Down in the desert, not in the park, near the Salton Sea, a man by the name of  Leonard Knight, who discovered God after a life-altering event in 1967, created Salvation Mountain.  He has been building and painting on this since 1985, and just recently moved into a care facility.  Up until now he had been living in his painted-up truck here at Salvation Mountain.  We had to go see it.  Very interesting.
Salvation Mountain

An art truck near by
A popular thing to do in the desert is to go off-road.  We met a caravan of 10 Volkswagen off-road vehicles.  What fun!  
Back to the campground.  It’s a beautiful place to camp, however, at the top of a mountain there are no services, no Internet, TV, electricity, water, or sewer dump, but for the $5 it cost us we didn’t complain.  The weather had been cool which was perfect for all the hikes we had been doing.  But then we woke up to all this snow in the morning.  
Snow in the morning!  
 We had to wait until the Park Service cleared and re-opened the roads before we could leave the mountain and then we moved to a RV park in the town of Twentynine Palms near the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.  It’s a bit warmer here, and now we have civilization again.
Twentynine Palms Resort
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, one of the first things we saw when we got to the park was this poster about the killer bees in the area.  Fortunately we did not see any.
Killer Bees Alert
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Snow!

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
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Joshua Tree National Park

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Marsha Brecht

No Internet, no TV, no cell phone service. Maybe no blog for a few days.

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Palm Springs

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Palm Springs is only 15 miles from the casino where we are so we drove the car over there to explore it.  This used to be a real hot spot for celebrities, but not so much any more.  Palm Springs has long been considered California’s ultimate desert playground for the gay and lesbian traveler.  The visitor center had a whole rack of brochures specifically for the LGBT community.  There are gay-owned bistros and restaurants and world-renowned LGBT events.  There are 25 gay and lesbian resorts and inns here.  Some are women only, some are men only, and many are clothing optional.
It’s not a big city.  We parked and walked up and down the main drive, it was very beautiful and there were several very nice restaurants and gift shops.  Celebrity stars are inlaid all along the sidewalks on both sides of the street.
Downtown Palm Springs
Downtown Palm Springs
We found a statue of Lucille Ball.  There should also be Sonny Bono and Gene Autry here, and probably some others but we did not find them.

I Love Lucy
One of the many celebrity stars.
Outside of town is the largest wind farm I have ever seen.  There were thousands of them!  There is a tour available for about $35.  Maybe next time. 
Wind Farm

The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was tempting.  This has the world’s largest rotating Tram cars

 and travels up over two and one half miles in just 10 minutes to Mt. San Jacinto State Park, elevation 8,516 feet.  We went to look and seriously considered it, but when we heard it was only 35 degrees up there and very windy and there was snow, and it would have been a one hour wait, we decided we would save the $70 it would have cost us to go up there.  Maybe next time.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

This is the parking lot.  The tram takes you up 2.5 miles to
the top of the farthest back mountain in the picture
elevation 8,516.
So, we headed back to the casino, only about 10 miles from the Tram.  About two miles into it the traffic just stopped!  OMG, we were stuck in that traffic for TWO HOURS.  There were no exits.  Most people were patient, but we saw no less than ten cars pull over to the bushes for a potty stop.  Some people try to move up in line by passing on the right shoulder which lead to some horn honking and gesturing by the law abiding drivers.
This is why we go potty before we leave.
Finally, we got onto the frontage road that goes to the casino, but that, too, was backed up. 

This lady pulled over to feed and water her horse.

As I’m blogging this, we can see the I-10 freeway in the distance, it has not improved, and we’ve been back for over two hours.  We learned traffic was backed up for 22 miles.  So glad we weren’t in it any more than we were.

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Dinosaurs and Outlets

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Up early this morning and out to explore the area.  Near here are some really big dinosaurs.  These have been around several years and have been in Coke commercials, rock videos, and in the film Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  There is a small museum in the bottom of the biggest one and you can climb steps up the inside and peer out little windows at the top.  It was closed when we got there, not sure if it’s because we were too early or some other reason.
Cabazon Dinosaurs
 The day started out sunny and cold and now we see the clouds are rolling in.  And with the clouds came the wind, it’s blowing us away.
Clouds rolling in behind the casino/resort.
Across the road from the casino is the Desert Hills Premium Outlets.  It has 130 stores and plans for 65 more to be added next year.  People come by the bus loads from LA to shop here.  It was still early morning when we got there so not many people around yet, but the buses were just beginning to arrive. We looked around and didn’t buy anything.
Desert Hills Premium Outlets
On the way back to the casino we had to stop at Hadley Fruit Orchards, a tourist attraction
along the freeway.  Inside we found the usual dried fruits and nuts, jellies, jams, candy, and pickled things you usually find in these kinds of places.  We left with a bit of sticker shock as we felt the prices were terribly high, and bought nothing.  But that didn’t stop the other people, who apparently have more money than we do and were filling up their carts and baskets.
Hadley Fruit Orchards
 All morning we haven’t spent any money, except for one cup of coffee at McDonald’s for Bernie.  We returned to the RV, freshened up, and waited for the casino free shuttle to come pick us up.  We still had our two $10 coupons for the buffet so for $2 each we ate there for lunch.  The restaurant was beautifully decorated and they had a huge assortment of food. However, I thought most of it was cold and bland.  Even the deserts were beautiful to look at but nothing to brag about.
Then we walked a couple laps around the slot machines and went outside to look at the pool area.  There wasn’t anyone there, probably because of the cold and the wind.
Pool
Back to the RV to hang out, watch TV and blog this.  It’s too cold and windy to do anything else.  Last night there must have been about 20 other RVs in the lot with us.  Many have left and more arrive.  There are some buses parked here with us too.  The casino has a few shuttle vans that cruise the different parking lots to bring people in and out and they have loads of security people cruising the lots as well.
The parking lot and mountains in the background.
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Return to Mt. Rubidoux Memorial Park

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
We enjoyed our walk on Mt. Rubidoux yesterday so much that we did it again this morning.  Yesterday we went around clockwise so today we went the other way to get a different view.  We did find a few things we missed.
Mt. Rubidoux Memorial Park
Awesome views on all sides.
We missed this plaque of Charles M. Loring yesterday.  This is the same Charles M. Loring that is largely credited with being the father of the Minneapolis park system.  He did live in Minneapolis, but would spend his winters in Riverside, California, where he was just as involved in community affairs as he was in Minnesota.
In honor of
Charles M. Loring
Tree Lover
and
Civic Enthusiast
Let dead names be eternalized by dead stones
Let living names by living shafts be known:
Plant thou a tree whose griefless leaves shall sing
Thy deed and thee, each fresh unfolding spring
Mt. Rubidoux
Atop this hill the outdoor Easter sunrise
service tradition began in 1909.  The founder
of Riverside viewed arid land soon to
become green.  It is named for Louis Rubidoux,
who raised cattle ande colonized around
it under Mexican and U.S. flags.  Upon it are
many shrines and monuments such as the
Peace Tower dedicated to Frank A. Miller
View from the cross. 
Peek!!!
Our Passport America discount has ended here, so we moved our tightwad selves about 30 miles eastward to Morongo Casino in Cabazon, California.  They have a large parking lot behind the casino just for RV’s and we can stay here for free.  
We went into the casino and signed up for their “Winners Club” and got $10 each in slot play and a $10 each coupon for the buffet.  This is one of the larger casinos we have been in this winter.  Turns out we have to spend money to get the $10 slot play.   After spending $46 and not seeing any sign of the “free money” we said forget that.  I hope we have better luck with the buffet coupons.
I guess our free parking spot isn’t so free after all.
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Mt. Rubidoux Memorial Park

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Marsha Brecht
Since we didn’t do anything yesterday we thought we should go for a walk today.  There is a big hill near us with a large cross at the top, we thought we would investigate.  Turns out it’s an awesome hiking trail, very popular with walkers, joggers, and moms pushing strollers, and people walking their dogs (it’s too bad that in spite of the efforts by the park people to provide several garbage cans and poo bag dispensers we still saw a lot of poo piles along the way).  
Frank A. Miller
Mt. Rubidoux Memorial Park 
This is supposed to be a “trail of shrines” leading to a long white cross honoring missionary Father Junipero Serra credited, by early developers anyway, for “the beginning of civilization in California.”

Looking down from the top to our RV park below.
It’s in the very center of the picture.
American Flag
The Cross
1.5 miles to the top and 1.5 miles back down.  It was 81 degrees (but it was a dry heat) an excellent day for a walk, and the trail was not too steep.  There are a few rewards for you when you get to the top, and American flag, the cross, and the Peace Tower and Friendship Bridge.  Frank Miller – the owner/creator of the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside, was a lifelong advocate for world peace and his friends constructed the distinct tower to honor him in 1925.
Peace With Justice For All Men
Anno Domini 1925
This bridge was built by
neighbors & friends of
Frank Augustus Miller
in recognition of his
constant labor in the
promotion of civic beauty,
community righteousness
and
world peace.
World Peace
During the
equestrian games
of the 10th Olympiad
Lt. Col. Shunzo Kido
turned aside from
the prize to save
his horse.
He heard the low voice
of mercy, not the loud
acclaim of glory.
1934
Erected by
Riverside Humane Socy.
Unveiled in the presence of
H.I.H. Prince Tsunenori Kaya
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