What a Difference a Day Makes
Sometimes a day of travel takes us to something so different that it's a culture shock. That's Lone Pine to Hemet. After parking here yesterday we had a glass of wine and commented that it's amazing and wonderful...how we can change our environment so quickly.
I'm so glad we stopped in Lone Pine. We could have explored the area for a few more days. A reader suggested visiting Manzanar, where thousands of Japanese were interned during WWII. We planned to go there but ran out of time after our Whitney Portal adventure. The east side of the Sierras are so close and personal in Lone Pine. I'm glad to see the area looking more prosperous than 4 years ago.
The trip to Hemet is 220 miles. Mostly it's very good road on US395 but the last 50 miles or so before hitting I15 is a narrow, ripply, truck-filled harrowing experience. Then we hit the 15 just before the Cajon Pass which is always a fun, roller-coaster ride.
I did catch an interesting photo. We've never seen a "runaway truck ramp" put to use until now. Excuse the blurry photo taken as we bumped along the freeway at 60 mph. The truck was smoking and still moving forward in the loose gravel as I took this shot.
This is the reality of coming down into the Los Angeles basin--crowded freeways and hazy, dirty air. This truck ramp is near the end of a 6% four-mile curving grade. I'm soooo glad Jim was driving. He does great! I have driven in many situations but this would not be my choice. One of these days I'll have to face the music!
Now we are back at Golden Village Palms in our same old space. We'll be here for 5 weeks with lots of appointments and family time. And of course we have our list of things we'll do "once we get to Hemet," That's a running joke with us. We think about something that needs to be done but we're kind of lazy so we look at each other and say "we'll do that when we get to Hemet." Well we're here!