Roadtrip USA

Days 99-105

Welcome to

What's next? 
Home at last!
After 3-1/2 months on the road and now only a day's drive from Fair Oaks.  Crossing the California border intensified our longing to be home and to see our family.   Palm Desert, Simi Valley, and Gilroy all would bring visits with family as we made our way home.
Palm Desert provides 95% of the date crops in the U.S.  We visited two date farms:  Shields and Oasis.  A movie "Romance and Sex of the date" plays at Shields, explains that only one male tree is needed for every 49 female trees, yet polination still needs to be done by hand.  A labor intensive process.
Crops, date trees, and the mountains that surround Palm Desert.  
Bags protect the dates from rain. 
Jenny at the Salton Sea.  See the mountains?  They are there, but you can't see them because the sky is thick with dust from hundreds of ATV's 25 miles south of this beach
The sea is shrinking and there is a plan to build berms around it once it is really low so that it can crust over much like you see in Death Valley.
Migratory birds congregate at the Salton Sea. 
In the San Gabriel mountains, we took a hike to Bonita Falls.  This hike was well marked by grafitti on rocks.  We've never seen so much grafitti on a nature hike.  Maybe gangs see it as a form of tribal art?
"Tribal art" at Bonita Falls.  Glad we had the place to ourselves.  I'd rather not bump into the artists here off the beaten path.
The creek and river beds were dry when we arrived to Lytle Creek.  A good rain filled them overnight.
Lytle Creek RV park.  Tucked among 7,000 ft peaks, sitting in the jacuzzi, we could have been in the alps!
Here at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, you can walk through the original Air Force One, which was retired just before Sept 11, 2001,, used by seven of our presidents and flown for 28 years.
Statue of President Reagan greets you at the Reagan Library.  .
Mr. Gorbachav,
"Tear down those walls."
President Reagan
A piece of the Berlin Wall sits at the Reagan Library.
A very Happy Thanksgiving was celebrated with Jenny's cousin Vern, Eileen, and family in Simi Valley.
For a complete biographical look at Ronald Reagan including his acting career, governorship of California, marriage to actress Nancy, life on the ranch in Southern Cal, this place has it all.   
No clear trail through the rockfield, but just follow the grafitti covered rocks to get to Bonita Falls.
Fire swept through this area
Beautiful Bonita Falls
Southern California
Nov. 23-30,2008