Molly's Graduation, Part 2

Graduation day. Lots of activity. I can't believe my little girl is a grown up and now on her way to college.

Clint Eastwood was there! His daughter Francesca (in the American flag heels) was in the graduating class.

Gabby, Rachel & Molly in Monterey after some sushi (day after graduation)

Molly's Graduation, Part 1

Next up -- the Monterey Peninsula. It took me a full year to get from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. What a long, strange trip it's been.

I am spending Memorial Day weekend at a quaint (and expensive!) RV park in Carmel. The reason? My daughter's high-school graduation!!

I used my trusty iPhone GPS app to direct me from Bakersfield to Carmel. I ended up driving 42 miles of non-stop S-curves along Carmel Valley Road. Very pretty ... and not too hilly, though the road was VERY narrow in spots.

I had a fun and busy day with my daughter. I went to pick her up at a friend's house, then we went hiking, ate some lunch (at the original Earthbound Farms location) and ran some errands.

My campsite in Carmel

The Carmel River (right behind my campsite)

Some pot-bellied pigs on the road leading to my campsite in Carmel. Buddha was interested but wouldn't get too close...

Molly!!!

At Garland Ranch Regional Park in Carmel Valley

Carmel River State Beach

The Salad Bowl of California

I left Show Low, AZ and drove the longest single stretch since I started this journey almost a year ago -- twelve hours of driving, through some really hot desert areas (Needles, CA). I spent a few days at an RV park a few miles south of Bakersfield, CA. It had been months since I had unlimited WiFi, so I downloaded a bunch of things that I've been putting off. It felt like I was parched and drinking from a fire hose.

I stopped for groceries at a small town not far from Bakersfield. Gas was $4.05 a gallon (it had been in the $3.60 range in Arizona). But the veggies and fruit choices were amazing. Everything was from California and inexpensive. I got a giant artichoke, a big bag of bing cherries, some peaches and a few other treats.

I was staying next to an old highway that isn't used much anymore. Big old trees lined the way. Very nice walking...

Staying Cool in Arizona

After fully enjoying the desert lifestyle in New Mexico, it was time to venture a little farther west. I had assumed that Arizona would already be way too hot to handle, and it is in the low-lying areas. But, I found a great park, the Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area, north of Show Low, Arizona. It is in a mountainous region and the altitude is 6300 feet. Very pleasant conditions! The hottest so far has been the upper 70's, though the next few days are going to be cooler. It is really nice to be among the tall, swaying ponderosa pine. Lost of green everywhere.

No bark scorpions to worry about here (too high in elevation) but there are plenty of diamondback rattlesnakes in the area.

This is some cool looking bark on a tree.

Very Large Array (Geeky Fun)

On my continued journey westwards (I am now in Arizona) I stopped by the Very Large Array in the middle of the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. The geek in me really enjoyed it. Super cool!

An official description of the VLA: "The Very Large Array (VLA), one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin 80 km (50 miles) miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (426.5 feet) in diameter."

For your amusement, here are some places the VLA appears in popular culture:

Movies

• The VLA is the setting for the beginning of the 1984 film 2010.
• For the 1997 film Contact, much of the outdoor footage was shot at the VLA site with the number of dishes visible on screen artificially increased by CGI, and the canyon depicted as being in the vicinity of the VLA is actually Canyon de Chelly in neighboring Arizona.
• It is also seen in the final scene of the alien-invasion film The Arrival
• There are two brief scenes in the 1998 film Armageddon, showing the VLA tracking the asteroid as it headed toward Earth.
• The array is seen at the beginning of Independence Day, when the alien invaders were initially detected by SETI at the VLA.
• In the 2009 science-fiction film Terminator Salvation, the VLA is the location of a Skynet facility. At the beginning of the film the site is attacked by Resistance forces.

Music

• New Jersey rock band Bon Jovi shot the music video for "Everyday", at the VLA and a "dish" can be seen on the cover of the album Bounce. Likewise Matt Harding can be seen dancing at this location in his second video.
• The cover for the Dire Straits album On The Night features the VLA.
• The cover art for the At the Drive-In album In/Casino/Out features the VLA.

Other

• The VLA featured prominently in Carl Sagan's 1980 documentary Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
• The VLA features in plans to save the world from satellites being pulled from orbit in the second volume of the comic book series G.I. Joe: America's Elite published by Devil's Due.
• The VLA could be visited in Auto Assault, a massively multiplayer online game that was set in post-apocalyptic America.

Some cows on the access road