On the way to Los Angeles we stopped over night first in Quartzite where we shopped for a solar setup for our coach. Then we moved on to an Elks Lodge in Beaumont-Banning CA. On the way we stopped at Chiriaco Summit on I 10. We have driven by innumerable times and even stopped for fuel and lunch. We had noted a collection of old tanks (the military kind) and a sign declaring this to be the General George Patton Museum. We had time and decided to spend some of it in the museum ($4.50 for Seniors). It is certainly a revelation and somehow tied into our previous history stop. It turns out that just out of West Point Patton, then a Lieutenant accompanied Black Jack Pershing on his raid into Mexico tracking down Pancho Villas after his raid into the US (see previous post). The museum is on the edge of the site of the Desert Training Center created by Patton to prepare for the war in North Africa. My father was stationed in Banning, not far down the road and I suspect he had some training time in this locale. Also there is a modern Desert Warfare Center that may even encompass some of the original land where our son Dan spent some miserable training time during his time in the service.
After a stay at the Elks Lodge in Beaumont we moved on across to the Los Angeles Basin and our reservation at Dockweiler RV Park. We had secured five nights in the back row (of three) furthest from the beach. Through President’s Day the place was fairly full. Last night we returned after dinner to find our coach surrounded by empty slots and tonight there may be 6 or seven RVs in the 117 spaces.
For entertainment we went to see the Endeavor at the LA Science Museum. This is not to be missed. It comes on top of our recent visit to the Houston Space Center Control Room and it is very well set up even though they have not completed the permanent exhibit space. The volunteer docent we ran into was full of information not included in the signs and was anxious to tell us everything we might want to know. We also took in the 3D Imax movie Hubble which was well worth it. Combining 3D and Imax is really mind blowing.
Sunday night Tal had a sleep over with a friend and Miriam, Yechiel, Carol and I went out to dinner, Thai, dairy, Kosher of course. Afterwards, Yechiel suggested we look into the music scene on Sunset. It appeared to be crowded and noisy. We walked through the scene for an hour or so and finally stopped at Mirabelle for cocktails before calling it a night.
As I write there is a storm blowing around us. We may have to deal with strong winds on the road tomorrow. I do hope they blow themselves out before we get into the desert. We are one those “high profile vehicles” that these warning are for. And we have ventured into high winds in the past to our discomfort.