7am wake-up call — the advantage of having a Lodge connected to the condo units!
8am sales presentation (a.k.a. Owner Update) for three $25 AMEX gift cards (use before 11/07).
9am breakfast of scrambled eggs.
9:30am — on the road to the Lava Beds National Monument.
Stopped in Tulelake — home to a WWII era concentration camp for Japanese who didn’t sign the pledge — if you signed the pledge, you were still shipped off, but to someplace slightly less prison like, and strangely enough Prisioners of War from Germany and Italy who were forced to labor in the surrounding fields. Anyway, stopped there to look at the information sign to see what was left of it, and how to get to the Lava Beds, and ended up talking to a guy who was stocking the information slots — it’s not an office, it’s a roadside kiosk. Nice guy — told me where the plaque was, and the road to take to see the old concrete septic tank (the size of a small factory) — and I love his description of the area it’s in… Crystal Heights — as in Crystal Meth. Apparently it’s a bit of problem for them. For more information on Tulelake: http://www.tulelake.org/
Wasn’t really expecting much from Lava Beds National Monument – but was pleasantly surprised. Used my Access Pass to not pay the $10 fee (what does that make it…. $80 spent, $25 Glacier, $10 Crater Lake, $10 Lava Beds — and probably Rainier at $15 – that’s $60!). Massive fields of Lava — very Hawaii. But then I got to the area with the caves… not like Hawaii. LOTS of caves to crawl into. They will even lend you high powered flashlights (I brought the one from the condo unit). I went into Golden Dome for a litle bit (nice and cool) — but with a low powered light, no long pants, and flip flops — I didn’t go far. On the other side of the Visitors Center was Mushpot Cave — which is semi-lite — emphasis on the semi — I have a knot on my head from a low ceiling. Explored that for a bit. These are totally easy caves to explore, I’d recommend to most everybody who could handle the ships stairs in and out of the hole.
Great burger at Steve and Terry’s in Newell. Try the Ortega burger (with ortega chiles along with the lettuce, tomatoe, onion, cheese. Got it to go while I looked for the roadside marker to the Tulelake Relocation Center …. NOT well marked. In Newell just north of the Steve and Terry’s Burger Joint. Nearly got lost after finding the giant septic tank — but found my way back to the highway eventually — apparently from the air you can see all the roads from the camp that at it’s highest popluation had over 18,000 internies and 2,000 staff (plus the 1,000 POWs down the road at the CCC camp).
Got back to the condo unit a little after 2pm — it’s less than an hour to Tulelake (even though it’s in California) and about an even hour to Lava Beds. Since I’ve got a landline — called up WorldMark to figure out why I’m missing a bunch (almost 2000) credits — turns out that they used credits and a cleaning fee, rather than Bonus Time which is $50 a night. All fixed — damn, their customer service is good.
Blogging, uploading photos, thinking about upcoming SOB ads (boxers with the tag line of “Our Hard Wood is So Soft”) and maybe a nap. Photos below:
Dinner tonight is wine (Louis Martini Cab 2004), a couple of pork chops on the grill (nice 1″+ chops), and a mixed green salad with tomato and a sliced hardboiled egg (with Blue Cheese dressing).
Upcoming are the possibilites for the next couple of days…
- Jon and Normas for the weekend.
- Mike Leckies for Sunday night.
- Marathon plant tour at 11:30 on Monday.
- Palm Harbor Manufactured Home plant tour at 2pm on Monday.
- Monday night at the Otterwinkles.
- Tuesday — drive home through Rainier
We’ll see what I get done. Still have lots of calls to make (Mike, Otterwinkles, called Marathon).
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