http://tencamps.org/blog Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:50:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We arrived in Las Vegas late in the afternoon. We checked into a motel a good distance from the Strip, but drove back in for the evening. After spending the last few days visiting Tule Lake and Manzanar, and driving for hours through remote rural areas, downtown Las Vegas seemed ... http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=304 Nuclear waste repository = Good sign that you're REALLY far away from any major population center: http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=303 Pictures 1-4: Western approach to Death Valley. Picture 5: Death Valley Floor Pictures 6 and 7: Visitors Center and Gas Station (we thought it best to be on the safe side). In this area, John and I observed the first of what would become many German tourists in the U.S. Southwest. Pictures 8 ... http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=296 If these pictures above are any evidence, early in the morning we felt a little euphoric. That might explain the two pictures above with their slightly whimsical framing and our goofy smiles.  We'd just managed to go four days into our trip without any major problem, and, as if ... http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=283 Sunrise in the Alabama Hills. If these landscapes look familiar, it might be because (according to a curator at the Eastern California Museum) lots of Hollywood Westerns were filmed around here. http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=282 http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=274 Please read the following article in the Rafu Shimpo: http://www.rafu.com/en/2008/0813/news.html http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=267 Manzanar is in the Owens Valley (the deepest valley in the Americas). It is flanked on two sides by two massive mountain ranges. The Sierras to the west, and the Inyo/White mountains to the east. http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=251 After visiting Tule Lake, and the small exhibition space of the Eastern California Museum, walking into the large, air-conditioned Manzanar National Historic Site Interpretive Center was a shock. There were National Park Service rangers, large audio-visual displays, and a host of interactive exhibits. The interpretive center even has a small ... http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=208 Manzanar was the first, and only, camp we went to that had an "auto tour" -- a marked set of roads with helpful signs to guide us along our way.  The idea of treating Manzanar like a "drive-through" experience seemed, and still seems wrong to me. On the other hand, the ... http://tencamps.org/blog/?p=239