Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Culture

Arizona Desert Mining Town

Desert Mining Town

After we took the dogs to the groomer yesterday, we had a couple of hours to ourselves. We decided to head over to an old mining town (and tourist trap) about 25 miles west of Wickenburg.

Unfortunately, when we got there after driving 28 miles on pavement and another 2 miles on dirt, we found that the attraction was closed for the day having been reserved for a photo shoot by some unknown enterprise. We noted a large number of California license plates on the vehicles parked there.

The cowboy that ran things told us that they didn’t have time to notify the media of the closing. He was very apologetic and assured us that if we were to come back on a normal visiting day that he would waive the admission and guided tour fee. I guess we will take him up on that sometime in the near future, before the desert heat gets too out of hand.

The place is called Robson’s Ranch & Mining Camp. We will probably take a trip out there soon.

19 Apr 2015 by Arizona Culture Entertainment Wanderlust

Multi-National Neighborhood Flags

Neighbor’s Place

Our next-door* neighbor to the west has roots in Montana and also in Alberta, Canada. When her relatives and friends from way up north come to visit, she flies the Canadian flag below the Stars and Stripes. In the summertime when the northerners are all back home, she generally flies the Arizona flag in the lower position.

* When I say “next-door” I mean that literally, even though her house is another 500 feet up the road beyond our place. Our next-door neighbor to the east is another 500 feet in that direction. We like the semi-rural feel of our Arizona home.

I took this photo while Damsel & I were walking the dogs after lunch today. I was at the neighbor’s house to the east taking telephotography of the west neighbor’s flags, a distance of about 1000 feet.

Camera Settings: focal length 200mm, ISO 100, aperture F7, shutter speed 1/500 second.

12 Feb 2015 by Arizona Culture International

Veterans Day 2014

armed-forces.jpg

There are many veterans who deserve credit for keeping our nation safe and free by putting themselves in harm’s way. Not all such “harm’s way” scenarios require combat or the battlefield. Sailors who work on the dangerous decks of aircraft carriers, Soldiers who prepare ordinance and test weaponry, Marines who carry out firefighting missions, Airmen who crew patrol and transport aircraft and Guardsmen who patrol our coasts in aircraft and on the sea.

Special thanks go out to combat veterans as well as those who have risked their lives in training and support roles. God bless them all.

(This is a reprise of our Veterans Day 2009 post – still applicable today.)

11 Nov 2014 by Culture Military Patriotism

Manzanar

Manzanar Sacred Monument

On our route from Bishop, CA to Ridgecrest, CA today, we stopped at the Manzanar National Historic Site on our way south. This is a very important monument, reminding us of one of the most heinous acts ever taken by the USA (other than electing Obama).

It is a somber self-guided tour that takes the observer through the internment camp that housed over 11,000 Japanese Americans taken from their lives in America to serve time for what the Imperial Japanese did to foment WWII in the Pacific. The bombing of Pearl Harbor and other acts by the Japanese did nothing to warrant gathering the descendants of Japan ancestry and housing them, against their will, in this nightmare desert camp. Manzanar was the largest population center between Reno and Los Angeles, albeit it was a city of an unwilling population.

The image above is the saddest reminder of the sordid acts of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration; the graveyard at Manzanar with mostly unmarked graves other than one of Baby Jerry Ogata, an infant that died in captivity here who was as American as you and I.

We have been here before, but the sight of the residual camp always causes us to break out a tissue or two. Click on the image to enlarge.

16 Sep 2014 by California Culture Wanderlust

Making the Rounds

Patriotic Perspective

We’re in California tonight after making the rounds to decorate the grave sites of some of our fallen loved ones. There are two memorial parks that we visit when we’re in town (actually three, but one is way over in Orange County that we get to once a year or so). This array of American Flags decorates the entrance to the park where my Grandparents, an Uncle and my Daughter were laid to rest. The flags are flown on five staffs of graduating heights and graduating flag sizes. It’s a very pretty array of Patriotic Perspective.

We were earlier at the other park on this side of town where my Dad, a brother-in-law and a sister are in repose. I put decorations on all of the sites at both parks. This makes us feel respectful and lets have some closure about our losses. Click on the image to enlarge.

15 Jul 2014 by Culture Patriotism Photography

No Hat Rack

No Hat Rack

When we come to California, we find several cultural differences from those in Arizona. One example is that when we go to a restaurant or even to the dentist, they have a rack for us cowboy types to hang our hats. Not so much in California, where sun worship and skin cancer reign.

The only hotel in this area where we can take our dogs is an antiquated property which, by all rights, should have a hat rack in the rooms, has none. Thus, I have to improvise with where I hang my hat when not in use. Click on the image to enlarge.

14 Jul 2014 by California Culture

Categories

Archives