A Trip to California - Mojave Area

I promise, we haven't fallen off the face of the earth! Instead, we took a vacation to California where we stood face-to-face with endangered wild cats, ate Mexican food at a restaurant made famous by astronauts, hugged some of the largest trees in the world, encountered not one but two rattlesnakes, heard a bear sniffing around our campsite and braved the crowds to visit one of the country's most famous national parks. ... WHEW! ...

So, where to begin?

This was the first leg of my journey as a 2009 Roads Scholar. This was also Cory's first journey by motorcycle. This meant that I drove alone, learned how to charge my computer via cigarette lighter and posted blogs on my travel blog, Kaleidoscopic Wandering, where I could. Cory boosted his confidence aboard his Honda Shadow. We had great fun ... see ... here's us smiling:

Seriously, though, we discovered so many places that this will have to, again, be split into numerous blogs. For now, let me tell you about Mojave, California.

Mojave itself is known for its air and space port. We had coffee at a little cafe in the air port, and it was fun to watch little cessnas come and go as people flew in for breakfast. Apparently Mojave has ideal conditions for testing aircraft. I'm sure it's seen more than one plane crash in its day. It also has such neutral weather that it's one of those places where planes are parked when they aren't needed. There are acres of planes just hanging out in Mojave. It's a little bizarre, actually.

The most interesting parts of our time in Mojave weren't actually in Mojave at all. We ate at Domingo's in Boron for dinner. While appearing to be a run-of-the-mill Mexican restaurant from the outside, the inside is basically a museum for air and space memorabilia. Domingo Gutierrez has been in business for more than 30 years, and his restaurant is where nearly flight members eat before they depart and when they land. The walls are covered with signed pictures, flags, buttons, patches and posters—all significant in air and space history.

He was kind enough to share more of his goodies with us, which he keeps in his back office. My favorite thing was a picture of the crew from ST-112 wearing Mexican garb. Domingo has even been invited to the launch of STS-128, which is happening in August. He will dine with the crew at their pre-flight meal then watch the lift-off from the VIP section. I wrote another blog about Domingo's at my travel blog, which you can check out here.

The second really cool thing we did in the Mojave area was go to the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound, which is in Rosamond. This facility is home to more than 75 different wild cats of 17 different species and it was FASCINATING! Sandy, the director of the EFBC, gave us a tour of the compound and took the time to answer all of our questions.

The primary purpose of the EFBC is breeding endangered cats to ensure their continued existence in the wild, which means these cats are definitely wild animals. They aren't imprinted by humans (though they know Sandy's voice), and they have very cat-like characteristics and defense mechanisms. Although I'm a softie for anything "cat," I think I liked the fishing cat, Frisbee, the best (though the jaguarundi were very interesting as well). If you're interested in reading just a touch more about the EFBC, feel free to check out my travel blog posting here.

I'll leave you with that tonight. In short order we'll post stories and pictures from our time in Sequoia National Park, King's Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park. Cory extended his trip with a motorcycle ride into Oregon with my dad, so I'm sure he'll have plenty to share from those adventures as well.

I also know we still owe you all the full portfolio of pictures from Peru. We'll get everything up at the same time. It's on the list ... you won't have to stay tuned forever.

Leaving you with a California sunset ...
JoAnna