I have not updated the blog in awhile. I had intended to post as we went a on our
trip along the Lewis and Clark trail.
But the hectic pace of the journey
and lack of Wi-Fi or cell signal undid my good intentions. The Lewes and Clark trail ended nearly two
weeks ago and we have since been spending most of our time in remote places of
OR, WA. and CA. Today, we landed in
Reno, NV and have both good Wi-Fi and cell
signals.
Rather than trying to go back to the beginning of
the trip, I thought I would mention how we find interesting things that we did
not know existed just by landing in the right place for an overnight stop. Last night on our way south we stopped in the
two buildings town of Hat Creek at a very nice campground called Hat Creek
Hereford Ranch and RV Park. They sell organic beef from the ranch in the
office. Talking with the lady from the
office, we heard of two interesting local attractions.
The first was the Hat Creek Radio Observatory started in the
late 1950's . Today they have 350 telescope
arrays searching the heavens for signs of life in outer space using radio
telescopes. As an explanation of its
sensitivity, a cell phone ringing on the moon would sound like a nearby foghorn
to the arrays. To date, they have not
yet picked up a intelligent signal from outer space.
Also nearby is a very different kind of site. It is called the subway cave. It was formed when lava flow covered the
area. As the upper layers cooled and
hardened, the area beneath continued to flow until the lava drained away leaving
this lava cave. It does resemble a NYC
subway tube. This site is just north of
the Lassen Volcanic National Park. Since
the road into the national park was still closed due to snow, the subway cave
was it for us.
.
Lastly, today as we drove 395S into NV, we passed the remnants
of the wildfire that had this road closed two days ago.
