For those of you unaware, I am living and working this summer in Pasadena, California. My professor connected me with some people at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for a summer internship. Along with the internship came housing in the CalTech dorms. I was assigned to live in Lloyd where I live in the “Virgin Islands” area. The photos below are of my drive down to Los Angeles.
The packing process proved somewhat challenging. Luckily I found the perfect box for my SCUBA gear. This is how I packed my gear and two tanks into my trunk. The rest of the space got filled with clothes and whatnot.
About 20 miles outside of Grants Pass I nearly ran out of gas. Going up the hills became a very exciting experience! Good thing my Taurus has a two gallon reserve.
I sent this photo to Emily as I was driving south of Grants Pass. Notice the vintage Serengeti Aviators. Sometimes you just have to look the part.
There were some big thunder cells building on the Oregon/California border. I got a few drops of rain when I descended into the high valley near Weed, California. Had I been a few hours later it probably would have been a deluge.
Goodbye Oregon!
Hello California!
Shasta was obscured by clouds. It wasn’t far from here where I got rained on. The Shasta valley must have gotten some good rain after I passed through.
South of Stockton on Highway 99 in the central valley I saw this odd sight. At first I didn’t know what it was. This big green mass was sitting on a truck.
Upon closer inspection I found it to be a palm tree! This is not all that uncommon of an occurrence in California. Everyone wants a full-grown tree without having to wait for the growing process.
At my grandparents house in Fresno I found this picture of my uncle on the motorcycle he rode to Alaska and back. It was back in the mid 80’s. That’s my cousin standing next to him. She’s a couple years younger than me. As I understand it, that bike didn’t make it back to California. The engine blew up somewhere along the road in British Columbia. He abandoned it and rode a bus the rest of the way back.
This is at the crest of the Grapevine. The mountains to the north of LA are a pretty effective barrier for old crappy cars. This photo was taken on a good smog day.