I Photographed the Stratosphere

On 17 January I wrote that I had gone to West Oakland a few days earlier for a trip to Las Vegas with my friend’s family.  We had left around six and made Bakersfield pretty late near 11. Having stopped for take out on the way to BART had improved things. The next morning we went downtown Bakersfield and got coffee at the only worthwhile coffee shop in the city and then headed into the Tehachapis.

My dad had asked me for pictures but I couldn't get one of the snow and trains.  We stopped at a Starbucks in Barstow and were underwhelmed by the amenities there.  Later we drove to a bakery and picked up Greek food. I noted that the multiple stops were nice in comparison to the day before because I liked getting out and enjoying the air.

After that we rode through the mountainous desolation that is the Mojave and Death Valley until we got to Pahrump.  We briefly visited my friend’s grandparent’s house before heading to the only worthwhile Thai restaurant in town to get take out.  We then settled down in the hotel room and later we went to the for a drink.

We all ended up in Las Vegas the next day at a hospital named Summerlin. My friend’s grandfather was fine as long as he had the attention of a nurse. He was making his grandpa comments and was noisily excited about everything.  

Much later we drove to the local Persian restaurant. The meal was great. We ate across from a lady and her family. We all talked.  I noted that there was a lute on the wall and the plates were good. We drove to Sunset Hospital then. I photographed the Stratosphere.

When we were parked we carted around the parking lot before going up to see grandma who was doing all right. I tried to take photos.  Later we drove to a gas station and headed to the hotel. I went and did laundry and eventually we all met in the lobby for drinks. I was asleep by 11.

On our last morning in Nevada we packed up and drove to Mom's restaurant. During our conversations over breakfast I learned about their grandfather.  He had started a dairy as a teen and later, during world war two was placed with a rag-tag artillery group.  He made it to sergeant but the other guys in the company would have protested so they took his stripes back.

Later he got picked up for to work for the Nuremberg trials where he interviewed German officers and their french wives.  He also helped care for POWs.  When he was done with that tour his superiors suggested he continue his service in Sweden but he declined.

We finished our meal and stopped at a local coffee cart before taking a side road to Death Valley Junction and descended down into the valley. We stopped at Furnace Creek and I walked to the general store.  Later we passed through sand dunes and visited Mosaic Canyon to take in the air, go hiking, climb and take photos.

After this we drove to Towne pass and spent next two hours driving into the sunset through Trona and past Ridgecrest. We headed to Tehachapi and stopped at a barbecue place.  We really liked the fry bread.

We then drove to the I-5 and onwards to Oakland. The tube was closed so we rode through town to the house where we unpacked and wound down before having a bedtime drink in the kitchen.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.