by Johnie Pennington
On March 29, 2 siblings, 7 Scout and 8 adults set out for a place where temperatures could change 40, 50 or 60 degrees between day and night. While in the Death Valley National Monument we saw the highest peak and set foot in the lowest point in the lower United States. We visited a castle, camped in a furnace, saw a bridge of stone, visited a rock race track, watched Johnie play golf and heard about a 20-mule train. We also attended an astronomy show at the Furnace Creek victory center then saw billions and billions of stars in the night sky. At Scotty’s Castle we learned how a gold mine grubstake lead to the beautiful home built by Albert and Bessi Johnson. At the Borax museum that their building was built in 1883 by F.M. “Borax” Smith and that it was original stood in the Twenty Mule Team Canyon as an office, buck hours and ore-checking state for miners. These are only some of the activities we did. As we returned to Sacramento we stopped at the Manzanar National Historic Site where Japanese American citizens and resident Japanese aliens were interned during World War II. We watch the documentary “Remembering Manzanar” and did a driving tour. A huge thank you to Dave and Chris for taking the PLC’s suggestion and turning it into a great adventure and experience we will not forget. Thank you to these adults for driving, navigating, cooking and their humor Peter Brown, Sheri Brown, Matthew Brown, Ann Truong, Wei Hsieh, Daphne Hsieh and Frank Shaw; Scouts Alden, Christian, Christopher, Bryan, Gabriel, Grayden and Tyler; Siblings Dancia and Dylan.
