Day Eight: TANKLAND

We drove out to visit some more family in sunny Rancho Cucamonga today, which is just a fun thing to say, and Gretchen was much pleased to see and somewhat harass a pair of large labradors. From there, the 210 and the 57/60 led us past South El Monte and........TANKLAND!

The American Military Museum (as far as I can tell that is its official name, generic though it may be) is a wunderland for those few of us geeky enough to seek out armoured vehicle museums in their travels. As a child I wanted our family to head east to visit the US Army Ordnance Museum in at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. But this is a good first step.

I was on, if not Cloud Nine, then one of the Clouds at least above level Four, conservatively speaking.



The family very sportingly came with. Gretchen was particularly fascinated with the quality and grading of the rocks, gravel, and dirt with which the outdoor museum was lavishly furnished.



Nice little amphibious armoured car whose name escapes me. Lou? Henrik?



A trio of Shermans, the workhorse of Patton's Third Army and the most iconic American tank of WWII.



The miscellaneous ordnance section...bombs, missiles, rocket launchers, torpedoes, and marine mines.



The landing craft and marine section, with the family. Gretchen taking another sample of the absolute exquisite El Monte dirt!



Patton tanks, an M48 and some later models.



The working quarters of a very large self-propelled howitzer piece.



...and the rest of the same.



A Bofors emplacement! Probably from a scrapped battleship or similar vessel, definately a naval emplacement from a ship likely of the WWII era. Quad 40mm autocannons for anti-aircraft.



I don't recall the details on this similar anti-aircraft naval emplacement but it looks like twin 30mm autocannons, and I love the fact that its enclosed and has windshield wipers on the front. I wonder if the replacement blades for the wipers are a standard size they can get at an automotive shop. More likely they are contract made for $300 each!



Pretty substantive fixed gun nestled into the corner of a museum.



The Priests lined up.



Another Bofors!



And a northward pointing big fella waiting to shell El Monte Proper, apparently.



Bren Carrier and my daughter. A bit smaller and it be perfect size for her!



An old 30's era "Combat Car" and a Chi-Ha mockup.



M50 Ontos, without its characteristic array of recoilless rifle tubes.



The M5 Stuart, a capable American light tank that served in WWII, and probably beyond.



M551 Sheridan, an interesting vehicle with a missile launching tube, essentially, for a main gun, and mostly aluminum armour for lighter weight, designed to be airdropped, seeing some service in Viet Nam.



Daughter satisfied with face-applicated soil samples.



Pak36, a German anti-tank gun in 37mm. Small little unit, probably easily transported, though outclassed by heavier, later tanks.



Motorcycle and a row of Willys jeeps and other trucks.



What EVERYONE needs! A MORTAR SHED!



Long suffering fam in front of a nice, I think British, armoured car on the way out.

Day Seven: North Hollywood, California

Pleasantly restful day, excepting the homicidal intensity of Los Angeles freeway transit. We galloped, galavanted, and generally gallopvanted off to a place of my youth, "Travel Town" in Griffith Park. Basically, a train museum.

Here I am assuring her it will be more fun than she is at the time thinking:



Off and running!



Up in the locomotive:



And one of the empty passenger cars was fun:



...because you can run around like mad in it.



Racing to catch up to mommy and grandma:



But the highlight of the trip was of course getting the plastic toy train whistle, which was mastered within SECONDS! This child is a train whistle prodigy!



Then it was off to North Hollywood, to visit with Gretchen's great-grandad. Fine old chap and a gentleman. I raise my icewater to his health and long[er] life! The girls out front:

Day Five: Disneyland

So Day Four is missing, you say. No, in case your mind is swirling with all sorts of improbable astrophysical explanations for a missing day, I must ask you to apply the Razor that that bloke Ockham bunged about the place. No need to overcomplicate, the simplest explanation is that we simply didn't blog about it. Due to some great fun at the Grand Canyon involving sleep, or particularly, the inability of our daughter to get to the same, we ended up leaving quite early in the morning, about 3:30AM, and made an early start to our trip to Los Angeles. I would say that the scenery is beautiful in Western Arizona, and indeed I remember it to be, but the pitch black night did not favour me with a refreshment of the memory. Breakfast in Kingman, AZ, with a LOT of coffee, and we were in Diamond Bar by midday. The rest of the day was spent recuperating and spending time with family, and I've got no further pictures. Bit of an adventure, and the stars finally aligned that night for Gretchen to get a full amount of good sleep. And us as well!

The next day, of course, was our long-awaited Disneyland trip, Gretchen's first. Debra has been excited for this for ages. Gretchen too, although she scarcely understood the meaning...she'll happily prattle about Dih-Nee-LAND! but I think she assumed we were going somewhere to watch Disney movies.

And...we're there! Disney frigging Land!



Gretchen in line for the Peter Pan ride:



She's excited!



Blowing kisses to her fans (her old man, and grandma) from the carousel:



A look of boredom while waiting for it to commence...



Followed by some growing panic as it moved a bit faster than carousels of her previous acquaintance!



The horticulture here is incredible.



Looking out on the Casey Jr's train ride:



And sacked out after a morning of lines and rides.



She did snag one of the requisite mouse ear hats, embroidered with her name.



Waiting in line for a million psychotic, probably murderous dolls to shriek repetitive platitudes at us...in air conditioning...at the "It's a Small World" ride. Replete with CHURROS!!!



Gretchen, Mom (in keeping with her independent streak, Mommy is now "Mom" now often), and Grandma on the way out. Good times had by all. Bed time was no problem.

Day Three: Grand Canyon, Arizona

This morning, we left Gallup, and rather shortly, New Mexico, around 8AM. Right at the Arizona border is one of those kitschy "Indian Settlements" that sell blankets, jewelry, and a lot of other classic southwest gift shop things with lots of gaudy signs, so we stopped and visited the "Largest Teepee in the Southwest" which actually was a nice little shop, but as mentioned, completely the same as all of these genre of souvenir shops. Got a decent price for some turquoise jewelry.



Another hour or so and we were at the Petrified Forest National Park. We bought our annual park pass and intended only to make a cursory run around part of the park (Gretchen was asleep anyway). But the northern "Painted Desert" section was stunning in person. Now that we're in a cabin on the rim of the Grand Canyon, these pictures make it look a bit weak and uninteresting but after driving through KansasTexhomamexico flatness it was quite cool.



Further south in the park were the "Teepees", strange cones of rock. Here were a few of the whiter ones, most of them were a dark grey, almost black.



In the far south of the park is the actual petrified forest section:



There was an entire field of these logs:



Up close:



Here's some more of the somewhat lunar scenery on the way out:



Back on the road, we approached what is the city of our eventual intended dwelling, Flagstaff. Located quite high in altitude with a generally mild climate, I just need to be offered a good CIO position there or become independently wealthy. We'll see what happens first. Once through Flagstaff and driving north, the Cococino Forest was quite beautiful, but we only really found out that when we frantically pulled over believing Gretchen to be in the initial throes of carsickness. We took a walk.



Lovely crisp clean air, pine trees, I think I'm love. Mountain just behind us:



But we got back in the car and hurtled on towards the south rim. You'd never guess, well, you might, or you might know from actual experience, but the mass of humanity clustered round this particular tourist attraction is particularly diverse, in the sense of being made up of mostly non-Americans. The sheer ubiquity of Germans would have been sufficient, one would think, to make the also-prevalent Frenchies a bit nervous in a way reminiscent of 1940. It took rather a long time to sort out where to park; it really was packed out. But we reserved a nice little cabin room about 50 feet from the rim, perhaps. Here is Gretchen in front of it as we're preparing to go see the canyon:



Don't fall in!



Pictures are a rather lame way of showing this:



Towards the canyon floor...



To prove she was there!



The canyon just after sunset.