Antelope Valley Information

On Friday June 17, 2005 a few of us went to check out a Lancaster Jethawks baseball game. They were giving away Burt Rutan Bobble Heads to the first 1,000 fans. We were there in time to get our bobbleheads. Burt Rutan is an engineer, adventurer, and entrepreneur. He designs aircraft characterized by the use of light-weight composite materials. You can learn more about his company by clicking HERE. While I was looking for some information about him on the internet I learned that it was his birthday on June 17. He was not at the game because he was away on business but his brother was there. His brother is a pilot and flys many of the planes that Burt designs. It was a good baseball game and the Lancaster Jethawks won 12-3. I see on their website that August 19, 2005 will be Aerospace Appreciation Night and Astronaut Bobblehead Doll Giveaway to the first 1,000 fans. Check out the Lancaster Jethawks web site. Click HERE.

So after arriving in California six weeks ago I feel my first Earthquake. I was sitting at a desk in Hollywood, CA just before 2pm on Thursday June 16, 2005 when I felt the ground shake a little bit. At first I thought it was a big truck going by then I heard somebody say "earthquake" and realized that is what it was. People who were walking down the hall did not feel it though. I was sitting and it kind of felt like a small wave went under the chair. It was a 4.9 earthquake centered just outside of Yucaipa, CA. You can read a news article about it by clicking HERE and see where Yucaipa is located click HERE. I also found some interesting information about how to protect yourself during an earthquake, click HERE to check it out.

On Friday June 10th Becky and I took a drive to the ocean. This picture here was taken in Ventura, California. Shortley after taking this picture I proposed to Becky on the beach. If you click on the picture you will be able to see a couple of pictures of the ring.

The past couple of hikes that I have gone on I noticed warning signs about mountain lions. I have never hiked in mountain lion country before so I did some research about them. One website mentions that in the past 100 years there has only been 13 fatal attacks in North America. There are still some precautions that you should take in mountain lion country. Here are a couple of links to mountain lion information web sites. The first one is How to Survive an Encounter With a Mountain Lion. This second web site is called Living with California Mountain Lions. Check out the two links. There is a lot of interesting information on them.

Today Becky and I check out Saddleback Butte State Park located about 20 miles east of Lancaster, CA. To get there we headed East on Avenue J. Driving there we could see the mountains off in the distance that we would soon be standing on. The elevation at the summit of Saddleback Butte is 3,651 feet. This stands 1,000 feet above the bottom land of the Antelope Valley. From the parking lot it is 1.6 miles to the summit. The hike starts off on flat land for about one mile then it starts to head up. This hike must be real nice in the spring when all of the wildflowers display their colors. Today there was not too much color out there. It was a nice hike though and we had plenty of water with us. The picture to the right show Saddleback Butte in the background. I really enjoyed seeing the snow capped mountain to the south. It is a strange feeling to be hiking in the warm desert and seeing snow capped mountains in June. At the top of Saddleback Butte it was very windy. We checked out the view and got a couple of pictures and then headed back. If you click on the picture to the right you will be able to see the seven other pictures I took on today's hike.