After I left Bakersfield I drove into the hills toward Tehachapi. Windmill territory. I love those windmills, although it disturbs me that birds often fly into them. To me they are like a huge public art project. At times I have driven through Tehachapi and seen snow on the mountaintops. Winter and spring are obviously beautiful times to be there.
Friday I took the exit that said "Keene" and "Tehachapi Loop". It also said "Chavez Center", which was my destination. I pulled off and immediately saw this sign:
I followed the road a short distance to quite an impressive development.
The Chavez memorial garden is on the right, and looks like this:
To the left is the Chavez museum. The museum has many pictures of Chavez and his friends, a recreation of his office, including desk, chair, books - lots, and more. It is a nice study center. Again, of course, the cat made my visit really short, but I was impressed. I used the bathroom, which is quite colorful:
Then I was on my way again. On my way out I grabbed a shot at this quonset hut:
It looked, from the car, like it had some models in it recreating a Native American life, but honestly I don't know. You can go to the National Chavez Center to find out more and even take a virtual tour. The center opened in 2004.
I took a look at the road that said "Tehachapi Loop", thinking it might just take me around the town of Tehachapi, thinking I might take it, but I decided not to and went back to highway 58 instead and drove into another Tehachapi entrance, where I wandered for what seemed forever, through a lot of new shopping center development, until I found the older part, where the apple store still sits:
I went inside, thinking of grabbing something nice like a piece of pie to take along, but ultimately nothing spoke to me. I don't know why it mattered to me that this place still exists. It's clearly just a tourist trap, but it's a local one. I guess that's enough for me. And the pies are good.
It isn't a long drive to Mojave from Tehachapi. That was my last stop, at the Motel 6 there. That finished Friday.
