Thursday night in Bakersfield

Tina, Stephanie, and I are on a mission... And the mission has brought us to Bakersfield, Kern County, California, USA...  A town known for oil, cotton fields, and country music... We are not here for oil, cotton, or the music (although I am a fan of the Bakersfield Sound, and a new favorite band is called "Broke Down In Bakersfield)...  Instead, we are here to bid goodbye to Mom and Dad...Friday July 6th will be the first anniversary of Dad 's death...  We lost Mom four months before...   On the anniversary, tomorrow, we will scatter their ashes in the lower Kern, where they used to fish... Afterwards, we will explore a bit, in search of the family cabins, themselves reduced to ashes in a wild fire... So, this evening finds us in Bakersfield, itself on the Kern River, where Mom lived for a few years in the mid 1930's while her father worked in the oil fields... Tomarrow we will stay in Kernville, the next in Bishop, as we work our way home via Hwy 395, the Owens Valley, and Yosemite... But first, a visit to the Kern River