The 311 mile route from Mammoth Lakes to Santa Monica, a route I know practically mile-by-mile, is HERE.
It snowed again overnight, creating the overwhelming temptation to take the board out for just a few runs…but I had to get the laundry finished so we could head out. It is 300 miles from Mammoth to Santa Monica, a solid 5 hours of driving, at least, including the usual stops. In addition, I have a friend in Bakersfield, CA who I did my pulmonary fellowship with that I was hoping to meet for lunch. He was traveling locally himself but was to be back later that day and I was hoping to hear from him about getting together.
We loaded up the car, cleared the condo and headed out. By this time, I had heard from my friend in Bakersfield; he wouldn’t be able to meet us. I was disappointed, but this saved us a 3 hour detour which was just as well as we had a 6pm Seder invitation near LA.
The first 200 miles from Mammoth to LA is scenic, starting at the 8000’ foot level high in the Owens Valley. Highway 395 heads South with a large elevation drop before reaching Bishop. We passed Schat’s Bakery this time and continued South, driving slowly as we entered each small town so we could study them.
How many times have I passed through Indepedence, CA? Or, posing it as a rhetorical question in the 3rd person, how many times has Bob passed through Independence, CA? 150-200 times over 30 years and, I'd say, always with the intent of simply passing through at the maximum posted speed (25mph) so I could get on my way. Not today.
Independence, population 669, was founded in 1861 as a trading post and eventually took its name from Fort Independence, established to help settlers during the Owens Valley Indian War with the Paiute. Life not being without its own sense of irony, the area that was the abandoned fort was eventually set aside as a reservation.
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| A small town, Independence has the Eastern Sierras in its backdoor. |
Flanked by 14000' peaks on either side, the Owens Valley is the deepest valley in North America and about twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.
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| The City of Los Angeles owns most of the water rights in the Owens Valley, limiting development. The fight over water rights formed by the basis for the classic film Chinatown. |
Independence is a popular resupply location for hikers trekking the 2,650 mile long Pacific Crest Trail which extends from the Mexican border to Canada along the crest of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges.
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| Built in the 1920s, the Winnedumah Hotel has a number of reasonably priced vacation packages, though the rates are higher than the Super 8 rates we're used to. |
I love the snow-capped Sierras.
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| Sierra Nevada snowpack - a key factor in determining the state's water supply each year - stands at 165 percent of average, a level not seen since 1995 and one that puts the 2010-2011 winter near the top of the record lists. |
Not everything in Independence was picturesque.
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| It was hard to figure out what was going on here, but it certainly stood out. |
We moved on. About 10 miles South of Independence and halfway to Lone Pine is Manzanar, one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. This is where my wife's mother was interned during WWII. (My wife's father was sent to the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Arkansas.)
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| While my family has been to Manzanar, I never had. The camp is in the high dessert...the middle of nowhere. |
There was a lot of controversy as to what to call the camps. Relocation Center and Internment Camp were the least offensive, but some argued that they were concentration camps: the prisoners were detained and relocated against their will, losing every.
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| Only a few of the original structures remain; the watch tower is a replica. |
The National Park Service operates a visitor center that is exceptionally well done.
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| This display shows those interned trying to maintain a semblance of normalcy. |
Manzanar was established as a national historic site in 1992 by Pres. George H.W. Bush
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| The visitor center is in the background. The center is filled with exhibits that capture the history of the era, when the country ignored the Bill of Rights and forcibly herded some of its citizens into camps, usually with only a few days notice. |
Japanese-Americans had to sell businesses, property and possessions for whatever they could get...usually pennies on the dollar. At the visitor center, we watched the 22 minute film, replete with US government proclamations that were Orwellian in their warped banality, describing how “wonderful” it would be for the displaced.
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| It was Executive Order 9066, signed by Pres. Roosevelt, that provided a flimsy cover for frankly unconstitutional actions: the suspension of writ of habeas corpus, and despite the Fifth Amendment's command, the infringement of life, liberty or property without due process of law. |
In 1983, after a 3-year review, a Congressional commission condemned the internment as "unjust and motivated by racism rather than real military necessity". The Commission recommended that $20,000 in reparations be paid to those Japanese Americans who had been victims of internment. President Reagan signed off.
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| $20000 in 1985 for having lost all your possessions and years of your life 40 years ago? |
Signs marked the foundations of where buildings had once stood.
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| The residential area was about one square mile, and consisted of 36 blocks of hastily constructed, 20-foot by 100-foot tarpaper barracks, with each prisoner family living in a single 20-foot by 25-foot "apartment" in the barracks. These apartments consisted of partitions with no ceilings, eliminating any chance of privacy. Lack of privacy was a major problem for the prisoners, especially since the camp had communal men's and women's latrines. |
The monument at Manzanar cemetery is one of the few remaining original structures.
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| 146 prisoners died in Manzanar. The summer days were hot and the winters...well, this is late-April and you can still see the snow-covered mountains. |
When Manzanar closed in 1945, the prisoners were given $25 and a one-way bus/train fare. While many left the camp voluntarily, a significant number refused to leave because they had no place to go after having lost everything when they were forcibly uprooted and removed from their homes. Forcibly detained, they were forcibly removed.
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| Fifteen prisoners were buried there, but only five graves remain, as most were later reburied elsewhere by their families |
Physically, there is little at Manzanar, yet it conveys the sense of an overwhelming injustice against a group of American citizens.
We moved on.
Lone Pine, another small town dotting US395 in the Owens Valley is just a few miles south of Manzanar. It has a tourism-based economy as the town is between several major tourist destinations, such as Mount Whitney, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, Mammoth Mountain, Death Valley National Park, and Yosemite National Park. In 30 years of driving from Santa Monica to Mammoth, I don't think I've ever stopped in Lone Pine, not even for gas.
Today, we pulled in, drove around and stopped for lunch.
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The Alabama Hills Cafe was an excellent choice. With the appearance of a small sandwich shop and bakery, it clearly had a local crowd where everyone knew everyone else. Lani and I split a tuna melt (which was excellent) and a cinnamon bun, one of the best I’ve had. Their baked goods, including the fresh pies, looked outstanding. I’ll look forward to returning here. |
Continuing south on US395, our favorite "Really Good Fresh Jerky" signs became more frequent, alerting us that the Jerky Shack in Olancha was nearby.
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| Fresh jerky? Seriously? You've just sucked the moisture out of it...how fresh can it be? |
Olancha, population=192, was established in 1860. It has a gas station, a restaurant, the jerky shack, and not much else.
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| Moving farther South, the Sierras not as tall as farther north and have less snow. Still, they Sierras make for a pretty backdrop. |
There was a nice array of honey.
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| I was honeyed-out and managed to not buy any. |
Lani bought tuna jerky and some basic beef jerky.
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| The tuna jerky made the car smell like a fish market. |
I always look forward to passing the Mojave Air and Space Port, a massive government facility.
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| Because of the dry climate, many commercial airlines store excess inventory here. The planes are lines up like cars at a car rental agency. |
From Mojave to Santa Monica, it's just another 100 miles. But, for me, it's a 100 painful miles...the landscape bores me, the traffic gets worse and I've been sitting for 3 hours. Today, however, we were stopping a little short in Encino, CA to join some old friends for a Passover Seder.
I’ve known Steve Lerner for nearly 30 years…we met during my residency, becoming good friends in the second half of the year when we spent two months together on the medicine ward at the country hospital (Olive View). We share a common passion for food and wine and have met innumerable times for wine-oriented dinners at our favorite restaurants. His wife, Lisa (whom I've known as long as Steve) had been following our bike trip. When she saw that we were going to be in the vicinity during Passover, invited us to their Seder. This was the first time I could recall being at their Encino home.
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| Lisa, Steve's wife, greets Lani and me at the door. The last time Lisa saw Lani, Lani was probably 3 years old. |
I think we were the last to arrive. Lisa introduced us. The appetizer course was well underway.
The evening featured a wonderful gathering of family and friends. Lisa had set each place with individual care.
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| Unless I'm with a patient, I'm not big on the whole Doctor thing. |
We got situated and waited for the Seder to commence. The Passover Seder is a family-oriented ritualistic dinner that retells the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt under the oppression of the Pharaoh. The Seder itself is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" (Exodus 13:8)
The Seder centers around the reading of the Haggadah, an ancient text that tells the story of the Exodus.
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| Steve, flanked by Lisa's father, conducted with Seder with expertise and passion. For as long as I've known Steve, it was a side of him I had never seen. I was impressed...and moved. |
We took turns reading passages of the Haggadah, which dates to the 1st or 2nd Century.
Men and women are equally obliged and eligible to participate in the Seder. In many homes, each participant at the Seder table will recite at least critical parts of the Haggadah in the original Hebrew and Aramaic.
The Haggadah contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, commentaries from the
Talmud, and special
Passover songs. Involvement of the children is a focus of the Passover Seder. There are portions that target the youngest capable of participating, especially
The Four Questions.
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| Alison, daughter of Lisa and Steve, is a junior at USC and Health and is a Humanity and Environmental Studies major. |
The oldest complete manuscript of the Haggadah dates to the 10th century.
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| This was my first Seder in nearly 40 years. I found the reading of the Haggadah to be moving. |
The reading of the
Haggadah describes the slavery of the Jewish people in Egypt and their miraculous salvation by God. This culminates in an enumeration of the
Ten Plagues, which finally induce Pharaoh to let the Israeilites leave.
The final plague, the slaying of the first born, was inflicted on both humans and livestock. Before the plague, God commanded Moses to inform all the Israelites to mark lamb's blood on the doorposts on every door in which case the LORD will pass over (hence the holiday name, "Passover") them and not "suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and smite you". After losing his first born son, Pharaoh relented and allowed Moses to escort the Israeilites out of Egypt (though Pharaoh shortly thereafter sent his armies to chase after the Israelites.)
When Pharaoh finally allowed Moses and the Israelites to leave, they did so quickly. There was no time for the bread to rise, leaving only this cracker-like flatbread: Mazto, which is consumed during the Seder and the seven days of Passover.
The items on the Seder table are symbolic. Charoset is a sweet, dark-colored, chunky paste made of fruits and nuts; its color and texture are meant to recall the mortar with which the Israelites bonded bricks when they were enslaved in Ancient Egypt.
The Seder dinner involves a lot of preparation and the kitchen becomes a focal point.
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| Steve (on the left) opens a bottle of wine while Lisa, Lani and Earl (Lisa's father) gather around the kitchen island. |
Four hours passed in the blink of an eye...then Steve had to return to work. He finally made it back home after 4am. The Seder experience with Lisa and Steve's family/friends made for a memorable evening.
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| Whenever Steve and I get together, it is a joyous event...usually revolving around food and wine. The Seder was no different. |
As Steve left, so did Lani and I, arriving at our Santa Monica motel by 11pm...
317 miles, 15 hours and several experiences later. I thought about the day, from Manzanar in the morning to the Seder in the evening...what an unlikely juxtaposition.
The Japanese-American Internment during WWII rounded up 110,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans (about 80,000 of them American-born) and proved that, sometimes, the Constitution is insufficient. Former Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, who represented the US Department of Justice in the "relocation," later wrote:
"The truth is-as this deplorable experience proves-that constitutions and laws are not sufficient of themselves...Despite the unequivocal language of the Constitution of the United States that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, and despite the Fifth Amendment's command that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, both of these constitutional safeguards were denied by military action under Executive Order 9066."
This was a part of American history that was unknown to me until I moved to California after medical school and met Susan (future wife) and her family...it was never part of my history books or education, yet seemed so obviously wrong: discriminating against a people because of their ethnic background and appearance, rounding them up and locking them away. The Japanese-American lost virtually everything: freedom and possessions, a form of domestic diaspora.
In constrast, Passover tells the story of the exodus of the Israelites from their enslavement in Egypt, culminating in the end, at least for a couple of hundred years, of their diaspora.
And what of today, with increased awareness of all things Muslim following 9/11, attempts by Western nations - such as France - to ban the hijab, and America's own Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act , an act that many criticize as an assault on the Bill of Rights? Sometimes, Americans and their leaders have short memories, little insight and a failure to appreciate history.
Manzanar and Passover...internment and exodus...they made for the most thoughtful day of the trip, so far.
Tomorrow? Tomorrow I think I'll just wallow in all things Santa Monica.
