Comments on A Craig Walker's Blog: California or Bust

No, China Lake wasn't "hell on earth"...

2012-11-18T23:21:01.960-08:00

No, China Lake wasn't "hell on earth". That was Trona, some 25 miles closer to Death Valley. Now that place lived up to the oft posed question "Where the hell is Trona?"

PS: I wish you had a photo of the sign at the entr...

2012-11-18T18:27:13.139-08:00

PS: I wish you had a photo of the sign at the entrance to the top security area: "What you see here, what you do here, what you say here, stays here when you leave here."

Love the photo memories. And my sort-of Betty Gra...

2012-11-17T17:14:23.469-08:00

Love the photo memories. And my sort-of Betty Grable pose on the patio.

When you were interviewing you asked me where I wanted to live. We were on the threshold of a great adventure, and it didn't matter to me where we ended up. With one exception. I proclaimed I was willing to live any place except China Lake, CA.

My brother and I once labeled China Lake as "hell on earth." Not that we had been there, but we had driven 395 North and seen China Lake 10 miles off in the distance, and thought, "that's probably what hell looks like."

Then you met an old friend whose wife was from there, and she talked of it so highly that you caught her enthusiasm, and we began to feel that was the right place for us. And it was.