Did some more T-Dubing in the morning but didn't get much in terms of nice shadows and lighting.
After an early lunch, I rode Fiona, my '99 Ural Patrol to the nearby Center of the World. Yep, that's the name of the place, and officially, it is....by law....the Center of the World:
The place is actually nicely designed to maximize symmetry and display information for the future ages. Nice place to get a "summary" of Human History, Animals, the history of both CA and AZ, The French Foreign Legion, a U.S. Marine Memorial for the Korean War, the history of French Flight, a list of alumni from two schools...one of them Princeton University...and a lot more!
Far as I can tell, if you've the money to buy space on one of the granite slabs, you can have the information you want engraved by the artists here for the future generations.
It was closed today, but inside the pyramid is the geographical
marker designating the coordinates for the Center of the World
The location of the church is quite eye-catching
The Felicity Stone....a sort of Rosetta Stone for the future
Here's a view of the back of the church that sits atop a small "hill" at the end of the complex
Looking back towards the entrance
Artist/Engraver at work
More panels:
In case you can't remember what the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World were:
Since my in-laws are Norwegian:
Not a bad attempt at the Mona Lisa:
I must have spent a couple of hours there at least. Lots to read and see, a lot of it I just scanned as I walked by. For $5, it's a nice way to spend half a day wandering about.
Outside the museum area, there's a piece of the staircase that used to be part of the Eiffel Tower in Paris:
I returned to the campsite and just relaxed in the sporadic sunshine as clouds continued moving overhead. Rain is expected tomorrow, hopefully not too much since I am basically in the middle of a sandy valley.
Just so you don't think I just take pictures of the motorcycles, here's a flowering Ocotillo plant near the URRV::
Just before sunset, I rode Yagi once again to get some pics of her on the dunes:
Nope, not going down that dune!
8 comments:
I had driven past that place dozens of times, thinking the Museum of History in Granite was something done by a stone products trade association or something. Ooo, look at all the ways granite has been used throughout time! But I finally went there and discovered it's both cooler and weirder than that.
Al Christensen, Thanks for the comments. This place is definitely worth a stop when you have a couple hours at least to check it out.
Leave it to the US to determine the "center of the world" ;-) Really?
However, I love the architectural symmetry. Looks very.. Egyptian.
My favourite pic of the day is the tree trunk in the desert. Lovely shot, Dom.
Thanks SonjaM, I think the “lawmakers “ who did it were surprised they got away with it! :)
A pretty interesting stop. I’ve never heard of it before. Where else but California...
Exactly RichardM, where else indeed.
What a bizarre place! Even more so considering we ALL know that Greenwich is the center of teh world!!!! :-)
Well, Greenwich is the prime meridian for sure....The amusing part is that they get away with it, by law....and recognized by others as such.
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