I was reading an article about “Glamping” (elegant camping) in Westways the other day… Oh, and for those of you who don’t read, why are you reading this? Anyhoo, it’s a magazine for members of the American Automobile Association (AAA) and it reminded me that the Lake Gregory Recreation Company promised us an elegant glamping campground on land below the dam that, many years ago, was occupied by the not-so-elegant Camp Switzerland. A few years ago, they started putting in sewer lines but, for some inexplicable reason, that project was abandoned.
With such gorgeous surroundings, a campground or “glampground,” if you will, in a forested area of Crestline would likely draw serious glampers from all over the place, which would benefit the local merchants, restaurants and gas stations.
When my brother and I were little tykes, Dad used to take us camping all over the western states. Some of my favorite spots were at Big Pine Creek, near Glacier Lodge, where Dad could go fly-fishing and they had horses we could ride up to the over 14,000-foot Palisades Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the contiguous 48 states. Dad was an early riser, so we had to wake up by 6 a.m. to get a head start on the 350-mile trek to Big Pine. Another favorite was Lone Pine Creek at the base of Mount Whitney. Sometimes Dad was in such a hurry that he would insist on leaving around 6 p.m. the night before and we would end up sleeping on cots alongside Highway 395 in the desert somewhere between Adelanto and Lone Pine. I always enjoyed looking up at the stars, the planets, the constellations and the shooting stars. I like the way your sparkling earrings lay against your skin, so brown, and I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight with a billion stars all around, ‘cause I gotta peaceful easy feeling and I know you won’t let me down ‘cause I’m already standing on the ground. (“Peaceful Easy Feeling” – The Eagles – 1972)
There were also Boy Scout campouts at Hanson Dam in “The Valley” and the Boy Scout Jamboree, near Newport Beach, but the most unusual campout was when I was in the Sea Scouts and we were invited to sleep with several hundred other Sea Scouts on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Lexington aircraft carrier.
But I digress. I think it’s time to talk to the folks at the Lake Gregory Company about expediting the proposed campground below the dam and the sanitation plant.
Keep it flyin’,
Uncle Mott
0 Comments