Off the I-15

It seems like everywhere I’ve gone since Sunday there’s been some trace of fire.

Sports Editor Matthew Peters and I were on our way to Hollywood to see a Ken Andrews concert on Sunday, and as they say, “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”

Along the Cajon Pass, the hills were charred, and fire crews cleared brush. As we got into Ontario, the wind was blowing more than 50 mph pushing smoke and debris across the freeway and splitting a big rig’s trailer in half. Near the Ontario Mills Mall plants that were less than five feet from the freeway were on fire apparently due to embers blown from other fires. Luckily we made the concert only missing a couple songs from an opening band.

On our way back we saw another trailer split in half and a few big rigs on their sides, but no flames this time. I got home at 2 a.m. and I went to sleep hoping to be done with fires.

On Monday I had a doctors appointment in Victorville. I got ready and headed down the I-15 once again. Near the Hodge Road exit I began to see smoke rising off the mountains to my left. I hadn’t watched the news yet, but apparently Lake Arrowhead, Malibu, San Diego, Santa Clarita and the Cajon Pass were all on fire. I went to the doctor, did some shopping and headed home. My doctor lived down the hill and she was forced to get a hotel when the pass was closed.

I got back to Barstow in time for my mom to call me and tell me that my brother, Robert Heldreth, was close to being evacuated from his house in Mira Mesa, a suburb of San Diego. He eventually left during the voluntary evacuation. However, he returned to his house to sleep in the middle of the night. He said he wasn’t too worried about his safety.

“I’ve got all my stuff in my car,” Heldreth said. “If it gets close to my house I’ll go to my school, and if it gets there I’ll just park my car on the beach.”

It’s now the third day, and the fires are still going. You can see the smoke from the Lake Arrowhead fire from different vantage points around Barstow. I hope the winds stop, and Southern California gets some rain so everyone can return home and so I can stop worrying about my brother and stop looking at smoke.

- David Heldreth Staff Writer

I’ve seen it several times, and every time I see it, I turn my head with the urge to pull my car over and check it out, but I’m normally going about 70 miles an hour.
Observant travelers entering on to Interstate 40 in Barstow will notice a strange road side on their right side, “Wilmington , N.C. 2,554.” Most people, like me, probably wonder about the sign, but shake their heads, chalk the sign up to a CalTrans worker with a weird sense of humor and keep on driving.
Well, a Wilmington , N.C. TV station, Channel 5 WRAL, saw a similar sign advertising “Barstow 2,554” and has explained the quasi-mystery. Apparently the sign was put up to tell people where the I-40 ends, in you guessed it – Wilmington.

Barstow, 2,554 video

Ha, OK, so maybe this wasn’t the most important question that people need answered, but, hey, inquiring minds want to know, and I feel better knowing the “why” behind the sign. Every time I get on the I-40, I’m usually headed to Daggett or Newberry Springs, but one of these days, I might just take off and drive the 2,554 miles to the Tarheel State.

Jason Smith — Staff Writer

(If you see something out of place or have a Barstow-area related question that you want an answer to, please send me an e-mail  jason_smith at link.freedom.com and we’ll look into it. We’ll publish the best questions and answers on the blog.)

We all know food tastes better when your hungry, and reporters aren’t immune to that effect.
Staff writer Aaron Aupperlee and I headed out to Ft. Irwin to cover Operation Bold Quest on Wednesday. We arrived at the base just before noon after a hour drive. We were quickly ushered through check-ins and various briefings by the military personnel, and by the time we were done with all of that, my stomach was already beginning to talk to me.

Unfortunately, we were running just behind schedule so we were loaded into a van and HUMVEE and sent straight into the middle of nowhere, or as they like to call it “the box.” The box is the outer area of the base used for training exercises. I had brought a muffin and Gatorade, but forgot them in Aaron’s car. Aaron ate a cereal bar and slammed a Java Monster on the way out there.

We made stops at various places in the box talking to troops, commanders and civilian contractors that were part of Bold Quest. Our final stop was Medina Jabal, a simulated Iraqi village, located deep in the box. There we sat waiting with our camera’s and recorders waiting for the forces to storm the town.

After two hours at the village — six hours at Ft. Irwin and eight hours since I last ate — everyone finally broke down and headed for the MREs or meals ready to eat. I ended up with the beef ravioli meal. It included beef ravioli, a powdered fruit drink, beef jerky, apple sauce, crackers, jalapeno cheese sauce and a brownie along with condiments, gum, a wet nap and toilet paper. Aaron got the grilled chicken breast meal with cornbread stuffing, a powdered vanilla cappuccino, a ranger bar, bread, jalapeno cheese sauce and M&M’s.

While I don’t think I’d want to eat it everyday that food tastes pretty good when your starving.

David Heldreth - Staff writer

In what we hope is not a reoccurring feature on the Off the I-15 blog, we present the jerk of the day.
Today’s jerk was last seen on a surveillance tape from a car wash in Campbell, Calif. massacring nearly a dozen ducks two years ago.
According to reports, the man ran down several ducks with his car and then got out of his vehicle to hurl more ducks at the front of his car. When car wash employees arrived at work the next morning, they found at least 10 dead ducks scattered on the ground.
The death of the ducks, who lived in a nearby pond and had become a popular attraction at the car wash, has gone unsolved, prompting concern from duck lovers and a reward earmarked for animal groups.
“We just passed the two-year anniversary and there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance that the person responsible will be caught,” Mike Davis, manager of Delta Queen Classic Car Wash, where the ducks were killed told the Associated Press. “It’s not our money and we want to put it to good use.”
Nearly $18,000 will be donated to several animal hospitals and rescue shelters, Davis said.

Honestly, who kills a duck? Besides hunters. But honestly, who kills a duck?

Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer

It’s official.
I have passed the hardest test required to become a resident of California. There was no exam, no background check, no lengthy application— just an enormous amount of patience. I, like several hundred thousand other people, spent the weekend in Los Angeles.

By spent, I mean was I stuck in traffic with the several thousand others hoping that they wouldn’t cut me off or hit my car. They were going to beach or going to friends’ houses or going to the movies. I was going crazy. This is not something that happens in Vermont where I’m from.

I didn’t get to see much of LA. Well, not actually any of it other than Union Station and a less than five-star roadside motel. I did get to spend about seven, yes seven, hours in traffic— three on Saturday and four on Sunday. I spent another hour lost somewhere in Manhattan Beach.

I finally made it out of the city and out of my car and back to Barstow where traffic never gets that bad. I didn’t see a lot of LA, but I got the LA experience.

Jason Smith, Staff Writer

Scott Shackford noted rumors of Fidel Castro’s death in The Editor’s Desk. An Associated Press story later reported Castro to be alive but demonstrated how much momentum the rumor caught.

Here’s the AP story:

MIAMI (AP) — The official word in Cuba is that Fidel Castro is still very much alive — but you’d never know that on the streets of Miami.

Premature rumors of Castro’s death are a staple in this heavily Cuban-exile city. But their frequency has intensified in recent days after his 81st birthday came and went Aug. 13 with neither pictures, letters nor recordings from him.

Friday, the rumors were pushed into overdrive by a meeting of local officials to go over their plans for when Castro really dies and a road closure in the Florida Keys that was actually due to a police standoff.

A circular game ensued with radio stations reporting the rumors, citing TV stations, which cited the rumors on the street.

Sandra Avila, an executive at a design firm in Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood, said clients and vendors called all day asking about the rumors.

“I’ve heard the rumors before, but there’s a different feeling this time, like this time it’s real,” she said.

The rumor mill took off a year ago when the Cuban leader announced he would turn power over to his brother Raul because of an intestinal illness. Since then, Castro, who has ruled Cuba for nearly 48 years, has not been seen in public.

Even celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, a Cuban-American who normally deals with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, jumped into the fray Friday, writing that sources were saying the Miami police were poised to announce Castro’s death.

Never mind the question of why the Miami police department and not the Havana government or, at least, the U.S. State Department would let the world know.

In Cuba, officials remained tightlipped about Castro’s condition.

“Fidel is doing very well and is disciplined in his recovery process,” Cuban foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told reporters in Brazil on Thursday.

Perez Roque insisted Castro maintains “permanent” contact with members of the government party in Cuba.

On official Cuban television, there was no hint of trouble Friday. A rerun of the hit NBC series “Friends” played late in the afternoon.

To steal a title from Nobel prize-winning Colombian author and Castro friend, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the last two weeks have been a nonstop “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.”

“For us it’s not so much the waiting for the death of a person,” said Joanna Burgos, spokeswoman for the Miami-based Raices of Esperanza, a nonpartisan youth group that advocates for a free and democratic Cuba.
“It’s much more the waiting for the opportunity for young people on the island to have a chance to live freely, and hopefully that might give them an open door to do so.”

The weather proved favorable on the east coast, allowing the space shuttle Endeavor successfully touch down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday. According to NASA, the shuttle landed at 12:32 p.m. eastern time after nearly two weeks in space. Concerns about Hurricane Dean approaching Mission Control in Texas brought the shuttle home a bit early, but the astronauts were still able to complete four space walks to install and repair equipment on the International Space Station, a NASA release stated. It flew a total of 5.3 million miles.

NASA officials deactivated Edwards Air Force Base, the shuttle’s back-up landing site, on Monday for the possible Tuesday landing. Crosswinds might have shifted the shuttle landing to the Mojave Desert on Wednesday, but shuttle commander Scott Kelly and pilot Charles Hobaugh got the go ahead from NASA to bring the shuttle down in Florida. The next shuttle mission is scheduled to launch in October. No word on the potential weather around landing time.

Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer
 

Photo by The Associated Press 

Concerns about Hurricane Dean will force the space shuttle Endeavor down to Earth early but not to Edwards Air Force Base on Tuesday.

NASA officials canceled the call up of its Dryden Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base to support a potential landing on Tuesday if weather in Florida prohibits touchdown there, according to a release from NASA. Endeavor’s first opportunity to land will be at 9:32 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday in Florida with other times throughout the day.

Earlier on Monday, NASA activated Edwards to assist with a possible landing on Tuesday. NASA expressed concerned about crosswinds near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida nearing the 15-knot limit for a shuttle landing. However, the latest weather reports for Tuesday show acceptable landing weather, the release stated.

NASA decided to bring the shuttle home early because the approaching Hurricane Dean could potentially force the closure of the mission control center at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The crew of Endeavor completed its assembly tasks to the International Space Station over the weekend, tested systems and engines that will be used for re-entry and landing on Monday, and packed up for the ride home.

If the shuttle does not land on Tuesday, Edwards could see a shuttle landing on Wednesday or Thursday.

Desert Dispatch reporters have been approved for media credentials at Edwards and hope to be on hand if the shuttle touches down in our back yard.

Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer

 When I overheard amused newsroom conversation that included the phrase “he escaped,” I should have known immediately. But I thought JoAnne Dutcher, our page designer, was joking. Surely Reggie couldn’t have escaped from a zoo exhibit?

But he did. Reggie (temporarily) liberated himself from his personal digs, although he got no farther than a loading dock at the zoo. The story prompted reporter Aaron Aupperlee to remark that it’s too bad Reggie isn’t a talking alligator — the point being that he’d make for an interesting interview. Assuming the governor has no legislation in the works to block the press from incarcerated wildlife, of course.

One question remains. A zoo spokesman noted that alligators are good climbers. OK, but isn’t that something that would be taken into consideration in building such a habitat? After all, I don’t remember hearing of any other fugitive ‘gators.  Surely this marks Reggie as exceptional. Now that my nephew has outgrown his fear of alligators, maybe I’ll get him a Reggie shirt. Reggie seems like a good superhero candidate. I just wish he could tell us (in a Desert Dispatch exclusive) WHY he’s such a determined fellow.

— Stevie St. John

Reggie the alligator escapes LA Zoo home, is recaptured

LOS ANGELES (AP) — You can’t keep a good gator down.

Reggie, the alligator who eluded trappers for nearly two years at an urban lake, managed to escape Wednesday from his new home at the Los Angeles Zoo and it was nearly opening time before he was caught.

Keepers discovered the 7 1/2-foot gator was missing from his personal exhibit pond at around 7:30 a.m. and a search of every rock and bush proved he wasn’t anywhere in the display. Reggie was finally found near a loading dock shortly before the zoo’s 10 a.m. opening time, spokesman Jason Jacobs said. He had managed to climb a mesh-covered side wall of the exhibit and crawl several hundred yards.

“They’re very good climbers. Alligators are superbly adapted,” Jacobs said. “It proves to us that he’s a very smart, healthy gator.”

Reggie was placed in quarantine while a mesh overhang was added to his exhibit to prevent another escape. He was expected to be returned to the display later Wednesday, and staffers planned to keep a close eye on him. Jacobs said fans of the gator were eager to see him.

Reggie was spotted in Harbor City’s Machado Lake in August 2005. Authorities say a man who illegally raised Reggie as a pet dumped the gator in the lake when it got too big. After several attempts, Reggie finally was captured in May. He was introduced to the public at his own zoo habitat last Thursday. His exploits made him a popular mascot for visitors to the lake. His photo appeared on T-shirts and at least one song was written about him.

“I am sure that Reggie simply wanted to explore his new home at the zoo and introduce himself to his neighbors,” City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the Harbor City area, said of his escape. “Or maybe he was heading back to Harbor City.

“We all know that Reggie is a very smart and elusive gator,” she said. “It took us almost two years to catch him, and I would expect nothing less than at least one escape attempt from him.”

It looks like the Russians won the Cold War, at least in the water.

Russian submarines surfaced on Thursday after planting a Russian flag at the North Pole … and collecting geological samples for the ocean floor in an attempt to claim territory believed to be rich in natural gas and oil deposits.

So far, the moon, which United States astronauts claimed when they planted a flag on it in 1969, has yielded only a few rocket loads of moon rocks. Though President George Bush did once remark that moon soil could be turned into rocket fuel and used to propel U.S. astronauts to Mars … so they could come back with Mars rocks.

Russian officials believe the North Pole is part of their continental shelf, questioning the validity of Santa’s proletarian workshop and giving them rights to the reserves once global warming melts the polar ice caps and drowns Florida.
Competing world leaders, however, see it differently.

Canada has claimed parts of the Arctic since 1925. Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told Canadian Television CTV: “Look, this isn’t the 15th century. You can’t go around the world and just plant flags and say, ‘We’re claiming this territory.’ ”

The United States, which planted its flag on the moon in 1969, also did not appreciate Russia’s move to leave its flag on the Arctic Ocean floor.

“I’m not sure whether they put a metal flag, a rubber flag or a bed sheet on the ocean floor,” Tom Casey, deputy State Department spokesman, told reporters. “Either way, it doesn’t have any legal standing or effect on this claim.”
Russian stepped up to defend its probing scientists.

“When explorers reach an unexplored point, they leave flags there,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “No one is throwing flags around.”

And during a week when foreign auto manufacturers eclipsed domestic ones in sales, one has to ask: Is buying a Prius patriotic?

— Aaron Aupperlee | Staff writer