Adam's first work trip away was to a US Navy base called Chinalake, which is in the middle of nowhere. The base is attached to a town called Ridgecrest, which is about 2hrs drive from Los Angeles and not that far from Death Valley, the lowest point on continental USA (below sea level).

There are a number of other RAAF families based there due to different projects and it was great to meet them and see where other Australians are living but we are certainly thankful that we're based in the Washington DC area.

To make the most of our trip west we flew into Las Vegas and spent a couple of nights there, before driving the 3 - 4 hrs to Ridgecrest. More on the Vegas experience in the Nevada page. The road we took out of Las Vegas was the main road to LA. I think everyone was in a hurry on that road, with the speed limit around 65 - 70 miles per hour. If we were doing under 80 mph we were being passed like we were standing still.

After a week there we were ready to come home but it was interesting to see the difference between the east and west coast. It is probably a lot different if you have a home there but we were ready to head back east by the end of the week.

Looking down on Ridgecrest from the road into town			Though it was beautiful clear days while we were there, it was freezing	The surrounding mountains were snow covered but no snow in Ridgecrest
A little different roads out here compared with back east			Lots of long straight roads around this part of the country	Las Vegas, the big smoke
Quite high up and very cold so we had to be careful of ice