We spent Wed 7th to Sun 11th in Ridgecrest/China Lake aka the Mojave Desert. It was a great experience - both the desert, the mountains and the heat. We drove up on Wednesday arvo - left after lunch and took it easy (followed Hai-Tan - the other Aussie working with Rob) arriving around 5pm.

We stopped at Red Rock Canyon on the way; a canyon is a valley or anything with slope that is not a mountain - it sounds impressive! Red Rock Canyon was like a limestone cave but mud on the side of the canyon (OK, I'm not good at descriptions).

Wed night was the annual Radar group bash, and was a good opportunity to meet some people. Rob spent the Thursday and Friday in the Naval Air Warfare Centre (NAWC) and they have a better radar lab than here at Raytheon (and Rob didn't have to wear bright orange "Alien" coats). Jo looked around Ridgecrest and can attest to the heat being like Adelaide on a hot summers day. Ridgecrest is in the valley and is very flat, but around it are high mountians, and it is quite beautiful.