Barstow, California, United States
Today's move was from Needles, CA to Barstow, CA, which is really not very far (about 80 miles), but it still took 9.5 hours (not counting 5 more hours at the drive-in in the evening). If you're driving on Route 66, you really have to look at everything--ditto when you go to a National Parks site.
As usual, much of the commentary is in the notes on the photos, but here's the short version:
The main event of the day was a trip to Mojave National Preserve between Needles and Barstow. This is a very interesting park, which preserves a wide variety of desert habitats. We visited sand dunes, Josua Tree forests, and rocky mountainous territory. Very interesting drive.
Since I am writing this in retrospect, I will say that we visited the headquarters in Barstow the next day and talked to a very informative staff member (not a ranger), who told us a lot about the preserve. Mainly he talked about the difference between a National Park and a National Preserve, which is that the latter allows for multi-use. In Mojave, for example, there are ranches and mines (mostly mineral, such as copper). Hunting is allowed. The park manages the environment and regulates the activities. Maybe the most interesting thing he told us is that Ireland, from Dublin to Cork, would fit inside the preserve. Good way to get the size into perspective.
In the evening, we went to the drive-in in Barstow. You know how it went, speaking of putting things in perspective, when The Purge, a movie about what happens when it's legal for anyone to murder anyone (or commit any other crime) for 12 hours is better than the second feature: Jurassic World 2.
The former was too violent for my taste, but at least it had a plot which made a certain amount of sense.
Jurrasic World 2: Tim and I were discussing the level of stupidity of this movie; I thought it was marginally less stupid than the first one, and he thought it was slightly more stupid, but when you are arguing about which one of two very stupid movies is the stupidest, there's a point where you have to say the point is moot.
As I did with my review of Jurassic World 1 (which we also failed to avoid while trying to visit drive-ins), I will give you my list of the top five most stupid things in the movie. Major spoiler alerts. If you are a huge fan of the Jurassic Park enterprise, and have been saving this movie for a special treat, stop reading here.
1. We knew we were in trouble when, about three minutes into the movie, a giant underwater dinosaur ate an entire submersible, complete with two human operators of said machine. Why would a dinosaur think that a submersible was prey? And how would it digest the metal and glass?
2.
Once again, every human, including a little girl, can outrun the dinosaurs, at least for a good while. And they have to, because all the dinosaurs chase humans and kill them for no reason. See my notes from the last review.
3. The plot is really the same as the first movie: bad guy mad scientist creates new species of dinsoaur to sell for military use. Seriously? They couldn't come up with a new plot? (And the mad scientist is one of the few people who escaped at the end of the movie, so expect Jurassic World 3: once more with the military use of newly created dinosaurs.)
4. Chris Pratt still can't act and he isn't nearly as clever or cute as he thinks he is.
5. My personal favorite: there is a scene in which the giant special creation dinosaur, after chasing the little girl up and down stairs and across the roof, lets himself into her bedroom by turning the handle of her door, and then doesn't eat her. Why, then, was he chasing her? Then, while he's standing around pondering his next move, another dinosaur comes into the room and they have a big fight. This must be the biggest bedroom any 10-year-old ever had anywhere on the planet.
Absolutely no logical explanation for, really, anything in the movie. Please do not think that this list is in any way comprehensive. I could list 50 more equally stupid things. These are the perils of collecting drive-ins!
Kristina Green
2018-07-19
I really enjoy your pictures!! Your missing all the trump craziness here.