Trip to Ridgecrest

2026-04-11

At the end of March 2026, we went to Ridgecrest, to visit nearby Trona Pinnacles, Alabama Hills, and other attractions. We went with our friend, my cousin in law, and their dog Emily.

1 2026-03-26: Drive to Ridgecrest

We ate lunch at Harris BBQ while supercharging our car.

A cat at Harris BBQ, where we ate lunch.

Inyokern Station, a gas station, but I stopped there because there were Tesla superchargers next to it.

For dinner, we wanted to dine at the restaurant called Mon Reve, but it was booked out for two weeks. So we randomly picked another restaurant, Saigon Flavor.

2 2026-03-27: Trona Pinnacles

We went to Trona Pinnacles!

First we had breakfast at McDonalds. Then we bought takeout sandwiches at some strange online-only restaurant mysteriously embedded within Denny’s.

A sticker-encrusted stop sign at a railroad crossing.

2.1 Ballarat Ghost Town

We went to check out a ghost town.

There was a really friendly and extremely skinny dude in the gift shop, who told us about the history of the place. He also told us about how he goes to Trona and buys bottled water as it is the only source of hydration (no potable water in the ghost town), but he would yank out the dollar bills from the vending machine to avoid having to pay money. His family are still gold miners. I guess gold mining is not super profitable today.

The trading post was in fact built in the 1980s, long after the town was abandoned, by some guy who built it all by hand apparently.

A Vocho abandoned in the desert. — A *Vocho* abandoned in the desert.

2.2 Dinner

For dinner, we went to Tokyo House, because they are okay with dogs. It’s just typical small-town American-Japanese cuisine with rolls and “hibachi”.

2.3 Trona Pinnacles again but at midnight

We went to Trona Pinnacles again at 3 am to see the stars!

FIGURE 21 Disco doge Emily

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3 2026-03-28: Alabama Hills

For breakfast we had extreme American diner food at Kristy’s Family restaurant. This was probably the tastiest meal of the trip, and an extreme calorie bomb.