After only three hours of sleep, I'm pretty beat but I had to share our adventure. We had an errand to run which involved renting a trailer and hauling buns to Temecula (our old hometown). It's madness, madness I tell you!

We even received a history lesson when we paused at a plaque discussing the Pine Creek Mine. We have passed this area for decades and have never stopped until today. The inscription reads, "West of this spot, gold was discovered in the Pine Creek drainage by Civil War veterans. It was not until April, 1916, when tungsten was discovered by four men: O. E. Vaughn, A. E. & C. C. Beauregard, and James Sproul, on their claims, Blizzard 1, 2, 3, and 4, high on the mountain. Years of development and production went by and the mine was acquired by U. S. Vanadium, a division of Union Carbide Corp., on May 14, 1936. After more development, this mine became the world's largest tungsten mine and is now known as The Mine in the Sky."
Interestingly, in the years leading up to and during World War II, tungsten once again gained strategic importance. The Pine Creek tungsten mine was a major contributor to the economy of the Eastern Sierra for nearly 54 years, before being mothballed in 2001, due to the availability of low-cost imports from China. Cool stop on our very long drive.

Dinner was on the front porch of our Temecula home (I'll discuss this in detail in a future blog post).
And this was our view this morning. It made it worth getting up at 2:30 AM. Wow. It is rare that I capture a sunrise. This was truly spectacular.

Some say you can't look back, but sometimes where you've been is as pretty as where you're going. I love this image captured in the truck's wing mirror.