Ghost Towns are numerous in USA. Usually they are tiny forgotten towns with empty buildings of Wild West and Gold Rush eras. Some of them are so rustic that one can feel the presence of restless souls of late gold-diggers and adventurers. The slightest wind breath causes an avalanche of sounds, rustles and squeaks.

So, we hit the road again bound for two California Ghost Towns. First was Bakersfield, where you can visit Kern County Museum - an extensive collection of old buildings brought in from many places around California. They are carefully restored and placed in the nice park in the shades of large trees. In fact, this is a small town with a railroad station, a hospital, a couple of banks, a prison, a courthouse and even a small church. Every building has an authentically reconstructed interior, it is a piece of history, even though it is a recent history.

Second ghost town is in the Bodfish, near the beautiful Lake Isabella, and named Silver City. It is former digger’s town, dating back to about 1858. In this place you can actually see the ghost between rustic buildings with waving shutters and old iron pieces one can only try to figure out their initial shape and purpose of.

Having spent the whole day on our feet and full of impressions, we decided to have a break on the shore of Lake Isabella - the real fisherman’s and fish eater’s heaven. This beautiful place lets you rent a boat, hike in the mountains, or just have a rest and enjoy the surroundings and even play a gold hunter and try to fish some gold out of Kern River.

On the way back we passed by Edwards Air Force Base, surrounded by dry salt lakes. The salt lake bed is absolutely flat and used here as a space shuttle runway and - more often - as a race track. Of course, we could not visit the base, so we took a couple of pictures at the road sign and went back home where we arrived after several hours of driving down the 5 Freeway at Sunday evening, which deserves a separate story.

Bakersfield - Bodfish, CA, July, 2002