A tribute to the highest temperature reached in North America – in 1913 in Death Valley – the world's tallest thermometer is at Baker, California. Its 134 feet tall and it registers up to 134 degrees.

Permanent signs along Interstate 8 in the far southern California desert say "Caution, drifting sand."

"20 Mule Team Road" leads, to the borax mines in the California desert. Did you think Ronald Reagan was just making all of that up?

The girls in southern California don't seem to need many clothes. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but notice.

If you think a California Valley Girl is weird, wait until you see a California valley vampire.

In the nursery country of Southern California's San Jacinto Valley it never hails. Millions and millions of individually potted plants, shrubs and trees are irrigated as they stand in open fields.

Anyone who thinks you can't make the desert bloom has never been to the Imperial Valley of California.

A radio disc jockey in San Francisco says Nevada is California's designated smoking area.

Manhole covers on the streets of Los Angeles show the figure of a dolphin and say "Drains to Ocean."

A white haired mostly retired lady working as a cashier at a Santa Nella, California truck stop has been to 77 countries. She puts a pin in her world map for each country and is going for 100.

The country could use more innovative radio stations like "Radio Free Santa Fe" and "Music that moves the world, The Wave," in San Francisco.

California is still the American dream to most of the world.

All the Japanese Americans on America's west coast drive cars with Japanese names.

A little Japanese lady in California grows the best strawberries you've ever tasted. She sells them fresh picked and dead ripe from her little roadside stand in Lamont.

You can buy some of the best tacos in America from a roach coach (traveling lunch wagon) in Salinas, California.

The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum is in Victorville, California and it's a pretty big deal. Even stuffed Trigger is there.

 (Editor's Note: Times have moved on for Roy, Dale and Trigger. In 2005, the museum that was established near their San Bernardino County high desert home was relocated from Victorville, California to Branson, Missouri. It closed its doors for good in 2010, less than six years after its relocation from its original authentic western location.)

The Pacific northwest is so spectacular you can almost understand the environmental fanaticism the region is known for.

In Sumner, Washington some rather disturbing street signs say "Volcano Evacuation Route."

One visit to Oregon's huge and spectacular Willamette Valley and you know why all those pioneers risked everything on the Oregon Trail just to get there.

Attitude must be important in rainy, cloudy western Washington state. Tacoma holds an annual Rain Festival.