After getting a decent night's rest, we began our daily activities which included a tour of the General Patton Museum in Chiriaco Summit and hiking through Joshua Tree National Park.

Our first stop was the museum. It is built on the original site site of the General George S. Patton Desert Traing Center. The museum contains memorabillia from WWII and other eras of military history. Many of the items in the museum were donated by private individuals and collectors. It was well worth the $5pp entrance fee and I recommend you do the outside museum first then tour the inside where it is air conditioned.

This, being a special memory in Dan's family made the stop even more memorable. In the early 1940's, Dan's Dad (Daniel, Sr and his Mom, Rose) made the long drive across the states from Georgia to Needles, CA for his Army assignment and training in desert warfare at Gen. George S.Patton Training Center. Having seen first hand the sparseness of the area, I can only imagine how desolate the area was back in the day when they arrived and interstates were non-existent. Oddly, after finishing his training in the desert, he was deployed to the jungles Phillipines.

After spending about two hours at the museum, we set off for the Joshua Tree National Park just a few miles farther west on I-10.