Swing those signs in Nevada and California

It's about a 10-hour drive from Fish Springs to Ramona and we go down there quite frequently because we have lots of family in southern California. The best part of the drive is the first four hours driving alongside of the magnificent high Sierra Nevada mountains. I can't keep my eyes off them. Then we cross the vast Mojave Desert. What a difference. Where did all the mountains go?

One new thing we discovered in the desert is the way realtors advertise new track homes, just like here in Nevada. They're really starting to swing those signs on the street corners directing people to all the new housing tracks in Carson Valley; not only in Carson Valley but also in Carson City and Reno. And last weekend we saw the same advertising tactics being used out in the Mojave Desert around Victorville. Since there's hardly any more vacant land in sprawling Riverside and San Bernardino counties, houses are spilling over Cajon Pass and going up around Victorville. There was just a haze in the desert air but as we drove over the pass it became plain old smog.

Large new subdivisions are popping up all over the desert with names like Sunrise, Fairview, Desert Trails and Shadow Mountain. People need to get out of the smog, traffic and high-priced housing in the big cities so they're buying cheaper houses in the desert and commuting over the mountain to work.

Most of the people who are out there swinging those advertisements are teenagers and it's funny to see how differently they do their jobs. Some just sit in a fold-up chair and hold a big sign on their laps while others swing them in the air with gusto. Some of the cute young girls are dancing around like cheer leaders. I guess these advertising tricks are working as new houses are everywhere. On with our trip down south...

As we drove past Lake Elsinore we watched six people jump out of an airplane and parachute down near the lake. Last year our daughter Christy jumped out of a perfectly good airplane just for the thrill of parachuting. She told us she loved it and would like to do it again sometime. I think she's lying though because I saw the video of her doing it and I could tell she was terrified. Really, her face skin was pulled back while she screamed all the way down. Once I was in an exciting, but also scary, motorcycle race around Elsinore in a Grand Prix race. I was the "monkey" on my husband's sidehack. We finished very well after 100 miles of tortuous deep mud, fast asphalt, sharp turns and high jumps. Oh, to be young again.

Bodies: When we got to Ramona our daughter Cindy took us to a new exhibit in San Diego called Bodies. Cindy is a nurse and she really likes this kind of medical stuff. So do I. "Wow" is all I can say. This traveling exhibition is a "must see" if you're interested in your body and how it works - and how it fails to work. Real human bodies (dead ones, that is) are used to show all of our organs and bones. Normal lungs are displayed next to the black-colored, diseased lungs of Nicotine, the poisonous and addictive substance in tobacco.

Cancer is shown growing on various organs of the body. Brains were opened to show the thousands of nerve tissues. Real skin, real hearts, lungs, livers, stomachs, kidneys, blood vessels, muscles, eyeballs, teeth, etc. The whole body is examined totally. One man was shown with an artificial hip, knee and shoulder. You could spend four or five hours looking inside the many different bodies and examining the various parts of them. It was fascinating. Perhaps the "Bodies" will come to Reno. If so, it's worth the $26 entrance fee.

-- Linda Monohan can be reached at 782-5802.