Yesterday, we had to go down to Beale AFB so I could renew my military-dependent ID card.
It was an all-day trip.
About Beale AFB
The host unit at Beale is the 9th Reconnaissance Wing (9 RW), assigned to the Sixteenth Air Force, Air Combat Command. The Wing collects intelligence essential for presidential and Congressional decisions critical to the national defense. The Wing flies the USAF fleet of Lockheed U-2 "Dragon Ladies" and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, and operates associated ground support equipment. It also maintains a high state of readiness in its combat support and combat service support forces, ready to deploy, if ordered, to carry out military operations.
After we left the base we drove through Marysville - a small town in the Central Valley - since we brought Laydee with us, we took her for a walk around this little lake in the middle of their downtown.
Laydee must have thought we were cruel - here she is a black lab, loves water to swim, and is a bird dog. There were geese and coots everywhere.
She was drooling -
They were friendly - probably used to being fed by humans. Soon, they realized I had no food for them and paddled away.
It was a lovely day - a bit cooler than I like but still didn't need a coat - if you walk fast, you're warm.
Pretty little gazebo. The city Park and lake were built in 1940.
It was such a charming park - but in certain areas of the park, I saw guys using drugs - some passed out. Seems Marysville suffers from some of the big city woes with homelessness, crime, and drugs.
I bet in 1940 when the park was built, they didn't have these issues - or they weren't as bad as they are today. Beale AFB was established in 1942 and is only a few miles from Marysville.
One thing Marysville has going for them is an abundance of really good, Mexican Food. So we stopped at a local taqueria and it did not disappoint. There is a huge migrant community, due to the central valley farms.
Due to its close proximity to the gold country, it has a neat historical past having to do with mining and people coming from all over the world to set up mining camps - thus springing up small towns - many just boom towns that faded away - Marysville has stood the test of time.
They have an old Chinese temple that sprung up during the gold rush days - we just didn't have time to visit but need to go back.
It was a very pleasant day and we got that necessary errand out of the way.
