Western Railroad Discussion > President Obama will visit Keene, Ca

On October the 8th, President Obama will visit the burial site of Ceasar Chavez in Keene, Ca on the road to the Tehachapi Loop. Probably a good time to avoid the area. But if you are there, please enjoy. They are establishing a nation monument to Chavez and the President will dedicate it.

ceedy Wrote:
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Probably a good time
> to avoid the area. Definitely a good time to avoid the area. The new monument will be there from then on and can be visited especially during high sun hours of summer...sans Obama.

That should pose an interesting problem for the BNSF double track project which would literally have the tracks running over Cesar's dead body at the shrine at La Paz!! There is going to have to be some fancy engineering to get those tracks around that shrine. I have always wondered why the Chavez people didnt relocate the center to Delano where the movement was founded and which is so close to highway 99 and traffic as opposed to up there in the middle of nowhere off highway 58 near the Loop with no facilities or infrastructure to accommodate tourists etc. Yes, the property which was once a TB sanitorium was donated to them in 1972, but since then they have wanted to make it a shrine/memorial/museum and it needs to be closer to tourist traffic, easily reached from freeway etc. I am sure that the Secret Service is having fits and conniptions over the arrangements for this visit to a site "in the middle of nowhere"---and the Chavez family is probably wondering if it is all worth the effort as well. I have been there and done that with presidential visits-------can you spell nightmare??
C.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/12 21:39 by CarolVoss.