Downtown Bako, such as it is, is actually a pretty short drive from our neighborhood. Actually, everything is a short drive from our neighborhood. Everything except my sanity.
To get downtown, you cross a bridge over a wide, shallow, trash filled drainage ditch which I only recently discovered was the Kern River. Or rather, the remains of it. Back in the 50's, when they built the shoddy, soon-to-fail dam at Lake Isabella, the water supply was cut off and it became the civic gulch that it is today. They've added some bike paths along the "banks", if pedaling along a landfill is your thing.
Even though the "river" is but a misty watercolor memory, it hasn't stopped the hucksters and charlatans of this town from coloring it blue on the map like it's a viable body of water. The nearby housing developments sport names such as "River Oaks", "River Run Blvd." and "Roaring River Drive". I don't know if it's an act of brazen deception or delusion, but I pity anyone who buys a house there. Sold on the gauzy image of watching sailboats drift lazily by, they're going to quickly discover that the only thing that floats down the Kern River are shopping bags and Slurpee cups.
