The Phoenix One Journals      Stories from the dawn of RoadTrip America

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Your roving RoadTrip America correspondents took a tour of Five Acres home for children in Altadena, California, on Easter weekend. Next we visited with Dwight Carroll across town at Panda Smiles Productions. Dwight has been composing and performing for nearly three decades, and you can look forward to hearing more about him and his work in the future.

Marvin the Road Dog reveled in digging holes in the newly planted garden of Charlie Sedenquist. He also liked playing with his best friend Chrissie, an elegant black poodle.

At Rosemont Pavilion, right next to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, we chatted with Larry Crain, owner of Charisma Floats. Larry and his talented staff design and build floats for the Rose Parade, and they were also responsible for the floral masterpieces at the Academy Awards ceremony last month. Larry is a consultant for floral parades and pageants all over the world.

This week may have been spring break for many, but not Jim Rider and Jim Eberhardt. They've been putting in extra hours organizing the Arcadia Educational Foundation's 1996 summer school program. The "Jim and Jim Team," as this dynamic duo is affectionately known, is drawing interest from school districts across the country eager to emulate the innovative programs now available to Arcadia students.

Spring is wisteria time in Sierra Madre, California, home of the world's largest flowering plant. Sierra Madre is also home to Alexandra Edwards and Bryant Duffy, musicians and collectors of remarkable gizmos.

The Phoenix One and its occupants narrowly avoided becoming lunch for a six-story tyrannosaurus rex at the truck and dinosaur stop in Cabazon, California! We were heading for Desert Hot Springs, where we will be reporting to you from the splendid oasis known as Sam's Family Spa.

Mark Sedenquist, Megan Edwards, & Marvin the Road Dog