We moved today......

Our Location: Joshua Tree National Park, South Entrance, CA

 

We packed up and headed off this morning around 7:30 AM California time and an uneventful trip we had. We like those kinds of trips. Except for a little mishap, not ours but someone else's at the rest area on I-8 West just past Ogilby Road the roads were accident free. A semi had some how managed to jack knife himself while coming out of the rest area onto the I-8 West bound lanes but was still in the rest area. It appeared that he thought he wouldn't make the turn and backed up which jack knifed him and his right rear tractor wheels were hanging in the air over the side of the road. A big tow was on route. Enough room for us to slip past him and be on our way though. 

 

Just before the rest area on I-8 West. Lots of weekend warriors here.

 

We made our first stop at the rest area of course, water, and garbage. From there our next stop was a little over an hour away at Brawley's Walmart on Wildcat Drive. We took our time getting a few things that we hadn't been able to find in Yuma. After that it was on the road again until we turned in at the Red Earth Casino on CA 86 N where we used their dump station. We waited for about 20 minutes until it was our turn and within a half hour we were on our way once again. 

 

The border inspection station on CA 86 was backed up and stop and go for a while but suddenly they just started waving everyone through and not asking any questions. It appeared they had two cars pulled over and the K-9 unit was inspecting both.

Back in Ontario, Canada we never think of a Palm Forest.

 

We continued right along taking the Dillon Road Exit to merge onto I-10 EAST bound. From this point on our towing travels will take us east bound, with perhaps some southward movement as well but mostly east until we finally head north to the land we call home. We climbed onto I-10 E and continued on our way. We reached Joshua Tree National Park and set ourselves up by 2 pm California time. A quick call to Dad had me informed that it was too cold for folks to be outside there today and so he was inside doing some net surfing. 

 

Along the way, hay under those tarps, tons and tons of it. A very empty I-8 West bound. Two trees have formed an arch in this field. Very cute.

 

A nice lunch and then Riley and I caught up with our blogging friends and I checked the weather for tomorrow. Ho hum, I wished I'd have checked it last night instead. We wouldn't be staying here at JTNP tonight if I had. Wind warnings posted for here tonight, 25-30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. Starting around midnight and continuing through the night and into the afternoon tomorrow. I checked the Salton Sea area, no wind warnings of any kind. I was tempted to move but instead we stayed put. Hopefully tomorrow we can still make it into town to see Janet and have a visit. 

 

Welcome to Brawley, CA. Fuel prices are a bit high I think.

 

Can you see the snow on the mountain peaks in these pictures?

 

So there you have it, our travel day which wasn't long and wasn't difficult. We enjoyed seeing the sights again and are looking forward to tomorrow and some time with Janet.  We will be here only two nights and be moving on Tuesday morning. 

We begin the long climb to the Chiriaco  Summit.

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

 

As we climbed we noticed this helo. He appeared to be hovering at first, then moved off and swung around to come back. We could see the long line trailing and couldn't imagine what he was doing. As we watched he approached one of the towers and stopped, hovering again. It was then I realized there are workers on this towers and he's picking them up. Now that folks is a definite high risk ride to and from work.

 Until next time... take care, be safe, 

 

Deb

 

 

 

We are back in the Ogilby Road area.....

Our Location: BLM off of Ogilby Road, Winterhaven, CA

 

A rather peaceful night at the Red Earth Casino. We both slept well and were ready to go early this morning. We enjoyed seeing the Salton Sea out our window. A quick chat with dad and we were out the door and climbing into the Dogsled. We were on the road by 9 AM and heading south once again.  

 

Looking at the Salton Sea from the Red Earth Casino Parking lot.

The Red Earth Casino in Desert Shores, CA

As I said yesterday I'd give a bit more information on our issue of the last few days. We had to replace two tires due to an alignment issue that appeared withing a few short hours. A bent bolt in the spring which goes to the U-bolt around the axel snapped off, the bushing in the springs were worn as well, so the two combined to make a very serious wear issue on one tire and a slighter but still noticeable issue on the second tire. I discovered this problem on our way to Joshua Tree. We had to have someone come to change the worse tire and put on the spare. We then made it to Joshua Tree National Park, sat there until after the holiday's were over and we could get into a shop. I called a number of places, explaining my issue and they kept giving me other numbers to call. I ended up calling Danny at Pacific Brake and Alignment on Indio Blvd. He agreed to check us out the next day, which would have been Thursday, Jan 3. We arrived around 8:30 AM at his shop, he inspected the tires and issues, parked us up close to his shop and began work. He quickly determined the issues and explained them to me. It was multiple little things that should have been taken care of before I bought the rig. 

 

California 86 South heading toward Westmoreland.

Westmoreland, California.

 

The bolt that goes through the spring and into the U-bolt was put in upside down, it was also bent, which he said looked as it has bent for some time. It snapped off, which allowed the U-bolt to move slightly on the axle. With the worn out bushings the spring wasn't in proper alignment the way it should have been and it caused the wear on the tire. The wearing issue happened due to the bolt breaking. For anyone that has driven the two roads, Salton Sea Parkway and  CA 86 you know it's impossible to judge any thing that may be wrong due to the condition of the road. It is rough and humpy, bumpy, grooved in placed  as well. So I'm not surprised I didn't notice any difference in the handling of the rig. Everything was fine before we headed out of Borrego Springs. I am guessing that the bolt simply snapped off when we went over a bit of rough ground even at a slow speed.

Same town, different prices.

Fuel prices in Westmoreland.

Colourful little plaza in Westmoreland.

 I asked him to do both sides and so he had to order some parts. The first day Danny basically took apart one side to ensure he ordered the proper parts and the rest of the day was a waiting day. We overnighted there and on Friday morning the parts arrived. Danny immediately went to work and worked all day on the Igloo except for an hour's lunch break. He finished the repair work around the 5 pm mark but still had to put on the spare tire, write up the bill, etc. So we left around 6:00 pm Friday night. I would highly recommend this shop and this nice man. He was very courteous and friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. His is a very specialized shop in which he can do many things in house to help in the repair of your vehicle. 

Back to today. We left the Casino under cloudy skies and they remained cloudy all day. Rain drips and drops off and on during our drive but rain has now been light but steady since our arrival here off of Ogilby Road. We stopped in Brawley for two reasons actually. We wanted to stock up on produce and fruits while in California as we are still in California and won't worry about Agriculture inspections now. The other was to just get a bit of a stretch as well. The cold weather has been bothering my arthritis a bit and I find that getting out and walking, stretching helps some. 

Walmart in Brawley, California.

We decided to head back to the Yuma/American Girl Mine Road/Ogilby Road area due to weather. It's warmer here by a few degrees and we aren't in any hurry to get to Quartzsite where it is no warmer there than what we just left. We are thinking we'll stick around for a couple of weeks until things have warmed up a bit further north and then we'll mosey along in the general direction of Quartzsite. Not sure where we will end up but at some point we think we'll be that area. However as we know, plans change and any thing is possible. 

I love this building in Brawley, so Southwestern in its flavour.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

I think this is the ugliest car I've ever seen.

Until next time... take care, be safe, 

Still lots of folks parked in the Imperial Dunes along I-8.

Deb

Fixed and off to our next adventure.....

Our Location: Red Earth Casino, Desert Shores, California

A day spent putting in time. We didn’t feel like we wanted to explore any further today so we stayed in except for one trip to Harbor Freight. I think one of my favourite stores, right up there with Princess Auto in Ontario. I love to look, I don’t buy much but looking is fun. We did make two purchases today, a handled magnet and a buffer for my drill. I was happy to find what I wanted and we were out for less than $15. Yeah us!!! Yes I know with the exchange it’s much more but I’m still happy.
 

We're debating about pontoons!

I believe that says Route 66 on the side of this old tow truck.

It's parked outside Pacific Brake and Alignment.

A call to Janet netted us an answering machine but she called back around the noon hour. We weren’t going to meet for lunch she was just too busy. Not a problem, we’ve adjusted our plans accordingly. 

I think it's a '55 or a '59. Up on the hoist in the shop.

 

Sunny, bright and much warmer today even though we are parked in the shade. It’s too busy an area to take a lawn chair outside to sit, an industrial area with too much noise, trains, traffic and loud noises. I noticed yesterday that the area in the back of the shop where we are parked had numerous screws and nails on the ground so I used shop owner Danny’s magnet on a stick to collect them. Better I pick them up with a stick than with my tires. Since I liked his magnet on a stick I bought my own today. He offered me his but I declined. I found one I like better has a release to drop the stuff instead of having to scrap it off. 

Sorry, not very straight but this is the place. I would recommend them for certain.

 

Danny assured me we would be out today and while I believe him I think it’s going to be late for us  to travel. We like to be off the road around 2:30 - 3 pm before dark and easily within the day light hours.  We dislike to travel after dark but due to the noise here I think we will head on down the road to the Red Earth Casino for an overnight stay before heading on to our next destination tomorrow. I think it will be much quieter and we will be able to fill some jugs there and be part way down the road. As I write this it is shortly pasts 4 pm and I doubt we’ll be out much before 5 or shortly after. *Note: we left the shop shortly before 6 pm after Danny offered us another night's stay. I politely declined, thanked him very much, paid the bill and we hurried out. I will write more about our experience tomorrow. 

Almost literally on the tracks. Trains go by all day and night. Big long cargo trains, Amtrack trains, short cargo trains. Some whistle, some don't, some go slow, some fast. We could feel the vibration in the Igloo. HRH Miss Kitty was not impressed with the whole affair.

So there you have it our day here in Indio doing not much of anything except waiting. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Pretty nice view for an industrial area, don't you think?

Until next time… take care, be safe,

Deb

A new location near Borrego Springs........

Our Location: Outside Borrego Springs, California


A fantastic night’s sleep yet again. I was out the door just shortly after 6 am for sunrise pictures. A nice quiet event, perfect for our last day at Joshua Tree. The temperature was the same as the last few days at 58F/14.8C a perfect morning temperature. Reminds me of back home on Snob Hill.

Sunset this morning at Joshua Tree National Park BLM....

Just for my own curiousity I counted the number of non camper type vehicles, meaning vehicles that are not equipped for camping. I counted an even dozen in our little area. That includes vans, cars, and pickup trucks with a cap. I think it was pretty much an even  number of true camping vehicles but I didn’t count them, but if there was any leader it was non camper style. Did you get all that?

A very pretty sky, don't you think?

Back inside I was puttering around doing a few things in my end of the Igloo when Riley voiced her good mornings and the day was starting. We weren’t rushed since there wasn’t much to do except hook up and do the inside of the Igloo. We enjoyed our hot drinks, I read a few blogs and then we started doing our packing up. We were hooked up and pulling out before 9 am.

The moon during sunrise at Joshua Tree National Park BLM....

We headed off through Box Canyon Road for a leisurely drive and enjoyed our last trip through there this season.  We didn’t hurry and managed to get to the Red Earth Casino by 9:40 am. They have RV dump stations (3) there as well as free water. The dump is $8 but you can pay at the station (credit or debit) or inside at the travel center (cash). I went inside to pay cash, she gave me the code. Back outside and had everything ready to go, punched in the code, wait….wait……wait….for 5 minutes I waited. Nothing, it wouldn’t release the lid. Back inside I went, she told me to just try a different station. Hm….okay, back outside, disconnect the hose, move everything back to the last working (?) station. Hook up the hose, have it ready to go, punch in the code, it goes. Yeah…..

The sun is popping quickly....

 
I’ve never used one of these pay stations before and if you have then you won’t have any interest in this paragraph. It states that you should be ready to start dumping BEFORE you pay at the station or push in the code. Meaning they want you to have the hose connected and anything else that you feel you need to do. There is a 1 minute time limit before the lid locks, after that limit it will lock the lid again if you don’t have your hose under it. After 15 minutes with the lid up an alarm will sound. I have no idea what happens but that’s what it states on the little information blurb. There are no hoses on the water valve, you need to supply your own for rinsing the hose and you need a hose as the spigot points into the air and unless you want a rain shower I think you would be best to attach a hose. The water will seep under the lid to drain away, I checked for my own satisfaction. 

These canyons are on the Borrego-Salton Sea Way and we'll go back again for another look and better pictures...

We pulled ahead to the driveway that leads back out to the main drive, they have numerous water spigots  there stating RV/Water. It is complete with a hose. There are at least 3 that I noticed. However there is also one at the air/water station near the end of the gas station pumps, plus the girl told me they have POTABLE water between 14-15 at the back. I am assuming she meant fuel pumps, but I didn’t go around to look. They also have a Glacier Water dispensing machine, fuel, showers, and I think laundry as well. So a one stop shop for those that are interested. Red Earth Casino on US Hwy 86 between Mecca and Salton City. 

It is certainly very scenic out here....taken through the truck windshield, the blue is part of the tinting making it look an odd colour...

Back on the road by 10:38 am, it was an hour well spent. We turned right onto Borrego-Salton Sea Way, we found Rock House Road and Henderson Canyon road but from the road the spots didn’t really appeal to us, but across from the sign indicating Henderson Canyon Road (sign on the right, spot is on the left) is a very large spot with a number of units parked out in the desert. We opted for that area and have found ourselves a nice little spot with a bit shade from a tree. I am not certain what kind of tree but I’ll post a picture and maybe some one can tell us. Since we don’t use too much power I’m not concerned about the shade on the panels, if it is an issue we’ll simply move. However we have a bit of shade, a nice cool breeze and we’re happy. We started getting set up just about noon, and by 12:30 pm I was calling Dad and Riley was making us a big salad for lunch. So it was a good morning.

That's us over there parked in the shade of the tree.....I didn't edit this picture in any way...

Dad wasn’t in and I left a message with Marion. Riley and I  both enjoyed just a large salad for lunch followed by a few oatmeal cookies. We spent the afternoon reading and lazing around. I will admit I spent most of the afternoon laying across my bed reading my book. I found the road extremely rough this morning for some reason and thought that laying down would be better than sitting up. A nice cool breeze coming in  my bedroom window had the temperature just perfect. I didn’t have a nap though, I know you thought that’s where this was headed but you’re mistaken. 

This the tree beside us....No idea what it is, perhaps a pine of some kind...

Shortly after 4 pm I was up and about, we were discussing our plans regarding our stay here. We’re not sure just how long we’ll be here, but at least a week, after that who knows. We have a few errands we want to accomplish in this area before we make any further plans. I’ll keep you posted on those.

Is that a crop circle in the desert? My nephew Jason would appreciate riding his dirt bike here....

I grabbed my book, the camera and my hat before heading outside around 4:50 pm, calling my dad again as I stepped outside. We chatted for about 15 minutes with him telling me they are getting very cold weather for the next week. Well what can I say? Sucks to be there. I called my brother’s house and chatted with Barb for a half hour about a few things. I should call those folks more often but for some reason the time just seems to slip away before I get around to it. I’ll put that on my to do list.

That's a bit closer shot, see the shade on the Igloo from the tree? 

Sunset was occurring while I chatted and I snapped pictures. I’m able to multi task on occasion but I’m not one to push my luck, I know my limits. Two tasks is the limit. A beautiful sunset here in our new location and I must say I have no doubt the sunrise will be spectacular as well. I’ll let you know though. 

And of course the flip side as well....

Outside after the sun had left our presence it wasn’t cold as I was wandering around in short pants and a sleeveless top. It’s dark here now, after 7 pm and we still have the big door open, the vents and a few windows. I’m certain we’ll be sleeping with the windows and vents open while we’re here. We can smell someone’s fire and Riley is recalling our summer nights on Snob Hill with campfires on many nights.

The sun is going down after another glorious day here in sunny California...

Inside editing pictures and writing this post, but I could be outside doing it just as easily as it’s still pretty warm out there. I however tend to feel the cold more than some and I don’t want to temp the fates as my hands have been pretty good since we’ve been out here in the southwest. I wonder if typing out side in the cool night air might make them ache, and I’m not willing to test it out.

That's the Igloo nose you can see in this picture. I left it in so you could see the view we have our the dining/living room windows.

So there you have it, our day travel day here in Southwestern California. Not a long trip, less than a hundred miles. We’re nestled in around the bottom of the mountains and tomorrow I’ll have a better look at those mountains and the surrounding area. Who knows maybe I’ll climb one of ‘em. Wouldn’t that be fun? 

 

Pretty nice reflection on the Igloo.....

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’ve enjoyed your visit. Feel free to leave a comment, I enjoy reading them.

It was much redder in real time but it's not bad even in the picture...

Until next time….. take care, be safe, 

Good night from near Borrego Springs, California

Deb

Box Canyon, Salton Sea, touring day...

 
Our Location: Joshua Tree National Park BLM, West entrance, California


Awake just about 4:30 am I wasn’t going back to sleep but I didn’t get out of bed until about 6:15 am. Then I was out the door to get some morning pictures. Not much of a dramatic sunrise but it’s always nice to see the sun come up. 

The sun is getting ready to show up for work....

Windy here today, gusty at times. Coolish this morning, about 44F/6C with an ugly north wind. Predicted highs in the low 70’s but I’m thinking that isn’t going to happen unless one is hunkered down out of the wind, then maybe. 

Thriving in the desert...

My walk this morning wasn’t very long as it was too cool to be outside much after the big event. I called my dad but he wasn’t in, according to Marion he was out on the tractor moving snow. No not moving it from spot to spot because he has nothing to do but moving from the driveway to the grass as they had a pretty good snow fall yesterday. No idea how much but if they are using the tractor I’m sure it was more than a little.  

Almost time .....

I did a bit of research this morning as I needed to find a couple of things on line and then started this post. I like having a start to the post and if I’m not too lazy I like to try to add a bit here and there throughout the day. Some times that works, but some times it doesn’t. 

There it is....

Our morning hot drinks consumed we cleaned up and discussed our day. I would like to take a drive down Box Canyon Road. In conversation with John last night he mentioned how nice it is and so I think we’ll do that today, or maybe we’ll head to Twenty-nine Palms. At least those are the places I have in mind. We’ll see how it goes. Jello plans, jello plans.

Starting the day....

                                                                                                                                          
John stopped by to say farewell and we  are sorry to see him go. I enjoyed his company and his laughter. Hopefully we’ll see him again somewhere in the future. We loaded water jugs and garbage into the Dogsled, along with 

Very sharp...

an extra sweater and headed out for a drive. We had a couple of points to check off our ‘want to know’ list. We headed south, going over I-10 taking the Box Canyon Road. What an amazing drive. I truly cannot express with words this most stunning drive. There simply aren’t words or at least I don’t know of any words adequate enough to portrait the  amazing sights. I will be returning there tomorrow or Thursday to take a nice long walk among some of those walls.

HRH Miss Kitty faking a nap.

We reached the Salton Sea and hung a left, which of course we shouldn’t have done but half way to Brawley we realized we were going to take the long way around on the east side of the Salton Sea. We should have kept going but we didn’t. We stopped at the state park located directly on the shore of the Salton Sea for a look around. While the smell wasn’t too bad for me, Riley wasn’t long turning a funny shade of green. We hustled back into the truck and headed out. The state park camping area is basically a black top lined parking lot with no space or privacy between spots. It's like parking at the mall. They are angled to the south and I think it would be a pretty tight fit for a bigger rig with a towed to get in there and park. The bathrooms were pretty rustic and well used but fairly clean. The showers were also pretty rustic and well used with open spaces to the great outdoors running along all of the shower outside walls about a foot high. No screens or netting of any kind to keep any critters out. They too were fairly clean for the amount of use I’m sure they’ve seen. However not our type of place. We turned around and went back the way we’d just come until we managed to find ourselves on the WEST side of the Salton Sea.

Heading along Box Canyon Road

We did find some of our ‘want to know’ list items. First we found a place to fill our drinking water jugs at $1.50 per 5 gallons or .30 cents for 1 gallon. Next we found 3 dump stations (only 2 working) for a fee of $8 which I believe includes potable water. However I will have to check that out more thoroughly. We also found some pretty inexpensive diesel at $3.29 per gallon, and I didn’t fill up there as the pumps were too busy. I intended to fill up on my way back. The key word here is INTENDED.  These wonderful finds were located at the Red Earth Casino.  A bit further down the road we found potable water, 3 or 4 dump stations for a fee of $10 plus some diesel which was 25 cents a gallon more than the Casino gas bar. This was at a four way stop with an Acro being the provider of the above mentioned services.  

So many different rock formations in this canyon...

We also found what looks like BLM land but upon chatting with a fellow he told me that it was once ‘the golf course’. It is owned by a family named Allen and they are selling lots but also allow people to park there for long term. It looks like some of them are pretty much permanent with a fence around themselves. Some paved but very bumpy streets are not named in real time with signs but the GPS was calling off street names, so it must have been registered at some point. We managed to find a few spots of interest and as I was checking out a spot a bit further back I felt the truck starting to sink and I can tell you it worried me. I switched to 4 wheel drive and backed out as quickly as I could. It looked really good but suddenly just turned soft. How easy it would be to get stuck.

So different than the one above...

Anyway, we noticed a motor home pulled off in one of the sights and a dog running loose and I thought I’d stop in and ask a couple of questions. First question, does your dog bite? Answer of course is no. And she did seem friendly enough once I opened the Dogsled door. I didn’t catch the gent’s name but he did answer my questions telling me free parking is allowed and there are a couple of hard top spots near him that are open and available for camping. This location is located on the Borrego-Salton Sea Parkway, right on a 90 degree bend in the road, it’s located off on the left hand side. Like I said, there are hard top but very rough roads leading all over the place, some dead end, some lead to more streets, others lead out to main roads and there are numerous fire rings everywhere. I’m curious to know if this the area everyone talks about as being Borrego Springs free camping.

These remind me of old stone buildings with that ancient colour.

We left there and headed back toward Coachella, since of course the Salton Sea is in the Coachella Valley. We wanted to find a Walmart or similar as we needed a few other things, not just groceries.  The closest one was Brawley but that was far away and in the wrong direction, the next one was in Indio which is the one we finally ended up at. We had shopped there before and so knew where it was located. I’ve been looking for some Marrett’s (not sure of the correct spelling) but down here in the USA they are called Wire Nuts. I wanted the smallest ones available. I need to shove this thing in a pretty small opening and the ones I had were way too big to go into the hole. Walmart only had big ones, nothing small and so that required us to make another stop later. 

And this is totally different than the others...ridged or pleated...

We managed to get all of the items on the list except GREEN BEANS (and of course the wire nuts). They( the beans, not the wire nuts) weren’t fresh looking and had what appeared to be rusty spots that beans get from too much water and being old, so we left them on the shelf. I know you'll be amazed to hear that we even managed to find things that were not on the list. I can see you are amazed at our talents!!

Grapes, and fruit trees growing in Coachella Valley near the Salton Sea.

Leaving there we had a few more stops, the first one being The Home Depot for, you guessed it, Wire Nuts. They had numerous to choose from and I was able to select the size I wanted. When I asked the nice fella where I could find Marrett’s or Wire Nuts he made the comment that he’s heard that term 'Marrett' a number of times now, and decided I must be Canadian. How funny is that? 

This is what the earth looks like near the Salton Sea

From Home Depot we crossed the road to the post office. Well actually to the golf course but the post office is in the Pro Shop. I managed to purchase 10 Canada bound stamps. Odd place for a post office inside the Pro Shop, you have to walk thru the wrought iron fence into the area near the putting practice green. Anyway, I managed to get what I needed.
 

Signs along the streets in Indio

Our next stop was a confusing one for me at least. I noticed an Acro with diesel at a fairly good price, $3.59 per gallon. We pulled in, eventually found a pump, popped in my credit card, and did the magic code for my ‘zip code’ that being the three numbers of my own postal code followed by 2 zeros. It worked fine, accepted the card, asked for the pin number then told me to see the cashier. Hmmmm… Okay, I went inside, waited for the lottery ticket buyer ahead of me to finally run out of either money or free tickets, or maybe both, not sure which it was before it was my turn to step up to the counter. I explained I wanted to fill with diesel on pump #2, it accepted everything about my card but told me to see the cashier. His question, 'was it a debit card?' 'No with a credit card.' Now I had to ask him to repeat what he said next. “We don’t accept credit cards, just debit or cash.” A fuel station that doesn’t accept credit cards? Really? Okay…. well then I guess we'll move on.

More grape vines.....

Peppers in the front, citrus trees in the rear

Off we went to find another station or home, whichever came first. We found a TA shortly after getting back on I-10 EAST and I put in my $50 worth at $3.69 per gallon. I used my credit card, imagine my surprise! From there it was straight home since the time was pushing 2:30 pm and we hadn’t had any lunch.

 

Home found me unloading the Dogsled and Riley putting things away. The roasted chicken purchased at Walmart was quickly disassembled as Riley was hard at work taste testing. While Riley was doing that I put away a number of things from outside as the wind is making it impossible to use them. One of those things was Riley’s big chair, we arrived home to find it upside down half way to the little dead end road where it landed some how after it was launched from under the over hang on the Igloo. Also put away my rocking chair, the Weber, the tables, and the black mat. The wind makes it difficult to sit outside, we can’t use the BBQ due to wind gusts from many directions. The black mat has been retrieved a few times, and the table for the BBQ would blow away with out the BBQ. 

Palm tree farm, hundreds of them in straight rows...

Inside I called my dad as I hadn’t managed to reach him this morning. We chatted about the snow fall they have received up there in that Manitoulin Island place, along with sleet, freezing rain, rain, and I think if you name it, except for heat they’ve had it in the last couple of days. Worried about the power going off as the branches are heavily laden with snow and ice, any wind would cause severe issues with breakage of limbs which of course would cause breakage of power/phone lines. Dad and my brother would be fine though, both have wood stoves, which not only provide heat but allow cooking as well. Generators are also options as they have a few kicking around the place. 

The Salton Sea

 

After hanging up from that chat I made myself a large salad with some Walmart chicken added to it. I will say it was good, the salad, not just the chicken. I saved a bit of room for some canned peaches as well and after that I was full. Good thing too as it was nearing 5 by the time I finished eating. So much for lunch.

This kind of rock litters the bottom of the near by wash here at our BLM spot near Joshua Tree National Park.

Grabbed my book, warm coat, hat and the camera just a few minutes past 5 o’clock, unfolded one of the smaller chairs I left out, settled myself down to watch the sunset. Not much to see sunset wise but there was plenty of activity as three units, a van, a small cab over motor home, and larger motor home tried to find spots to park. After dead ends, soft sand, t They finally settled on a spot just across the wash. Good for them. 

The sun's work day here is almost over....

Back inside to write, edit and publish this post over the course of the evening. Overall I would say we’ve had an excellent day. Some sight seeing, learned a few things, know where we’re going when we leave here, and just enjoyed getting out. We hope you’ve had an excellent day as well where ever you may be and whatever you may have been up to. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment. 

Slipping quietly away...

Until next time… take care, be safe, 

Good night from Joshua Tree National Park BLM

Deb