On a long and lonesome highway....: parachutes in the sky

Our Location: just outside Borrego Springs, California

Not the best night’s sleep but that’s okay, we all have those nights when it seems our minds are full of stupid things and sleep is evasive. Last night was my turn I guess. I was awake but just couldn’t drag my butt out of bed until after 6:30 am for some reason. The sky was starting to show it’s painters trend with yellows and reds starting to meld together. Behind me the moon was still up and hanging over what I think is Coyote Mountain. A very nice picture. The temperature was low last night, below 50F/10C, and I had my vent open as well as a few windows in the Igloo and I wonder if it was the coolness that kept me from sleeping well.

Good morning from the doorstep of the Igloo.....

Riley and I were enjoying our hot drinks and discuss our day by shortly after 7:10 am. Always nice to get up and start the day while it’s cool and we can do things that require spending energy without wilting. We prepped lunch which today was a salad for me, meatloaf, veggie packet of mushrooms, green beans and asparagus with thyme and rosemary, and potatoes slices on the Weber.

The moon is still very much in evidence this morning ....

After lunch was prepared we hopped into the Dogsled and headed off into Borrego Springs for a little look see. I’ve been reading about this area for many years in blogs and was anxious to see some of these things first hand. They did not disappoint. The beautiful green grass of Christmas Circle with it’s tiny little farmers market in full swing, the strains of Hotel California by the Eagles could be heard in the background. Riley thought that was appropriate!! We got out to walk on the lush grass and enjoy the atmosphere for a few minutes.

Back at work for another day keeping us warm out here the southwestern desert...

We checked out the State Park office, and a few other places in the area but didn’t spend any time looking at any one thing. We wanted to get the overall flavour of the place and see a few things to get our bearings. We managed to get ourselves a little booklet to show us where the metal sculptures could be located. So we headed south of town to find a few of those. I know so many people have already blogged about these and I will say they didn’t exaggerate at all. I’m going to include a few pictures today but we plan on visiting more of these sculptures later in the upcoming week and I’ll do a write up then as today I have a few other things to write about and since my posts are usually pretty long I don’t want to make this one even longer.

All evenly spaced....

He's almost down...

We managed to find the fire station and asked about a spot to dump our trash. We were directed to the landfill outside of town. On our way to the landfill we were heading toward the airport where Al of Travels with the Bayfield Bunch mentioned seeing the DC 130 in the past few days. He mentioned the parachuters as well,I believe even showing one lone jumper. It was our lucky day today, there must have been 10 at least. All in a tight spiral heading for the ground just ahead of us. These guys are pros as they were in tight formation, circling with an ease of practiced jumpers, they remained equal distances apart and quite literally almost all landed in the same spot within a few feet and I do mean a FEW feet of each other. The landings looked soft and from what we could see they all stayed on their feet. Truly an awesome sight.

Doug and Yuma stopped by for a visit...

We moved on to the landfill where we learned it’s $30 for 3 bags, and that is their minimum. I wasn’t paying to dump two bags of garbage, when only one was our own garbage, the other was garbage I’ve picked up around the campsite we’re occupying. Numerous solutions were discussed with the nice fellow Gabe, he was very kind and generous in his bid to help me. He called the Chamber of Commerce in town which is staffed by volunteers and spoke with a fellow named Jim. The long and short of the story is when Jim was presented with my issues about dumping my trash LEGALLY and without leaving it on the ground, he explained that if it is a single small bag of trash it might be possible to come to the Chamber of Commerce building and they would provide a key to their dumpster for my trash. I’m not saying everyone should do this but I’m explaining an option that was presented to me in lieu of driving many miles back to Salton City to find a dumpster. All the ones we’ve seen in Borrego Springs have locks. Now another volunteer may not agree to do that but Jim today said it was an option.

These battling stallions off in the desert....

As we were at the landfill chatting with Gabe about our problem the big DC 130 with the British flag painted on the tail came in for a landing . It too made a perfect touch down. It having landed at least 15 minutes after the jumpers were on the ground. Riley was the one behind the camera for both the jumpers and the plane.

Riley speared on the tusk....

We headed back home, happy to have a solution to our problem and will try it in the future if necessary. We didn’t however stop at home, instead we took a drive up Rock House Road to check out the spots there with just the Dogsled. Too crowded for us but some spectacular views if you’re back far enough. The washboard road makes one not want to go back very far though. We did spot Doug and Yuma’s home dirt but didn’t stop in as it was pushing noon. We toured a few other spots as well to see if we maybe would enjoy a site a bit more off the beaten path. We’ll have to study that a bit more in the future. We like where we are but we also like a bit more distance between us and the roadway. We don’t have any close neighbours right now and we like it that way.

Christmas Circle....so green...

Back home I tossed the meatloaf on the grill, we both sat outside reading enjoying the warmth and the breeze. I just tossed the veggie packet on the grill when a little silver jeep pulled up behind the Igloo and sure enough it was Doug and Yuma of Miss Adventure Travels What a wonderful surprise. Yuma was his regal self and hopped out of the jeep with grace and poise before getting truly excited and doing one of his tall jumps. It was nice to meet Doug, he’s a sweetheart. We sat and chatted for a nice long while, enjoying the easy conversation, swapping notes and telling stories. Yuma and HRH Miss Kitty had a staring contest through the screen door and at one point Yuma voiced his opinions of the whole situation, HRH Miss Kitty didn’t respond. After a nice visit it was time for Doug and Yuma to head home. We said our goodbyes, see you later and off they went. We slipped inside to have lunch. Noting the time was just about 4 pm, we’d chatted the afternoon away. Riley and I both enjoyed the visit very much.

He's looking to put his big wheels down...

They were in a tight spiral all the way down...

Shortly after we’d finished eating and doing the dishes we heard a horn just outside the door. Turns out Doug was back, he had forgotten to take a picture, a quick snap, snap and he was once again gone like a ghost that may or may not have been here. I apologized for not inviting him to stay for lunch, I don’t know where my head was at but it never crossed my mind. I was enjoying our visit and it just didn’t occur to me. I sat outside reading for a while and started snapping pictures of the sunset, walking around snapping more pictures. Like I needed more pictures today.

This little Ultra Light probably flew right over Doug & Yuma's home....

The sunset did not disappoint in the least. With some darker wispy clouds highlighted with reds and pinks, whimsical twists and turns flashing colours here and there with tendrils of darkness intermingled. While in the east the mountains in the distance were bathed in a pink hue that started with warm soft tones and hints, but built to bright pink radiating across the entire eastern sky. As the sky in the west heated up it’s dance ever more brightly the skies in the east once again began to fade to soft hues of pink and finally a mottled mixture of dusky blue with the no trace of any pinks. The western skies also began to tire of the dance and slowly the colours faded until only darkness was left. Truly a wonderful sunset here in Borrego Springs, California.

Just amazing colours and shapes....

So there you have it, our most excellent day. We enjoyed it immensely and look forward to more excitement tomorrow. I hope you’ve enjoyed your day doing whatever it is that you were doing. Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment, I enjoy reading them.