Our Location: BLM South Entrance, Joshua Tree National Park,
California
A very, windy night from early evening, all through the night until well into the afternoon today. We ended up pulling in all the slides and Riley slept with me for over half the night. The wind was rocking us and even with the toppers tied down they were still flapping fiercely. Better in than ripped. We ratchet strapped ourselves to a couple of Palo Verde trees, added some big rocks to the back of the Dogsled and hung on for dear life. All of this we did in the extremely bright wee hours of the morning as the moon was bright and showed us everything we needed to see.
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| Just a few of the many grapefruit I picked off the ground yesterday at Janet's. The wind had knocked them down overnight. |
Today we were planning on leaving this area and moving to Quartzsite, AZ but with the high sustained winds and heavy gusts we opted to stay put and wait for tomorrow. Even the traffic on I-10 seemed much lighter than usual until this afternoon when the winds started to noticeably diminish.
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| Gives you an idea of size. |
We stayed inside out of the wind and flying sand but enjoyed the views outside. A few folks coming and going but mostly just everyone hunkered down and stayed put. As the afternoon progressed the rigs started moving around on the interstate and began coming up the long grade to the BLM area, but only two rigs left.
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| The view out our door. That is the road into the park. |
A call to my dad to inform him of our change of plans, the rest of the afternoon was spent reading, napping and just gazing out the window. As I write this at 4:50 PM California time the winds have diminished to a slight breeze with a few little gusts but nothing to shake or rattle the Igloo. We’ve even taken away the ratchet straps and stones. Tomorrow we will be up and on the road heading east to new scenery for us this year.
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| Looking north west from our door. |
A special note today. Happy Birthday Courtney. My oldest daughter turns 31 today. Courtney is a true delight, bubbly, excitable, enthusiastic and just a very nice person. Courtney is with the Toronto School Board for the last couple of years after her return from Switzerland with hubby Matt who had a 2 year research grant there. Courtney and Matt live in Toronto and love the feel and atmosphere of the big city. So obviously a call will be placed to Courtney a bit later. Happy Birthday Sweetheart.
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| Stuck in a rock outside the door. |
So that’s it, our windy, stay inside day here at Joshua Tree National Park in California. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your stay.
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| I think this person may have spent the night in a motel. The car was gone early this morning. |
Until next time… take care, be safe,
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| That is toward the Coachella Valley. A few rigs that weathered the wind with us. |
Deb
