BORREGO SPRINGS & A GUNNERY RANGE

MONDAY DEC. 31/07
Checked the onboard propane tank a couple of days ago & noticed we were down to the quarter mark so figured we had better head into town & get that tank filled up because things will be closed on New Year's day.

Moving one's house is not always an easy task. First, the solar panels have to be secured. While on the roof I take the flag down. Internet cords have to be disconnected from the modem & the television cord is unhooked from the receiver. Both the living room & bedroom slides have to come in. 13 basement bins have to be locked & secured. TV aerial comes down & leveling jacks have to be retracted. Things have to be secured inside the coach. A final check around the rig to make sure nothing is underneath, leaning against, or sitting on top of, & away we go. But, you know what, no matter how thorough you are, there is always that nagging doubt in your mind that you have forgot something, so I am always glued to the rear view mirrors looking for something amiss in that first hundred yards or so. At least with boondocking you don't have to worry about ripping out attached electrical cords, garden or sewer hoses.

Borrego Springs is a short 5 minute drive from where we are camped in the desert so it didn't take long to reach our first stop. Propane, $63 worth. Next we dumped our gray & black water tanks at a facility behind a gas station & took on fresh water. Put some gas in the motorhome but only, some!! Gas in California is very expensive & we had to pay $3.75 a gallon this morning. Dropped off our garbage at a container downtown & took a few photos of Christmas Circle. Borrego Springs is a well looked after clean little town with one easy going main street & no traffic lights. Things can be expensive here because it's an upscale little getaway in the desert. It has some pretty ritzy RV parks but it also has some pretty down to earth little shops & eating places too. An all round nice place complete with an artsy mall & an artsy feel.

Picked up some groceries & headed back out to the dusty desert & re-set up our home away from home again. A little siesta in the lawn chairs & then we took a drive in the car down the valley to the north of us. At the far end of the valley is Clark Lake, but it's not a wet lake, it's a dry lake bottom. Only in the heavy rainy season is there some water here. Starting back in the second world war this area was used for aerial gunnery training. Targets were set up at the far end of the lake & aircraft would make strafing runs on these targets while coming in over the lake bed. Countless thousands of 50MM machine gun casings were ejected from the aircraft over the lake bed. People are still picking those shells up but despite our searching to-day we didn't find any. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy The valley was an active gunnery range up until the 60's when Anza-Borrego State Park took over the range & it is now under the Park's protection.

Something else we have noticed about the desert is the misperception of distance. Objects that appear close, may in fact be miles away. The desert definitely has a way of projecting optical illusions & it's easy to understand how people get into difficulty while hiking.

As usual, it will be a quiet New Year's Eve for us. We can't even remember the last time we ever stayed up to celebrate the new year. Might have been back around the time Columbus came over on the Mayflower. (it was Columbus on the Mayflower wasn't it) I remember last New Year's eve when we were in Tucson, Arizona. We were in an RV park sound asleep when we were jolted awake by gunfire. Gunfire is not something Canadians are used to!!!! I think most of these American RV'ers travel with all kinds of artillery in their rigs & last year they came out of their motorhomes at midnight & opened fire on the night sky. I sure hope that doesn't happen again to-night because it really traumatizes the poor dogs & totally wrecks up the following day for us. I wonder how they would feel if I were to step outside our rig & open fire on the night sky.....with my slingshot!!

All the best to everyone in 2008 & a big thanks to all the people who have left many favorable comments & emailed us since our leaving home back in late October. We appreciate the feedback. It's not always easy to keep a positive spin on things out here on the road but those little comments that come in at the end of a day sure go a long way in easing some of those difficult times. Thanks:)) See ya next year......................................