HELLOOOOOOO BORREGO SPRINGS CALIFORNIA:))

MOON MUSINGS WITH FACE OF THE SNAKE

Woke up this morning with a hankering for some semi civilization & a Jilberto's hamburger & the only place I could think of with that kind of action was.....Borrego Springs, California.  Question was which route to take. 

A VALENTINES DAY SHADOW HEART ON THE MOUNTAIN BESIDE US SUNDAY

Had packed most everything up Sunday night so we didn't have a lot to do in the morning.  Took the doggy guys for a short walk, had a last long look around at our little site tucked cozily between the Kofa & Castle Dome mountains & had the wheels rolling by 9:20.  As usual I had my last looks back with pleasant memories of our few days there.  The gathering in the desert was a rare & special day I'll always connect that day with that site.

                               

A LAST LOOK AROUND THE CAMPSITE BEFORE LEAVING THIS MORNING

Only a dirt road mile to the highway & as I rolled up to the stop sign I was still debating which way to go.  Yuma, El Centro,  & Brawley maybe or Quartzsite, Blyth, Glammis, & Brawley.  Had I remembered the southbound construction I would have chose the Quartzsite route but of course with my memory I swung left out onto the highway & proceeded to the rear of a long line of cars a couple miles down the road stopped on the highway waiting out a paving operation.   No U turns with 53 feet so we waited it out.  Stop & go, stop & go but after half an hour we were underway.  But, not before I clipped a flagman's 'stop/slow' sign with my passenger mirror.  Don't think he was paying attention as he let his hand held sign out too far as we were squeezing by a narrowed spot in the road.  No damage to the mirror but I think I broke the cigarette in half he had hanging out of his mouth.  When I quickly checked my mirror he was making some kind of cross sign in front of his chest.........:))

<<< CONSTRUCTION SLOW DOWN

Soon as I got into the Yuma morning traffic I was wishing I had gone the other way but we made out OK.  Spotted a Cracker Barrel sign about 11:15 a.m. & knew we had been to that location before so exited I-8.  What  we had forgot about was how small the parking lot was at Yuma's Cracker Barrel.  It is not big rig friendly as we soon found out, squeezing in the entrance & wiggling out the exit seconds later.  Back to I-8 & kept on going. 

West of Yuma we went by the area where the header photo for this blog was taken.  Pilot Knob.  A lot of rigs out in the desert there & I don't know why.  It's flat, treeless, & sandy.  We over nighted there one time last year & it's the only time we ever came close to getting stuck in sand.  In fact I thought I had bent the wheels on the car.   Anyway, they call it the dust bowl when the heavy west winds blow sand in off the Algodones Sand Dunes, & those winds can be horrendous.  Just a short distance away is Ogilbe Road where we camped out for a couple weeks last year & it is hard packed with shrubs & trees.  Lots of room for hundreds & hundreds of rigs with mountains close by & interesting mine sites.   Don't know why folks would camp in the dust bowl except they are a few miles closer to Yuma & the malls.

ALGODONES SAND DUNES WEST OF YUMA

We could have taken quiet & scenic Ogilbe Road to Brawley but I was curious to see what the country was like along I-8 to El Centro.  Aside from the Sahara looking Algodones Sand Dunes the landscape is totally boring with scrub desert most of the way.   For the last 3 years upon entering California we have noticed something else in this area as well & the only thing I can think it might be is......smog.  Hard to see the surrounding mountains in the haze.  I often wonder if it is the smog from the large California cities on the coast blowing inland. 

MR. SNOOZY FACE

Groceries & a tuna sub for AL at Brawley's new Wally World & then north towards Calipatria to dump the tanks & take on water at a rest area.  Back through Brawley heading west for Borrego.  Looks like they are building a bi-pass around Brawley on the north side.  That would be a good thing.

We pulled into the Clark Dry Lake bed BLM land around 4:30 California time.  Noticed the usual amount of rigs scattered about in the desert as we turned onto Rockhouse road looking for a spot.  Had hoped to park beside the same earthen oven we did last year but somebody was already in that spot.  Unhooked the car & drove around with the computer looking for an acceptable Verizon spot.  Best we could find was 2 green bars about a quarter  mile north of the oven site. 

ON FINAL APPROACH FOR THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED EAST OF BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

I'm afraid we have been spoiled with great  3 & 4 bar Verizon coverage so it's going to require a lot of patience now slowly working with 2 bar reception  here at Borrego but hey, 2 bars is better than no bars.  Just takes sooooooo long to open everything.  Didn't get any blogs read this morning & with this slower speed it's going to be a problem.   Saw a lot of comments in hotmail about last night's blog & Kelly managed to publish some but I haven't read them all so hope to read them in the morning.  This 2 bar connection is just so slow & I just don't have the patience to wait for sites to open right now.  We are both sooooooooo beat tonight.

 

WE'LL TAKE A SECOND LOOK WITH REFRESHED EYES IN THE MORNING & DECIDE IF WE'LL STAY IN THIS SPOT

Didn't take a lot of photos today so when Kelly noticed a thin crescent moon tonight I slipped outside with a 200mm lens & a slow shutter speed to create some crescent moon musings................

   

TONIGHT'S CRESCENT MOON WITH A SLOW SHUTTER SPEED & SOME CAMERA WIGGLES

Tonight was the first night warm enough on this whole trip to actually be outside after dark with a short sleeve shirt on.   Noticed the temps really went up west of Yuma today & I had the A/C on for a bit.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  One of the great things about being over 60 is kidnappers are not very interested in you.

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.