HAD ENOUGH OF THE WIND....WE'RE A GETTIN OUGHTA TOWN!!

 

We have had it & we are throwing in the towel!!  The California winds have had their way with us too long now & we are packing up & getting out of Dodge first thing Wednesday morning!!  Might have stayed a few more days but we got some tanks needing to be emptied anyway so decided to pull the pin today.

RV NEIGHBORS (click pics to enlarge)

The winds slammed into us about 4 a.m. in the morning & I was up for the day by 4:30 pulling the slides in yet again.  All the outside furniture was scattered around on the ground & anything that hadn't been nailed down is probably in Texas by now.  Any area folks living in sticks & bricks houses & reading this would say, wind?? What wind??

  

OUR FRONT YARD THIS MORNING

Not totally sure but I think our travel plans have changed again.  We may save Joshua Tree for another time & just may head back down Yuma way where the weatherman says it's going to be really nice & warm in a few days.   Had it not been so blasted windy today I think we just might have pulled up stakes & rolled out this afternoon!!  Maybe that's why all the other RV'ers left yesterday, they were paying closer attention to the weather reports than we were.  As it was, the temperatures dropped & the wind chill factor kept us confined to the rig for the whole day.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE NEIGHBORS GONE

Been thinking it's still too early to head any further north right now anyway because I doubt northeastern Arizona would be warm enough by the end of the month.  Was hoping to go through Monument Valley to the 4 corners area of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, & New Mexico but probably not this trip now.  Ideally we would like to leave Ontario in early September some time to do those 4 corners States. 

It's been brought to my attention recently by an internet friend that I may be forgetting to answer email questions or comment questions sent in by folks & I am afraid I have to admit that I have.  My forgetfulness is not an excuse.  It is unfortunately a problem I am having with my short term memory.  Just as I forgot to turn our Motorhome off for 5 hours one day last summer I am sometimes forgetting to get back to folks who have had questions for me or even to just say, "hey, how's it going eh." My apologies once again to everyone I have forgotten to respond to.   It's a daily thing & this morning I forgot to put the oil cap back on the car's engine after checking the oil.  If Kelly hadn't spotted it on a chair a lot of that oil would have blown out all over the engine compartment.  She's having quite a time with me & will probably pen a book someday with a title like....'Trials & Tribulations of Living With an old forgetful Cranky Pants Airhead Husband:((  Hmmm, wonder if this might also apply to any of you other guys out there too......:))

OK, now that I've said all that & my mind is kinda working clear I will answer Terry's questions about BLM land.  BLM (Bureau of Land Management) seems to be mainly located in the southwestern States, especially Arizona & California.  Some of this land people stay on indefinitely while other areas are enforced by 14 day limits & then you have to relocate a minimum of 25 miles away in some cases.  This section of land we are on here at the Clark Dry Lake Bed east of Borrego Springs, California is actually private land but the owner is long gone.  This chunk of land was owned by a developer years ago who wanted to set up a mining operation I think.  Roads were put in, buildings up, gravel pit was dug out, & acres & acres of land were dozed flat.  For whatever reason the company went belly up, the owner flew the coop, & here we are:))  RV'ers have been boondocking on this land for a long time now & up until a few years ago there were even a few old desert codgers living out here fulltime. 

  

MEMORIES OF THE STONE TURTLE SITE

Laurie from SEMI TRUE TALES wondered if the long 'foot' along the bottom of our new Toshiba was actually a battery compartment.  I turned it over & saw small battery symbols so assume that's what it is.  I didn't attempt to open it knowing I probably wouldn't have a hope in hell of ever getting it closed again.  And I seem to recall JoAnne from LIVING OUR DREAM asked awhile back about a histogram.  Short answer there is that it is a short gram of history:))  Long answer is that the graph of the photo shows your exposure levels & the more centered those peaks are in the center, the more even your exposure throughout the photograph.  High peaks on the left side of the graph may indicate overexposures while high peaks on the right may indicate underexposures.  The graph meter I keep in my head now tells me I probably had about a 5% chance of explaining that right. 

And I just remembered another question about where is it safe to drive here at the Clark Dry Lake Bed.  There are hard packed sandy roads running helter skelter through the desert & it's important to stay on them.  Along the bumpy roads in willy nilly fashion are shrub free spaces of hard packed sand/gravel & these are the RV sites.  No particular order, no organized spots, just drive around until you find a place you like.  And don't try to cut across between the roads like that poor Albertan couple did!!

ANOTHER SAN YSIDRO MOUNTAIN SUNSET

Weather bureau predicted 45 mph wind gusts this afternoon so this morning I took advantage of the slower 20 mph winds to get the solar panels down.  Stowed away the flag poles, rolled up the bamboo ground mats, folded up all the furniture, glued the fur back on the dogs, & loaded everything in the bins for tomorrow mornings departure.  We might just end up having to go in whatever direction the wind decides to blow us.

SECURING THE SOLAR PANELS TUESDAY MORNING

We had a nice email from a fellow in San Diego today.  He apparently hiked up through Alcoholic Pass yesterday just a couple hours after we did & found one of our Bayfield Bunch cards at the top.  We leave cards here & there & this fellow was the first person to ever find one & send us an email.  Thanks Howard, & if you were driving a white Volkswagen van, then I saw you slowly drive by our car on the road below.  We were just making our way down the northwest side of Coyote Mountain about 1:45 PM.  I had 2 older VW camper vans years ago so I always notice them:))

And where did we go for supper our last night in Borrego Springs??  Why, Jilberto's of course.  And did AL have his usual lettuce & water.........ya right!!

                      

Don't exactly know where we'll be tomorrow night at this time or if we'll have Verizon coverage but keep an eye out for us anyway & I'll be back buggin everybody as soon as we can........:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  And ladies, it's time to give up jogging for your health when your thighs keep rubbing together and starting your pants on fire.

GOODNIGHT & GOODBYE BORREGO.....THANKS AGAIN FOR THE MEMORIES:))

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