THE BORREGO BADLANDS ON A DUSTY DAY

SUNDAY DEC. 30/07
Temps got down to 40F last night so it was a bit nippy this morning until the sun started warming things up. Our days have been sunny with temps ranging around 65F. Weatherman says we'll be up into the mid 70's in a few days.

Not much going on in the morning but we took a drive in the afternoon just a few miles from here to Font's Point, sometimes called the Borrego Badlands. It's a 4 mile bumpity drive across the desert floor following a dry creek bed called a wash. This area can & does fill with water during severe rain storms. The Borrego Badlands is a very rugged place. The road ends & a short walk takes you to a cliff edge. No fences or barricades. You just walk up to the edge & fall off a cliff into the badlands. Not as far to the bottom as the Grand Canyon but far enough to do the same damage. We should have been able to see all the way to the Salton Sea many miles to the east but the visibility was very poor because of the huge amount of dust in the air. Even the mountains were hard to see & the town of Borrego Springs, normally visible, was hidden in the dust. Dust caused by countless thousands of jeeps, ATV's, dune buggies & dirt bikes in the desert to the south of us this week-end. Even the driver of a sight seeing tour truck who lives in Borrego Springs said this dust & smog to-day was the worst he had ever seen. I took some photographs http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy but we'll have to come back again in a few days after the dust has settled & hopefully we will have unlimited visibility to the Salton Sea in the east & maybe Mexico to the south.

Stepped outside after supper to-night to have a look at the stars & was startled by a movement about 20 feet away. Shone the flashlight over by the firepit & watched a beautiful desert fox calmly walk by. First time I had ever seen one. There was also a couple of coyotes very close & it was a real treat to stand quietly & listen to their howling & yipping. This desert is an amazing place.....................

JUST A LOT OF PUTTERING AROUND

SATURDAY DEC. 29/07
Well, it's going to be a real stretch to think of something to put in the blog to-day. Just a lot of puttering around. More rigs have moved in & scattered themselves around but we have been really lucky by not having anyone set up any closer than a quarter mile away. This is jeep, ATV, & dirt bike country & the majority of people here have their toys with them. Luckily we're not in the most popular areas where there are thousands & thousands of these things roaring around beating up the desert. And thousands & thousands is no exaggeration. The highways are full of RV's towing jeeps, or trailers of ATV's & dirt bikes. It's a huge week-end pastime & everybody's out here enjoying the Christmas holidays.
No plans for to-morrow.........but we'll see what happens:))

NO PHOTOS FOR THE WEB ALBUM TO-DAY

4 WHEELING IN GRAPEVINE CANYON

FRIDAY DEC 28/07
Awwwwww, a good night's sleep compared to the wide eyed, wild & windy night before. So nice to watch the sunrise creeping down the mountains every morning. Short dog walk, picked up Butch, & headed into Borrego Springs for the 9 a.m. jeep tour to Grapevine Canyon. Some folks were already there & the rest soon arrived. For those of us without 4 wheel drive vehicles, we were grouped with people who did. We were lucky to be assigned to a couple with a really neat-o looking Jeep Cherokee with all the fixins. Linda was our driver & along with her husband Bill, turned out to be excellent tour guide as well, answering all our questions & explaining things as we went along. They are Borrego Springs residents who know the area well & especially the off roading back country. The lady who led the tour was driving a gray Toyota with lots of desert pinstriping on the sides. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy This is caused by the many shrubs & tree branches scraping along the sides of vehicles on the one track narrow roads. The more pinstriping you got, the more experienced you obviously are.

Our 8 vehicle convoy headed out of Borrego Springs & up the mountain side on the Montezuma Grade. This is the same 8% grade road we had come down on our way back from Julian a couple of days ago. This piece of road has taken it's toll of lives over the years & has seen it's fair share of truck wrecks when brakes have failed. About 20 minutes into our trip we turned off this highway onto a narrow dirt road in the desert & the true off-roading part of the journey began. We bumped & bounced along the narrow dusty road for a few miles before making our first of four stops. For jeep adventurists this was a pretty mild road but for us flat roaders it was a bit of a gut scrambler in a few spots.

The lady guide in the gray pinstriped Toyota pointed out some types of cactus & trees. She also informed us we were in mountain lion territory. Our second stop was at a small running spring under some tall Cottonwood trees. The third stop was the site of a very old Indian village. Nothing there anymore except the Morteros. Morteros are holes ground in solid rock by years & years of Indian women grinding corn & other seeds. Some of those holes were nearly a foot deep so one can only imagine how many years it must have taken for those holes to have been ground into that rock. (pictures are in the web album.) A grove of golden leaf Cottonwood trees nearby sheltered a spring & that's probably why the Indians chose this spot for their village. I went down & poked around under those Aspens but didn't see any water, only some damp ground. Kelly found a small piece of Indian pottery.

The road got a little tough just after leaving the Indian site & the one Subaru in the convoy stopped & had a look at one spot that might have caused it some grief. The older lady driving the Subaru took it in stride though & climbed the partially washed out knoll without too much problem. It was the only small sticky point on the whole trek.
The final stop was near the highway to Julian & there were washroom facilities here so it was a popular spot all of a sudden. This was also the dispersal point for all the vehicles. Walkie talkies were handed in, good-byes were said, & everyone headed off for destinations unknown. Butch had been riding in another jeep & was just getting back to our vehicle in Borrego Springs as we got there. Thanked Linda & Bill for an excellent tour. Really nice people who are now retired in Borrego Springs after years in the San Diego area.

The jeep tour lasted a little over 4 hours so Kelly, Butch, & I weren't long in getting ourselves over to a favorite little eating place called, Los Jilbertos. It's a little Mexican place that luckily for me has a double cheeseburger combo platter that I like. Kelly & Butch had some Mexican stuff. I'm not a very adventuress eating person & Mexican food doesn't really appeal to me.
From Los Jilberts it was back to the desert, dropped Butch off at his rig & that was just about it for the day. Kelly slipped back into town to browse some shops & I stretched out in my gravity chair & had a snooze. All & all, it was a good day & we met a few new people along the way. And, we even got our innards scrambled a wee bit too:))

BIG WINDS & A TIRED DAY

THURSDAY DEC. 27/07
The sun had no sooner slipped behind the Coyote mountains when the big wind monster came barreling out of the west, down the canyon & out onto the desert floor where it beat us up again for the next 15 hours straight. Wind gust & after wind gust hammered us over & over. We were both convinced that this time we were going to lose our solar panels for sure. The motorhome shook with each gust & we could hear zillions of horrible wind noises ripping at the coach. It kept us awake most of the night.
In the morning I braced myself for what kind of coach damage I was going to find outside. The bicycles were blown over, chairs were in a pile, table blown across the lot & then, the strangest thing. Our Canadian flag was still on the pole atop the rig. How could that be because I didn't expect we would ever see that flag again. Looked up at the solar panels & they were fine. Internet dish was fine. How could all that stuff be fine after all those terrific wind gusts. Well, here's how I figure it............. Being inside an aluminum structured motorhome is akin to being inside a drummer's bass drum. Sounds are amplified. With each beat of a drumstick or each gust of wind, the sound is transmitted & resonated inside the vehicle. There are a lot of corners on the motorhome which pick up & reflect sounds inwards. The air conditioners have plastic grills which add an eerie howl to the wind. The small awnings over the two slides set up a vibration, vent covers on the roof shake, & the new solar panels shred the wind gusts into screeching demons. I think all these sounds combined with the shaking of the coach combine to scare the holy be-jeebers out of the occupants inside making things a lot worse than they in fact, actually are. But, only just a little!! We're gonna have to get used to the desert winds.

Rest of the day was spent relaxing & doing basically nothing but resting. We did pick Butch up about 12 & drove into the Borrego Seniors Center where Kelly had signed us up for a Yankee pot roast dinner. We were the only one's there. The lady said because of Christmas, attendance is down but next week the place will be full again for lunch. The pot roast, potatoes, & carrots were sooooo great.
Back out to the desert, dropped Butch off at his unit & came home for more snoozes.

And, that was about it for to-day....NO PHOTOS UPLOADED TO THE ALBUM

A SCENIC DRIVE TO JULIAN

WEDNESDAY DEC. 26/07
First, let me thank a couple of folks who were reading the blog for pointing out an error in my sheep identification. Guess I had cows on the brain that morning (Palm Canyon Hike) instead of sheep because I called those nimble footed rock scramblers, "long horn sheep" instead of "big horn sheep." Yes Toto, there is a difference & thanks, Kris & Al. Of course I am feeling a bit sheepish about that mistake now:))

I had fully expected my wrenched knee to be totally seized up this morning & couldn't believe my luck when I realized all the pain was totally gone & it was fine, but I can tell I'm going to have to be careful with it. Celebrated my good fortune with a 2 mile doggy walk. Now, that wasn't too smart, was it!!

Figured it was a good day to take a drive to the little town of Julian about 28 miles up in the mountains to the southwest. It was a loooooong 28 miles because the road is a never ending series of twists & turns. A lot of the time I had to gear down to third gear in the corners & some of them I was down into second. It's a real fun & challenging road for anyone confident in their driving skills. The higher up into the mountains one goes, the greener it gets. Trees begin to appear & a lot of them were still holding on to their fall colors. Slipped through a little place called Banner Springs which reminded me of some spots I had seen in the Smokey mountains over in Tennessee years ago. A really pretty area.
Julian suddenly appeared out of the curves & we rolled into a very busy & colorful high altitude town. And because of that altitude......it was cold!!!! And the wind made it even colder. Streets were lined with cars & people so it took us a bit of back street cruising before we found us a parking spot. I was ok but Kelly was wearing shorts & flip flops because it had been really warm when we left Borrego Springs. We quickly ducked into the Julian Bakery & Cafe for a bite to eat & a coffee. We were hoping to get warmed up but it was cold in there too. I think a lot of people had the same idea because the cozy little place was overflowing with people......and some of them with shorts & flip flops too. We didn't spend too much time in Julian because of the cold winds so we jumped into the car & headed out of town in the direction of Santa Ysabel. More scenic twists & curves as we made our way through the mountains heading in the direction of Borrego Springs. A couple quick checks of the road map confirmed we were on course & before long we were in the clutches of Montezuma's mountain road & began the long winding 8% drop to the valley floor at Borrego Springs. This stretch of mountain road is a real brake line burner & would be a real challenge bringing a motorhome down. I would put it right up there with that real nasty stretch of road going over Mingus Mountain back in Arizona. I think Mingus had some tighter corners though & the road was definitely much narrower. Regardless, they are both a real challenge!!

Back to the campsite, out came the lawnchairs, & away went the Julian chills. Thanks California for another nice day. To-morrow it's Yankee potroast at the local community center & Friday Kelly has signed us up for a free jeep tour at the Anza Borrego Nature Center. Lots to do here:)))))

P.S. We are under attack by HUGE wind gusts at the moment so our next transmission may be from somewhere a couple hundred miles east of here somewhere by morning!!!!!!!!!!

CHRISTMAS DAY.... WE DID LAUNDRY:))

TUESDAY DEC 25/07
Aside from a few hefty wind gusts this morning it was a pretty quiet day & the most exciting thing we did was laundry. Decided to drive the motorhome into Borrego Springs & dump the tanks, replenish the water tank, & catch up the laundry.

Wrenched my knee bad again climbing down off the roof of the motorhome after securing the solar panels so am hobbling around with the use of a cane. I'm about 3 shades away from being totally useless at the moment but maybe after a night's rest I'll be able to skitter around the desert floor here like a roadrunner again.

We had a relaxing Christmas Eve sitting around a campfire watching for the big cheesy moon to make it's appearance over the mountains again. Now, that's our kind of Christmas Eve:)))))

NO PHOTOS UPLOADED TO THE WEB ALBUM TO-DAY

CHRISTMAS EVE 2007

HELPING OUT SOME FELLOW CANADIANS

MONDAY DEC 24/07
Butch came by with his truck & a bunch of rope at 7:45 this morning & we headed over to the folks truck & trailer who were stuck in the sand about a quarter mile behind us. Their names are Julie & Rob & they are from Alberta, Canada. Julie had tried in vain the previous night to get their road assistance company to send a tow truck out to their location. Cell phone reception is spotty here plus she had trouble with the person at the other end of the line understanding their location & true predicament so it didn't look too promising for them to get their rig out of the sand any time soon.

We were going to try & hook Butch's truck up with an assortment of raggle taggle ropes to Rob's Ford & see if that would work. (it probably wouldn't have) By a stroke of good fortune, a supervisor at the road assistance company came on shift last night & noticed Julie's call had come in & gone unresolved. She phoned Julie & Rob last night & offered to get them a tow truck out to their location right away but by that time it was late & Julie said this morning would be fine. The lady was very apologetic & admitted that Julie's previous call had not been handled properly. I thought that was extremely thoughtful & considerate of that supervisor person. Nice to see she took the time & made the effort to have the job done right.

The AAA flat bed tow truck rolled in about 9:15 & positioned itself on the solid gravel road bed about 70 feet from the front end of Rob's truck. It had a 75 foot winch cable so it was good that we had been able to move that truck & trailer ahead the night before about 15 feet. The winch cable was hooked on & the slow winching procedure began. Truck & trailer moved steadily across the desert floor only bogging down once. The tow truck driver re-positioned his truck & a few minutes later the big black Ford 350 & it's heavy 30+ foot Presidential travel trailer were up out of the soft sand & on the solid gravel road. A big sigh of relief from everyone for a job well done because it sure saved all of us a lot of digging, pushing, & tugging to-day. And a big thanks to a special lady supervisor at the road emergency assistance place.

The rest of the day was quiet. Butch needed some propane & we needed some water so we all drove into Borrego Springs, grabbed a bite to eat, picked up some things at the hardware store, a few groceries, propane, water, etc. Back out to the desert & the rest of the day we spent relaxing, soaking up some rays & basically just doing a whole lot of nothing. I think the temperature may have hit the 80F mark & it was definitely the hottest day of our trip so far. Nice camp fire to-night as we sat outside & watched the big December moon slowly rise over the Santa Rosa mountains. A nice way to spend Christmas Eve. No stress, no rushing around & no commitments. Last year we spent Christmas Eve in Poncho Villa State Park in New Mexico. The year before was spent in snowy cold Bayfield & the year before that Christmas Eve for us was happily spent in the Rio Grande Village RV campground in Big Bend National Park, Texas. Don't know where we will be next year but as long as it's somewhere where we can sit around a warming campfire on Christmas Eve will be just fine with us.................:))

THE BORREGO SLOT CAYNON HIKE

SUNDAY DEC 23/07
Another big bright sunny California morning & a beautiful sunrise over the Santa Rosa mountain tops to the east. Just plopped myself into a chair facing the sun & soaked up some rays while Kelly drove into Borrego Springs for some groceries. Nice relaxing way to start the day.

We picked up our neighbor Butch at 10:30 & headed off for an 8 mile drive to a part of Anza Borrego Park called Slot Canyon. It's a very difficult place to find & if it wasn't for Butch knowing where it was we would have never found it. It's a bumpy dirt & sandy 2 mile drive off the highway across the desert floor to where the canyon begins. At first glance the slot canyon looks like a simple gravel pit but once we started climbing down into it & got a few hundred feet along the dry creek bed, the canyon began to live up to it's name. This is quite a place & not a good spot for somebody with claustrophobia or for anyone severely overweight. The narrow river carved canyon twists & turns, narrows & widens, & holds surprising rock formation surprises around every corner. It just boggles the mind trying to imagine how all this was once formed & is still being formed with every rain storm. And speaking of rain storms, these slot canyons are always fatal for anyone caught in them during a flash flood.
At some points we had to turn sideways http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy to squeeze through the narrow spaces between the steep rock walls & in other places the walking path on the sand & gravel bed was narrower than a shoe so you had to watch your step or risk spraining an ankle....or worse!! We finally exited the other end of the slot & the canyon opened up into what looked like a large beautiful kind of ancient gravel pit. Butch pointed out an unusual rock cropping far off & we headed for that, walking along a sand & gravel road. Reaching the rocky ridge formation with all it's swirls & swoops we began our ascent to the top. It was a medium climb made easier by the hard sandstone, & sure footed slope. The top was finally reached & we were relieved to sit down & finally break out our peanut butter & jam sandwiches, trail mix, & water. Took some pictures, marveled at the surrounding landscape, & had us a relaxing chin wag for twenty minutes or so before beginning our descent & return trek through the slot canyon. The hike back was as fascinating as it was coming the other way. We got to do all the tight squeezes in reverse. By the time we reached the car we had been gone about 3 hours & we were huffing & puffing a bit. Both Butch & I are 63 & spring chicken Kelly hasn't hit the big 60 yet so she wasn't doing quite as much puffing as Butch & I were. We are so fortunate to have met Butch or we would never have seen a lot of this stuff. Butch is a member of the Escapee's RV club so travels around with the boondockers & knows where all the great places are.
On our way back to the campsite we stopped at an orange grove & bought some grapefruits. Nice to see all the orange trees growing so well in the desert. Of course, Kelly snitched a couple of oranges off a tree so we had to beat a hasty exit. After getting back to our desert campsite we noticed a few other RV'rs had moved in & some of them were close to Butch's place. Very, very, inconsiderate considering the hundreds of acres of open space here in the desert. We also noticed a truck & travel trailer not too far from our site & after watching it for a bit we realized the poor guy was stuck. I took my bicycle over to Butch's place & we threw some lumber & shovels into his truck & headed off over to the hapless wanderers in distress. Boy oh boy, were they ever stuck, trailer & all.........and they were from Canada too. Alberta. Butch got to work with some jacks & I got on the working end of a shovel & we all worked on that situation for the best part of an hour & only got them moved about 20 feet. They're roadside service company wouldn't send a tow truck out because they were about a quarter mile off the highway. It was so frustrating for the couple. They had a big super Ford 350 four wheel drive truck, but with a 30+ foot heavy travel trailer on behind, the truck just kept burying itself in the sand. Darkness finally descended on us & we had to call it a day. The Alberta folks were able to use their trailer ok for to-night so we told them we would be back in the morning with some ropes & more wooden planks. I don't know though.......I think they just might have to make this desert their permanent home now.
While I was over there helping, Kelly got a nice campfire going, picked up my camera & took some nice pictures of a full moon coming over the mountain tops. There is just nothing this girl can't do.....................................say, maybe she can get those Albertan's unstuck in the morning!!

HIKING PALM CANYON NEAR BORREGO SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

SATURDAY DEC. 22/07
It is so nice to wake up, look out the window, & not see anybody. We can open the door & let the dogs out without fear of having them bark at somebody walking by. We could go outside in our pyjamas & not be afraid of having someone yell at us about "not having proper clothes on!!" We can see for miles across the desert floor to the mountains without having another rig parked 20 feet away obstructing our view. It has taken us a long time to reach this state of independence from the RV parks but we have finally arrived at the boondocking way of life........& we love it:))))

Our doggy walk led us out to another couple rigs in the desert where we met the folks who had brought us the firewood. Nice couple (Rich & Marilyn) from Alberta & another fellow from Riverside California by the name of Butch. Rich & Marilyn showed us their solar set-up & propane heater arrangement in their travel trailer before they pulled out heading east to-wards Yuma. Butch has been coming to this area for years so offered to show us around Anza-Borrego State Park starting with a hike in Palm Canyon just on the outskirts of Borrego Springs.
Took our car & the 3 of us headed into Borrego Springs where Butch was able to show us all the spots like the laundramat, dump station, water, good eating place, post office, gas station, grocery store, etc. Takes a lot of guess work out of things when you have someone who is familiar with everything.
We started the hike about 11 & it wasn't long before Kelly heard something on the mountainside to our right & we spotted a herd of about a dozen big horn sheep quickly making their way across the the totally impossible steep rocky terrain. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy Luckily I had brought binoculors & we were all able to see them clearly.

The hike up the canyon ascended a gentle rock strewn landscape with some easy walking sections & a bit of rock clambering here & there. Because of recent rains some of the plants were in bud & Butch said the canyon had really greened up since the last time he was there a couple of weeks ago. A lot of lavender plants, ocotillo, some barrel head cactus, arrowhead weed, & bristel bush were but a few. After about 30 minutes we caught sight of the first palms another half hour ahead. Water began to appear in a small stream from a spring & the banks slowly turned greener with various grasses.
The oasis of fan palms are well over a hundred years old & the small grove was much larger until a freak rainstorm four years ago caused a massive flash flood which devestated the palms, washing many of them down the canyon & out onto the desert floor. That flood wiped out many campsites in the park as well. As we approached the palm grove it became apparent how truly big & massive these trees are & once we reached the grove & walked into & underneath them we realized it was almost like being in a cave labyrinth. Huge palm fronds everywhere. Truly a magical place. We exited the grove on the far side, crossed a small creek, climbed up on some rocks & sat down for a water break & some trail mix. Another couple came by & it turns out they were Canadians from Picton, Ontario. We headed back through the palm forest & I kept expecting King Kong to come bellowing through the fronds at any moment. Butch said this grove of fan palms is one of the few original groves in all of California.
The hike back down the canyon went smoothly & we met a number of hikers coming the other way. We reached the parking lot & car by 2 o'clock.
On the way back to our campsite we stopped in Borrego Springs for a coffee at the fudge shop. Sat outside on the patio in the warm sunshine & couldn't help but think what it was like back home in Ontario with all the really bad weather they have been having. Snow, rain, freezing rain, high winds, blizzards, & cold temperatures. I almost felt guilty sitting there in short sleeves with my cimmamon roll, sunglasses, & coffee. I said......"almost!!"
Back out to the desert & dropped Butch off at his rig. He sure was a big help to-day in showing us all around. To-morrow he is taking us to a slot canyon west of Borrego Springs.
To-night the desert floor is flooded in moonbeams & we can see for miles in all directions. We are two very, very, lucky people................................. :))


THERE ARE OVER A DOZEN BIG HORN SHEEP VISIBLE ON THIS MOUNTAINSIDE

FROM THE SLABS TO BORREGO SPRINGS

FRIDAY DEC. 21/07

(Santa Rosa Mountains....we are in the desert to the left close to the mountains)

The howling & shaking began about one thirty in the morning & once again we were set upon by one of RV'rs most dreaded adversaries........wind!! It came in great huge gusts as only the wind can in the American southwest. I was convinced it would be the end of our newly installed solar panels which were still in an upright position. I wrestled with the decision whether I should go out & climb up there & try to put them down but figured with the size of the wind gusts it wouldn't be a good idea. One of those panels could get away from me & be ripped right off the rig. Layed awake for a couple hours listening to all the new & scary sounds coming from the roof area & imagining all kinds of nasty stuff. The wind gusts were also getting into the air conditioner vents & made them sound like a band of howling banshees. Kelly was awake & didn't get a lot of sleep either. Not a good night!!!

As the sun came up it was obvious that the winds were not going to let up. Dust & dirt were being kicked up & the gusts shook the trailer. We packed things up & I was able to get up on the roof & successfully get the solar panels down between wind gusts. Put the slides in, hooked up the car, bade a fond farewell to the Slabs & the Bayfield Bunch was on the road again. We will miss the slabs because the place had kind of grown on us. If I was younger & didn't have a lot to do I would liked to have come to Slab City, stayed for awhile & helped to clean the place up. Solar Mike did tell us that they have been negotiating with the town of Niland to use their land fill site to get rid of a lot of Slab City's debris. He said the progress is slow but it is moving ahead. Good luck Slabbers, we're rooting for your clean future & who knows, maybe next year we can come back & help you clean up a bit:))

We headed south to Calipatria, picked up some gas, dumped our tanks & took on a load of water. Headed west for Borrego Springs bucking a rough head wind all the way. Caught us a glimpse of the Salton Sea at one point. By 1 in the afternoon we finally caught sight of Borrego Springs in the foothills of the Santa Rosa mountains. Really nice to see all the palm trees as we rolled into town. It was much smaller than I had imagined but it is a pretty little town with green grass, nice architectural buildings, & the town was very neat & clean looking. Un-hooked the car & had a little spin around town. Burgs & fries, ice cream, fudge, & coffee. Yep, I think we're gonna like it here:))

Headed back out east of town about 4 miles & spotted a few RV'rs scattered about on the desert floor. Scouted out the area & found us a location where we wouldn't bother anybody or in turn be bothered by anyone. Positioned the motorhome so the solar panels were facing south & shut it down for the day. We were soooooooo tired. Wasn't long & a couple fellow RV fellows showed up with a bunch of firewood for us. One was from Alberta, Canada & the other fellow was from Riverside, California. Had us good chat about the do's & don'ts of solar power. These folks have been boondocking for a lot of years so we've got a lot to learn.
Don't know how long we'll stay here but we are surrounded by the Anza-Borrego State Park & we hear there is a lot to see & do in the area so we just may hunker down here for awhile & take in the sights & sounds of southern California:)) I wonder where Jay Leno lives!!
NO PHOTOS UPLOADED TO THE WEB ALBUM ON FRIDAY

She's got fudge in that there white bag:))

LAST DAY AT THE SLABS

THURSDAY DEC. 20/07
The locals had a Hootenanny last night just down the road. No karaoke for these Slab residents, they do it all themselves. We could hear the strains of some Bob Dylan & Beatles tunes wafting up out of the trees where they had gathered. They do their own singing & they do their own instruments. And they didn't sound half bad either.

We parked for the night near Mike's Sun Works so we didn't have far to go in the morning. Mike was out right at 8 & began troubleshooting our problem. Another couple of rigs rolled in minutes behind us & the two young fellows began outfitting them with solar systems right away. The usual assortment of characters came & went & one by one their problems were addressed. Mike finally located the problem with the inverter & fixed it. He went over the system with us explaining how it all worked & answering all our questions. A few last minute things to tidy up & we were on our way. All & all it was a good learning experience for us the last couple of days & we left with the knowledge that we had definitely come to the right place for our solar installation. Two thumbs up for Solar Mike & his Sun Works. And he's a nice fellow too:))

From Sun Works we went back to the spot where we had spent our first night here in the Slabs. Figured we would hang around for the night & see how we made out with our solar system. Of course, I had no sooner put the solar panels up when the cloud cover rolled in. Some days ya just can't win for loosing:((

We decided to have a better look around the area so jumped in the car & drove around a bit. Saw an old wooden sign that said, Library, so we drove in & stopped. It was a typical slab dwelling made out of bits & pieces of wood, aluminum siding, car tires, etc. Looked pretty ramshackle from the outside but it was really unique inside. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy The lady who started this library died in 2003 of breast cancer. She was only 53. A friend took over looking after things & he has maintained the library & all it's books & artifacts. Probably not a lot of people know about it or come here but I did feel like it was a special place dedicated to someone's memory. Old books, old magazines, & old memories.

From the little library in the desert we drove a short distance past Salvation Mountain & had us look at 3 old ammunition bunkers that were here when the army base was in operation. These bunkers are lived in by people during the summer months because they are cooler & of course they are filthy with garbage, human waste, & debris of all kinds scattered about. It is so appalling to us how some people live & treat the environment. You wouldn't believe the mess unless you saw it. And it's everywhere!!
A short distance from the bunkers is small pond where hot mineral water bubbles to the surface. People obviously come here because once again the area is littered with trash. The overflow from this small pond runs along the desert floor through some dense shrubbery in a narrow stream for a few hundred yards where it enters a cement well like structure. This is the local slab city shower. Check out the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy Somebody has just very recently constructed a well made ladder for folks to climb down into the hot mineral water. At least some people are trying to make things nice.
Between the shower in the ground & Salvation Mountain we noticed another couple of structures way out on the desert floor so headed over there to check them out. Just when you think you've seen everything bizarre in the slab area you come across this place. I have no idea what this was but I suspect it had something to do with the army base years ago. Big round cement silo like structures. Water tanks maybe, gun emplacements, some kind of training facilities, landing pads for alien space craft, power generating plant maybe....just don't know but as with all things in this area it has been discovered, used, & abused by humanoids. The usual amount of broken glass, old tires, litter & debris, but it also has something else........graffiti. Not bad graffiti though, & some of the paintings are actually quite good. The strangest structure is a large round cement silo with a concrete roof. We noticed someone had made something out of old used tires on the top. We walked up an embankment on one side of it & noticed a hole had been knocked through the concrete wall big enough to crawl through, so in we went. Found ourselves in a large round concrete room on a concrete floor with lots of paintings on the wall & an assortment of odds & ends scattered about in a sort of organized way. Kelly noticed a box of food on the floor beside a sleeping bag. A couple bottles of juice & loaf of bread that was still fresh. Oh, oh, have we blundered into someone's abode. The most bizarre thing about this round concrete room was what was hanging from the ceiling. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy Someone had gone to a lot of ingenious work by first building a structure of tires on top of the roof over a hole in the center of the roof. From this they suspended an assortment of cables & fashioned themselves a large hanging & caged bed. It sort of took on some spider like qualities in it's construction.
Noticed a steel ladder going up the side of the wall leading to a small hatch in the roof so I climbed up there, poked my head & shoulder through the opening & took a few pictures of the surrounding area. Kelly had already exited the structure & when I came back down the ladder I found the place eerily quiet & a little spooky to say the least. I fully expected a vampire or some hideous horror movie monster creature to suddenly descend on me. It was with a feeling of relief that I stepped back out of the hole in the wall into daylight again & headed off back down to where we had left the car. Hard for me to explain this place so have a look at the pictures I took.

Just made it back to the motorhome in time to take some photos of the amazing sunset over Slab City. We will probably leave here to-morrow heading for Borrego Springs which is on the west side of the Salton Sea in Anza-Borrego State Park. We had planned on going up to Joshua Tree State Park north of here until we checked the weather to-day & found out it's only in the 40's there. Met another Canadian couple this morning at Solar Mikes who had come over from Peg Leg Pete's near Borrego Springs for a solar installation & they said the weather over there is just fabulous......so, that's where we're going next. We just gots to go where we gots to go to keep warm:))))
P.S. We haven't had to pay any RV park fees for 4 nights now....Ya-hooooooie!!

SOLAR POWER INSTALLATION DAY

WEDNESDAY DEC. 19/07
Our body clocks still have not adjusted to the California time zone so we were awake waaaaay to early this morning again. Packed up the motorhome, took down the satellite dish & drove the short quarter mile over to Solar Mike's Sun Works for 8 a.m.

Mike & his 2 workers didn't waste any time getting started & it wasn't long & the two solar panels were on their way up onto the roof. As the day progressed it became clear that this is a very involved procedure. The 2 aging coach batteries had to come out & 4 new ones went in. No easy task considering the coach was only designed for 2. Modifications had to be made & it was clear the fellows new exactly what they were doing. Solar panels have to communicate with batteries & batteries have to communicate with an inverter & the inverter communicates with a couple of wall monitors in the coach so there is a lot of wiring involved. Not a simple undertaking considering the small spaces of a motorhome. Panel monitors have to be mounted, switches & fuses have to be changed, etc, etc. The two young fellows worked non stop while Mike helped out & supervised the more technical aspects of it all. Two 5th wheels rolled in to book solar installation appointments. Sun Works is a very busy place.
All the while this is going on there is a constant ebb & flow of colorful characters http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy coming & going at the Sun Works. Mike's place seems to be the hub of all that is well & good about Slab City. People are dropping in needing parts for this & that. Some are seeking advice for various things & one fellow was looking for a welder. Another guy dropped off a whole case of lettuce which Mike in turn handed out to everyone else dropping by. Solar Mike is an easy going laid back sort of fellow who takes everything in stride & it's obvious he is well respected by the Slab's residents. He's been here since 1986 & has been doing countless solar installations ever since. We found his name over & over on the RV forums from people who have had him do their solar work over the years.
If you come here expecting to find a big Sun Works neon sign out front of his business & a big brick building with 2 or 3 bays plus a fancy schmancy waiting room with a staff or people manning an overstocked parts department, you are in for a HUGE surprise. I think Mike's business is the classic example of, Keep It Simple!! A couple of ancient buses (early 70's), some tired old lawn chairs, a palm frond lean-to & an assortment of bits & pieces, some storage bins, & a whole lot of solar panels & batteries make Mikes business & home kind of a cozy little place with a creative little cactus garden, solar oven, colorful flowers, & an ambience found only here California's Slab City desert. The new & the old live & work comfortably side by side. Mike's old office bus may date back to the 70's but the modern computer, satellite internet & other new age technologies are all right up there in to-day's fast paced world. Remember, there is no electricity here in the desert & all this is driven by a combination of solar panels, batteries, & inverters. And sun of course!! Quite a clever & resourceful fellow.

The town of Brawley, California is about a half hour drive south of Slab City so we decided to take the car & motor on down there for some groceries in the early afternoon while the fellows were working on the coach. Brawley was a surprise for us because we had expected another tired & dusty little tumble down western town. Tall palm trees lined the streets, lush green manicured grass adorned well landscaped & expensive homes. Land was cleared for a new super center Wal-Mart & we even saw a McDonalds. Nice looking town.

We were back to Slab City about 4 & the crew was still working on the installation. The sun was setting before they finally finished & started up the system..........and found a problem!! Seems the used inverter may not be functioning correctively so Mike said he would trouble shoot the problem in the morning & determine what is not working. That was fine with us because we're in no hurry to be anywhere.
Our water tank was nearly empty so we drove the short distance into Niland & filled up the tank from a water faucet behind a gas station. Back to the Slabs & parked near Mike's place for the night. Nice out with a big three quarter moon & mild temperatures. Lights twinkling on the horizon must be the town of Brawley. Thanks for the big juicy hamburgers to-day Brawleytown:))

YIKES!! ANOTHER DAY AT SLAB CITY

TUESDAY DEC.. 18/07
Nice quiet & spacious night at Slab City compared to the crowded & noisy one we spent in Yuma the night before. Slept ok & there wasn't any noise from the Naval gunnery range. When I saw the gunfire over there Monday night I didn't hear any noise associated with it so that gunnery range is a long way off.

Right behind where we are camped there is a new & sizeable irrigation canal with clear flowing water & even some sizeable fish so we walked along the birm above the water for our morning walk. There are millions of small sea shells that have been turfed up by the construction so it's easy to see how this whole valley was once either an ocean or lake bottom. In yesterday's blog I said there were maybe a hundred units scattered around here but after a drive around the area this afternoon I have to correct that assumption. There are literally hundreds & hundreds & hundreds of rigs all over the place & we haven't even been down to the south end of the area yet. Kelly found a recent article about Slab City in the New York Times which I am going to include separately. It's worth a read to see just what this whole Slab City place is all about. It's actually kind of a fascinating place once a person gets used to all the litter & debris. We will definitely always remember Slab City & probably with a certain amount of fondness too.

Puttered around in the morning until 11 when we had an appointment to see a fellow about having a couple of solar panels installed. He came highly recommended on the RV forums so that's how we actually ended up in Slab City. It's a very busy place with motorhomes coming & going with various solar installations in progress. His business is called SunWorks but is nothing like any other work place we've ever seen. Check out the picture & I will have more pics on Wednesday because after some price negotiation this afternoon we decided to have him do a couple panels for us plus batteries & inverter. We will have the motorhome at his place for 8 in the morning.

Didn't do much else to-day except some motorhome maintenance. (check oil, tires, tank levels, etc.) Fired up the generator a couple of times to check email, doggy walk, & soaked up some California sunshine. A relaxing day. To-morrow could be a long one because of the installation. Will probably stay here in Slab city for one or two more nights to make sure we understand the solar system & everything is working ok. From here we'll probably head north west up into the Joshua Tree National Park or maybe to the west a bit & have us a look at the Salton Sea area. Probably won't know where we're going until after we've been there..................................

SLAB CITY,CALIFORNIA.....WHAT ELSE CAN I SAY!!

MONDAY DEC. 17/07
I think the U.S. Air Force found out Kelly was in town because there were no more aircraft flying after 11 p.m. Even the freight trains quit running for the night & the traffic finally diminished. However, I woke up around 3 to the sound of somebody talking on a police radio. A cruiser must have stopped a car just outside the park's gates because I could here them running a California license plate. Finally made it back to sleep only to be jolted awake at 4:30 a.m. by the crash bang sound of the Monday morning garbage truck picking up the big metal trash containers just around the corner. What a night, what a night!!

Kelly phoned home in the morning to see how her parents were doing & then we headed for the awning repair place. Well, that was a big bust!! We had been under the impression they had vinyl awnings in stock but they didn't & it would take about a week to order one in to fit our motorhome. So, that was it for that & we headed back to the Wal-Mart parking lot to regroup & hook the car up again. We were very disappointed but decided to just carry on to Niland California. We headed west on I-8 & could see downtown Yuma on our left which looked very nice. But, no matter which way you slice it, Yuma is a big city & we don't care for all the hustle & bustle, traffic, noise, etc of big cities. It was so nice to get out into the countryside again. I guess once a country bumpkin, always a country bumpkin:))

Just west of Yuma are the big Imperial Sand Dunes which looks like pictures I've seen of the Sahara desert with it's endless sea of sand huge dunes. We could see RV'rs here & there boondocking with their ATVs. The rest of the drive to Niland was kinda boring because there isn't much to see. This land is pretty flat with scruffy shrubs for the most part. We did notice a huge amount of air pollution ahead though as we got to within a hundred miles of San Diego. When one thinks of California they think of lush palm trees & green but out here it seems to be more dust, dirt, litter, & air pollution.
Swung north at El Centro & couldn't help thinking while coming around the ramp that this is the farthest point we will be from home & in effect, from this point here we begin the long journey home.
Made it to Niland around 2 I think. Kind of a scruffy looking little town out here in the flatness of nowhere & nothing. Not a particularly pretty area compared to where we've been. Headed east out of town a few miles to a place called Slab City.................................

Well, what can I say about Slab City. Oh boy, this is quite the place!! Where do I start. Slab city was an old air force base in the desert years ago. The wooden buildings are long gone but the cement slabs they were on are still here. Thus, slab city. People have been coming here, living & camping on & around the cement slabs & on the desert floor for decades. It was hugely popular with the hippies back in the 60's & is popular with RV'rs now. There are probably around a hundred rigs here right now. Some are permanent & some are just passing through. The biggest attraction here is something called, Salvation Mountain. First, let me say that Salvation Mountain is not a mountain as we think of it. A fellow by the name of Leonard Knight has dedicated his life to building a religious shrine that people call a mountain. It's hard for me to describe what this is but I have uploaded a bunch of pictures I took yesterday when Kelly & I stopped to have a look. http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy Leonard Knight was away in town but his helper, a nice old fellow by the name of Jack was there & Jack took us for a tour in & around the, "mountain." I will include a link here to a website that tells about Leonard Knight & his Salvation Mountain. Leonard just got back as we were leaving. http://www.salvationmountain.us/menu.html#house

Now, back to slab city which begins right where Salvation Mountain leaves off. Our first impression of Slab City was not good. There is litter, garbage, & debris most everywhere. Generations of squatters, hippies, & transients have left behind burned out buses, twisted & rusted old vehicles, collapsed & rotting old trailers, & garbage paraphernalia of all description. For us, coming from Canada, we are constantly appalled by the amount of litter & garbage on the ground in the American Southwest, & here at Slab City it is disappointing to see the mess left by careless & uncaring people. Mother Nature has worked overtime in creating such a beautiful land & man has worked hard at making a lot of it such a mess. I guess there are many things in life we don't understand & for Kelly & I this is one of them. Now, having said all that, there is still something appealing about Slab City here. As I look out one window I see big million dollar Class A motorhomes scattered about & as I look out another window I see an old beat up trailer with a couple old derelict pick up trucks, makeshift shelter made out of bits of scrap plywood, old rusted carparts, cardboard, sticks, & whatever. I think there are probably more dogs here than people by the sounds of it & last night I was fortunate enough to see fire coming out of the sky!! To the east of Slab City on the horizon is the Chocolate Mountain Range & between here & there is the Naval Gunnery Range. We knew that so when a helicopter went over low about 9 last night I went outside & watched it head in that direction. I could see aircraft blinking in the night sky in that direction as well. About 10 minutes later I saw yellow streams of light coming out of an invisible point in the sky which I assumed was rocket fire from the helicopter to a point on the ground. Seconds later came a burst of bright red streams fanning out at a point on the desert as well. I assume that was machine gun fire from the helicopter using red tracer bullets. We talked to an old timer yesterday who said the it's quite a light show some nights with all the gunfire & bombings that go on. We had heard explosions earlier in the afternoon.
We are on generator power here because there is no electricity so we can only use the computer when the generator is running & generating power to the coach. Definitely a different way of doing things for us but it's something we want to do more often to escape the expense & overcrowding of most RV parks.
We are actually in Slab City to talk to a fellow who installs & outfits motorhomes with solar power. He was recommended by people on some of the RV forums we belong to so we wanted to see what he had to offer & for what kind of price.

OK, time to start the generator & send this off. We set up our satellite dish yesterday & had no problem at all so it's nice to have satellite TV & internet out here in the middle of no place in the California desert:)) Leonard Knight lives in that old truck...(picture bottom right)