Jojoba Hills -Death Valley

We left the beautiful Southern California mountains and headed for the high desert of Death Valley. If you interested in glider flying Warner Springs is the place.There must have been at least 100 planes on the field. I would like to go back and spend a week-end watching the action there...From there on through Palm Desert, Palm Springs and then up through the high desert to Death Valley. You can't imagine the number of wind mills in Palm Springs....there must be a thousand of them! We then went past Joshua Tree National Park but saw many of the Joshua trees on the way. We overnighted at Ridgecrest at the fairgrounds before going on to Panamint Springs on the outside of Death Valley National Park.

Borrego Springs to Jojoba Hills

Another part of our trip is to visit all of the Escapees(SKPs) parks on the west coast. Tonight we visited Jojoba Hills the So Ca park. We had a personal tour..and the park is a first class resort. I'm still partial to our friendly park in Benson.

Slab City to Borrego Springs

We had been told that there was a great hike in Borrego Springs so it has been on our list of things to do. We left the Slabs went around the south of the Salton Sea and then headed northwest to Anza Borrego Springs State Park. We arrived late in the day so only got a short hike in before nightfall. Thursday morning we hiked the Palm Canyon Trail...about 4 miles. It was a beautiful mountainous hike ending at a oasis of palms and a running brook that appeared our of nowhere. We had a slight mishap...Darcy slipped, even with 2 hiking poles and fell landing on a boulder pile hurting her pride and her left hand..It is getting better as the swelling goes down. I have been her able bodied assistant but she says I can take clothes off much better than I can put them on!

Palm Canyon at Borrego Springs,Ca

 
 
 

 
 

"Slab City", Niland,Ca

Have you ever seen the movie"Into the Wild"? There is a scene that takes place in a remote desert spot where RV'ers and others hang out. Having spent time at Quartzsite and in organized campgrounds this place just attracted my attention. Onto the web I went to see if it was real...It is more than real! "The last place that is free." An ex Marine base that was active from 1942-1948. Later abandoned ergo "The Slabs". All that is left are the slabs that were the foundations for the administrative infrastructure as the Marines all stayed in tents. The community started arriving in the mid-60's. Not one that everyone would want to be a part of, but one that everyone could be a part of. For more of the history go to www.slabcity.org. It is said that one trip to Slab City and you are addicted. We arrived mid day and drove around looking for a spot to park for the night. The area encompasses in ranch terms a section, 640 acres or 1 mile by 1 mile so you can spend a while hunting if you want. We found a spot that looked ok and stopped. We then went walking around to scope the place out. The Traveling Pals club, a club for single people, The Oasis Club, an place for eating and drinking...and a small library were nearby. These were spots for people to gather to socialize. Alaskan Linda had volunteered to put on a lasagna dinner for the next night. We were soon asked to join a campfire ring by Professor Mike, who rode around on a powered beer cooler. Soon several others joined in..Darcy brought over Cheryls chocolate chip cookies...You would have thought they had died and gone to heaven. Cooking was probably not high on their priorities. Probably beer was number 1.
We saw people from all walks of life from prosperous millionaires to happy go lucky paupers camping side by side. They will mingle for the season and then go on their separate ways. We talked with people in their 80's to people in their teens. It is truly an anthropological experience. There is a current documentary on the fine arts circuit called "Below Sea Level" See it if you can.. Will we return? Sure hope so..

 

Quartzsite ---Slab City

Our plan was to head for Niland,CA the home of "The Slabs". A plan is only a plan! I take medicine for cholesterol every day. If it wasn't for Darcy I would never remember to take it! Low and behold I had no more to take and the nearest Wal-Mart was in Yuma....a slight detour. Only a hundred miles out of the way.Leaving Yuma on I-8 across the bottom of the Salton Sea always amazes me. We often say" Did you think California was going to look like this?" It is like we were back in Saudi again....The sand dunes are spectular...a little smaller than those in Saudi but still great. Makes me want to have a dune buggy again......Then just a little further on and fields and fields of hay.....not hay like in Maine where it is half weeds just hay....beautiful fields of hay for miles and miles. Can you imagine throwing all that hay into a wagon? One man and a truck....It is a combination tractor and flat bed truck. As the truck goes down the fields it has a pick-up chute off to the rifgt side. After picking up the bale an arm places it on the truck. When a hundred or so bales are neately piled the truck then takes it back to the pile and off loads it. The marvels of technology an corporate farms. I kept wondering where all this hay was going until we came to the largest feed lot I have ever seen. Black and white cows everywhere! We sure love meat! Enough of hay.

 

Phoenix- Quartzsite

By the time we finished my "honey do list" it was 3:00 in the afternoon. We got as far as Quartzsite. We then we out to dinner with friends. It is amazing how that the same town in January has 100000 rigs in the desert and now has maybe 500.. It is like a ghost town.

Food...Food...Food

As you can see Easter week-end was all about food! Cheryl is a fabulous cook. We spent all morning on Saturday hunting for just the right ingredients at the local farmers markets. We then spent the rest of the day chopping....chopping.....chopping with a little wine on the side..Everything turned out great. Smoked salmon dip, potato soup, leek confit tart, bananna bread, apple-parsnip-orange chutney, green goddess salad dressing on romaine, pecan pie, creamed beets, ham, mimmosa's, not in this order. Also a big batch of chocolate chip cookies. We started diets this morning!

 
 
 

Easter

Only one bonnet......I wonder what that says about the hat industry? They were always so pretty and made one stand straight and tall.

Easter Sunday

A happy Easter morning to you all...Yesterday was raining and cold but as we arise this morning the sun is shining and the day is beautiful here in sunny AZ. Hope it is that way with you as well. Easter is always such a special day. We are off to church in a few minutes. My remembrances as a child are all the Easter bonnets....I wonder if I will see any this morning?

Good Friday

We left Benson this morning. Arrived in Phoenix early afternoon. We will spend the Easter week-end with friend of many years. It is supposed to rain but weather here is always unpredictable...RV ran great other than the a-c. Feels like it needs to be recharged. Will head for Autozone in the morning...We will head for Slab City on Monday. Check it out at www.slabcity.org

 

We will try this again!

We are beginning our trip back to the East coast this week. You would think that I could update this blog on a regular basis but for some unknown reason I never seem to have time to do it. That is going to change...I hope. We will be leaving the big rig here in Benson,AZ and will be taking the "riglet" and the motorcycle. Our plan is to travel couple hundred miles in the RV and then ride the motorcycle another couple of hundred miles. I will write about what we do and see on a regular basis as a photo journal of our trip.

February Journal

Our two-week stay in New England connected us with family members in wonderful ways. Wally and his mother enjoyed quality time together as they worked through mountains of accumulated paper work, eliminating and simplifying for June’s future needs. They enjoyed meals and Bridge games in the evenings with Wally’s sister April. Brother Jason and family hosted them for lunch and a lovely afternoon at their new cottage on our beloved Bottle Lake after a substantial snow fall.
As my Aunt Venessa experienced a once-in-a -lifetime South African safari trip, I assisted my Aunt Chesla as she prepared to return to her home. For 3 months, she has been recuperating from a heart attack with special care from her sister. I especially enjoyed our talks about her “growing up and off to work” years. During this time, Chesla and my mother Carolyn made a train trip from Maine to California together; very daring for those days. Chesla is now home and active in her everyday life.
How many RV’s do we need? Just one more. Ever since Wally earned his Commercial Drivers License in Dec. 2005, he has been looking for the perfect truck on which to build a new motor home. While we were in the New Orleans, LA area in Dec. 2006, we noticed an ad in a trucking magazine describing a 45 foot motor coach shell built on a Peterbilt Cab-Over truck chassis. We discovered that this custom-built Genesis was in nearby Gulf Port, MS. It had been constructed in a RI boatyard of balsa core and fiberglass to meld exactly to Peterbilt’s most aerodynamic truck cab. Crisscrossing the country as an Entertainer’s Coach in the 1990’s, it had received high acclaim for comfort and dependability. After carefully looking it over, we decided that this futuristic beauty would serve our needs well for many years to come. Once we spend time with our new granddaughter and family, we’ll be bringing it back to Maine with us.
Love, Darcy and Wally