A DRIVE INTO ROCKHOUSE CANYON, BREAKFAST IN BORREGO, & AN AFTERNOON GET TOGETHER

This is Saturday’s post

It’s too bad we just caught the tail end of warmer weather here in Borrego Springs earlier this week but not to complain.  Checking Kelso’s California Mojave Desert area where we had originally planned to go we see colder temperatures with snow being mentioned in the forecast.  As long as we have sun shining & we have no wind our days here in Borrego are just fine for getting out & about doing things or tipping back in our gravity chairs just soaking up old Sol’s warming rays.  Oh, & remembering to keep our hands in our pockets on our crispy early morning walks.

SUNRISE ON COYOTE MOUNTAIN

 

MORNING’S FIRST WARMING RAYS OF SUNLIGHT MAKE THEIR WAY INTO OUR COACH

Speaking of crispy mornings we didn’t walk too far with a cold breeze coming up from the southwest so we fired up the Jeep & took us for a drive back down Rockhouse Canyon towards Clark Dry Lake Bed.  Oh how nice the warm air felt coming out of that Jeep heater.  Wasn’t our first time down to the dry lake bed.  Been back that way a couple other times but it’s always nice to see how the landscape changes down that-a-way. 

NICE MORNING FOR A LEISURELY DRIVE THROUGH THE DESERT

There is a grove of Tamarisk trees on the far northern side maybe 3 or 4 miles away so we headed ourselves on down there using a few sandy Jeep roads weaving through Creosote bushes.  Passed by a couple big crumbling cement towers.  Last time we saw them I thought maybe they had something to do with aerial targets.

  

MAY HAVE FOUND AN EXPLANATION TO THESE REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURES ON THE INTERNET THIS AFTERNOON

  

THERE ARE 2 OF THEM & THEY STOOD FAIRLY CLOSE TO AN AIRFIELD & A AERIAL GUNNERY & BOMBING RANGE

THE PASSAGE OF TIME IS SLOWLY WEATHERING AWAY AT THESE STRUCTURES

This area was used by the military for pilot training & aerial gunnery years ago & if one keeps their eyes to the sand it’s still possible to find spent bullets.  We found two 50 caliber rounds a few years ago.  One had impacted the sandy lake bed & was intact while the other round had hit something solid & was pretty smashed up.  Fighter planes carried 50 caliber machine guns so that is what would have been used on targets.  No bullets found today but we did see a bunch of old rusty nails scattered about on the dry lake bed.  Rumor has it there was a plane crash here in the canyon back then.

 

MAKING OUR WAY ALONG A HARD PACKED SANDY JEEP ROAD

AND THERE DEAD AHEAD AT LAST IS THE TAMARISK TREE GROVE

I did pull these few bits of info off the internet about the Clark Dry Lake Bed:: ("predominately used for bombing, gunnery, and rocketry targets & as an emergency landing strip.")  “used as an auxiliary airfield, located on the northwest corner of the lakebed”.  “A circa 1944 directory of NAS San Diego airfields depicted the “Clark’s Dry Lake Emergency Landing Field / Field #05169”as having 2 compact sandy silt & clay runways, 9/27 & 13/31, each 5,000' long. A bombing target was depicted northeast of the runway intersection”. “According to Bill Haneline, the cement structures that were built on the lake “are the 'Rakes'. Personnel sat in these & scored target practice using a device that reminded people of a rake. They were in radio communication with the aircraft. It must have been hell in them during the summer.”)  I guess that might explain the heavy reinforced concrete to protect the target spotters eh!!

I AM GUESSING THOSE 2 ‘RAKES’ DEPICTED IN THIS DIAGRAM ARE THE 2 CONCRETE STRUCTURES WE PASSED THIS MORNING…NOTE THE NEARBY RUNWAY & BOMBING TARGET

We finally reached the Tamarisk Grove oasis on the far side of the lake but it didn’t look as we had remembered it.  Of course winds & shifting sand have a way of constantly changing the landscape out here in these remote windswept desert locations.  For all we know this may have been an entirely different grove than we saw before.  Heading back out westward across a well packed road across the dry lake it wasn’t until we came up behind a sign about half way across saying, ‘Authorized Vehicles Only’ meaning we had just been in an unauthorized vehicle area. Oooops. 

WE WERE SURPRISED AT HOW BIG THE SAND DUNES WERE IN THIS OASIS OF TREES

 

DEFINITELY SOME HUMAN ACTIVITIES GOING HERE WHICH WE THINK MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH ANZA-BORREGO STATE PARK JUDGING FROM A NOTE LEFT ON THAT TRAILER

IN A RATHER DESOLATE LOOKING SCRUBBY CREOSOTE DESERT LANDSCAPE HERE THESE LARGE TAMARISK TREES REALLY STAND OUT

HEADING BACK ACROSS THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED…HARD TO BELIEVE THERE WAS ONCE AN EMERGENCY LANDING STRIP HERE PLUS A BOMBING & AERIAL MACHINE GUN RANGE

Continued west until we encountered Rockhouse Road again then made a right hand turn & headed north further into the canyon.  Very washboardy.  There is a house of sorts with a water tank etc further along so thought we’d slide back in there & have a look at that again.  Reached the road leading to the building about half a mile or more distant be again we encountered another ‘Authorized Vehicles Only’ sign.  Didn’t remember that sign being there a few years ago.  From this point Rockhouse Road quickly deteriorates & we know that from driving further down it one time.  No point in beating up the Jeep again so we headed back out of the Canyon stopping to give Pheebs another run on the flat dry lake bed itself.  

COYOTE MOUNTAIN

 

 

CURIOUS IMPRINTS IN THE DRY LAKE BED

<<< NEANDERTHAL TRACKS PERHAPS:))

It’s not often we treat ourselves to breakfast anymore but this morning we just felt like doing that very thing.  Dropped Pheebs off at the rig & we headed into Borrego Springs to an eatery called Kendall’s Café.  This is the very place we first met Jean & Skip years ago & it’s located in the Mall just behind the Library.  Great breakfast.  Browsed through a couple artsy little shops & headed back out to our rig.  It was just about noon on a sunny feeling warm 60F day.  Felt warm because there was no wind:))

  

<<< NOW HERE’S A CLEVER IDEA ON WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE OLD WOODEN SKIDS/PALLETS YOU HAVE LYING AROUND

At 3:30 this afternoon we all piled into the Jeep & headed on over to where Wheeling-It & Technomadia were parked about a mile north of us.  Nina had organized a little get together for fellow friends, RV’ers & Bloggers.  A good turn out.  Chris & Cherie from Technomadia conducted a tour of their cool converted Greyhound 60’s vintage bus.  Really neat, comfy, & cozy.  No slide-outs in those buses but in their case none needed.  They have it customized right to their liking.  Cherie did the inside tours while Chris looked after the outside things like engine, solar set-up, batteries etc.  Some of the mechanically inclined fellas had lots of questions about the workings of the bus.  Chris & Cherie are 2 very techno savy people & I was impressed when Chris showed us how with just a little device they can control the colors & density of all the lights in their coach.  Groovy.

CHERIE CONDUCTED SEVERAL TOURS OF THEIR NEAT-O BUS

  

CHERIE & CHRIS ARE A VERY BUSY WORKING FULLTIME ON THE ROAD WORKING COUPLE AS EVIDENCED BY THEIR LARGE WORK STATION & HUGE COMPUTER MONITORS…GEEEEZZZZ, & I HAVEN’T EVEN FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE A CELL PHONE YET

CHRIS DEMONSTRATES HOW HE CONTROLS HIS LIGHTING & THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE MANY GADGET CONTROLLING DEVICES THEY HAVE FOR A MULTITUDE OF FUNCTIONS IN THEIR RIG

 

HOW’S THIS FOR ONE BIG HUGE HUMUNGAMUS MOTOR & LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THE MUFFLER OVER THERE ON THE LEFT

Met us a few new people & if you asked me to remember everyone I wouldn’t be able to do it.  Kelly is much better at remembering names than I am but I do remember meeting Linda & Howard from StillHowlynTravels plus Tom & Dianne from TDHOMESTEAD.  Pheebs got to see Polly again & met a new fella named Byron.  There was a bit of discourse among the doggy guys but they all managed to kinda sort things out.  Gaelyn from GEOGYPSY was there and we met a couple who said they met us once before on a trail somewhere & we gave them a Bayfield Bunch card.  They couldn’t remember where it was they met us & I was unable to put a location to the faces.

DA BUS…IN IT’S HAYDAY IT COULD CARRY 40+ PEOPLE & OPERATED MAINLY IN ARIZONA & NEW MEXICO

 

THAT’S COLORFUL KELLY ON THE RIGHT

 

NINA & PAUL’S RIG ON THE RIGHT

We stayed about an hour & a half.  Kelly was tired & by 5 in the afternoon with the sun dropping down behind the San Ysidros the air was getting pretty chilly & it was time to go.  A big thanks to Nina, Chris & Cherie for hosting the get together & it was nice to meet everyone.  Great bus tour guys.  Another fine ending to another fine day here in Anza-Borrego & Sunday morning it just may be another scamper up Coyote Mountain to the wee valley of the Great Stone Snake with some new friends:))

 

BYRON, PHEEBS, POLLY, & GAELYN

OH-OH WHAT’S THAT PHEEBERS DOING OVER THERE

GROANER’S CORNER:((   Two kids are talking to each other. One says, "I'm really worried. My dad works twelve hours a day to give me a nice home and good food. My mom spends the whole day cleaning and cooking for me. I'm worried sick!"  The other kid says, "What have you got to worry about? Sounds to me like you've got it made!"
The first kid says, "What if they try to escape?"

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Christmas was finally over and the Pastor's wife dropped into an easy chair saying, "Boy! Am I ever tried."
Her husband looked over at her and said, "I had to conduct two special services last night, three today, and give a total of five sermons. Why are you so tired?"
"Dear," she replied, "I had to listen to all of them."

AN UNEXPECTED QUICK HIKE THIS MORNING LEAVES MY BOWL OF CEREAL IN A MUSHY STATE….BUT I ATE IT ANYWAY:))

Hadn’t planned on doing any hiking today other than our morning walk.  That changed when we saw 3 wandering hikers heading in the direction of Coyote Mountain.  Kelly recognized the three as Nina & Chris & Cherie.  I figured they were off to find the great Stone Snake but after watching their direction for a few minutes & seeing them stop as if they were trying to figure out their way I left my half bowl of cereal on the table, grabbed my hat & cameras & out the door Pheebs & I went trying to catch up but they had too much of a lead on me. 

KELLY SPOTTED THESE HIKERS GOING BY WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE POLLY, NINA, CHRIS, & CHERIE

They had entered a steep upward ravine & by the time I saw them they were nearly at the top of a ridge.  I knew the Stone Snake was just the other side from having climbed this rugged rocky ravine ourselves the first time.  I hollered up for them to keep going thinking they might turn back. 

THE GREAT STONE SNAKE IS JUST OVER THAT ROCKY RIDGE

What I didn’t know was that Nina had already been up this route so in fact they did know where they were going. I decided to skirt around the other side of the hill & take a much easier path up to the snake.  Figured I’d better tell them about the better trail to come back on.  I did finally meet up with these folks in the wee valley of the snake.  That’s when I found out Nina had been here before & knew the trails.

 

I FIRST SPOTTED CHRIS ON A DISTANT RIDGE CHECKING HIS CELL PHONE

HERE’S THE HAPPY HIKERS LOOKING OUT OVER THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED FAR BELOW WITH THE SANTA ROSA MOUNTAINS ON THE OTHER SIDE

Pheebs & Nina’s dog Polly were able to get re-acquainted & Pheebs was doubly happy because Nina had treats.  I didn’t want to interrupt their hike so without further ado I excused myself & headed back down Coyote mountain.  Besides I still had a half bowl of mushy Shreddies waiting for me, my legs were falling off, & I had forgot I was still wearing 3 shirts from our earlier morning much colder walk. I had turned into a total sweat ball in the rapidly warming sun.

<<< NINA HANDS OUT SOME TREATS FOR POLLY & PHEEBS…BE SURE TO READ NINA’S WELL WRITTEN & WELL PHOTOGRAPHED POST ABOUT HER CHRISTMAS MORNING WALK HERE AT THE CLARK DRY LAKE BED… INTO THE EMPTINESS 

Other than zipping up & down Coyote Mountain this morning our afternoon remained rather physically inactive.  Just a lot of lounging around.  We definitely have to swap out our Flexsteel tub chair for a nice comfy wall hugging RV friendly recliner for sure though.  Recliners are my all time favorite pieces of furniture.  And next year I’ll leave this harder bum numbing dining room chair in Bayfield & replace it with our buns friendly computer chair from the sunroom.

 

SO I PUT PHEEBS SOFT BED BESIDE MY CHAIR & SHE WALKS OVER & LAYS IN THE GRAVEL BUT I WAS ABLE TO COAX HER BACK & UNBEKNOWNST TO ME KELLY BLACKBERRIED US GUYS IN THE PHOTO BELOW

 

KELLY ‘FACE BOOKED’ THIS PHOTO WITH THE CAPTION, ‘A MAN & HIS DOG ENJOYING THE DESERT’

Haven’t carried our mobile satellite TV dish with us while traveling since the winter of 011-012.  You can tell we’re not real serious TV people but we do still do enjoy our favorite few programs.  Knowing we were going to be away from home longer on this trip than our previous trips we decided to bring our satellite dish with us this time.  It’s the same dish we use for Canadian television while we’re in Congress.  We’ve been here in Borrego Springs for nearly 4 days now.  I have the dish physically set up but we just haven’t bothered to hook up the cables & program it yet.  Like I said…..we’re not really serious TV people.  Update:: We did finally gather up enough interest & energy about mid afternoon to give the satellite TV set-up a go.  Took Kelly about half an hour figuring out the remotes, receivers, gizmos & gadgets etc. etc. etc. & we were up & running.  Sound comes through our stereo so no tin can TV sound.  Bonus:))

FIRST RV SATELLITE TELEVISION SINCE MARCH 2012

 

PUTTING A SLICE OF ORANGE IN A CREOSOTE BUSH FOR OUR LITTLE RESIDENT HUMMER 

ATOP GHOST MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS MORNING

I’m not a big guy on museum type places but I would like to see where Joe & Nancy from the RVING BEACH BUMS just toured.   It’s in Cleveland Ohio of course & it is the ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME.  Maybe one of these days we’ll just scoot on down there from Bayfield.

IN THE BIG EEE THIS IS KINDA MY LITTLE CORNER OF THE WORLD AT THE DINING ROOM TABLE WHERE I SIT BY THE WINDOW WRITING MY POSTS & EDITING PICTURES

In Wednesday’s post I mentioned not having a burg & fries for about 4 months.  May I add to that I haven’t eaten a muffin or a donut or a piece of pie or any pastries for just about that same length of time as well.  And there is a reason for that.  Back in September one day I stepped on my weigh scale & was alarmed to see the numbers 218 come up.  Figured right then & there I had better do something about my weight.  And I did.  Three days ago I again stepped on the scale & was happy to see the numbers 198 come up.  A loss of 20 pounds.  Figure if I can dump another 15 to 20 pounds I will be where I really need to be.  I hadn’t mentioned this voluntary weight loss before in fear of jinxing myself like a few other times over the years I’ve posted about me losing some weight.  Biggest difference this time is that I never gave up my peanut butter & honey like I did the other times.  Now if I have a ‘sweet’ craving I just have myself a couple peanut butter & honey scoops & I’m good to go.  So far so good:))

AN UNKNOWN CRITTER VISITED US IN THE  NIGHT & LEFT THESE MUDDY PAW PRINTS ON THE JEEPS FRONT BUMPER

Ever been woke up at 1:30 a.m. in the morning with burning embers in the air & a fireman at your RV door telling you to evacuate the area immediately.  Just happened to Doug over at MISS ADVENTURE TRAVELS & he’s got some scary fire photos to prove it.

SIMILAR PHOTO TO THURSDAYS PICTURE BUT DIFFERENT LENS & DIFFERENT CAMERA

Sure nice to have our inverter working properly again.  Combined with our solar panels & batteries we always have adequate power going on to camp out wherever we want.  Best RV decision we ever made was going with solar as far back as December of 2008.

ANOTHER BORREGO SUNSET

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A fellow was sitting in the doctor's waiting room, and said to himself every so often, "Boy, I hope I'm sick!"  After about the fifth or sixth time, the receptionist couldn't stand it any longer, and asked, "Why in the world would you want to be sick, Mr. Adams?"  The man replied, "I'd hate to be well and feel this bad."

---

If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,

If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,

If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,

If you can overlook when people take things out on you, when through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

Then, you are almost as good as your dog or your cat.