Borrego Springs California

Our departure from Pilot Knob was smooth and orderly on a muggy warm morning,72 degrees and no wind. After getting the usual dump station frustrations out of the way at the nearby Shell station,we headed west just after 9 am.

We stopped for our lunch break,(above pic) just west of Salton City on the shores of the Salton Sea.
We arrived at the Peg Leg boondocking area only to find that since my last visit here,that they have closed off my favorite area off to the side, causing everyone to bunch together near the monument.This kind of togetherness boondocking is not my cup of tea,so we backtracked a mile up the road to a short paved side road,which quickly turned to dirt, called Rockhouse Truck Trail,where we could see others scattered nicely out on the desert,so we drove past the "No Trespassing" sign and selected a nice isolated spot.Hmmmm!

And here we are all set up, with the nearest neighbor about 200 yds away.We were expecting rain today but it didn't materialize outside of a few spits,and remained warm, reaching 77 degrees(26c) with a high thin overcast.
Below is a view looking west as the rain clouds try to move on to the desert before drying out.San Diego is on the other side of those mountains,about 50 miles as the crow flys.



Here(below) is me setting up our line of communication for our new digs.Isn't it strange how that darn camera of mine always shows everybody to look rather chunky!Must be some kind of a wide angled lens thing.
Behind me and over those mountains about 40 miles away,is Palm Springs.I could see the glow in the sky last night,reflecting off the thin cloud layer,as it was a dark moonless night for a change.
For those with the link to the datastorm users map,you can see our location on google maps or google earth by clicking the tab in the top right of the page.I'm #9318



And not to forget the perspective on this spot from Lucy.She says,"I don't know if I want to get out of here because it just looks like the last place."Where's all the lights and glitter?

Westward Ho! Again.

I'm King of the world and its time to go! Its travel day.

Here it is 2:30 a.m. 61 degrees,windows wide open and I've already had my 6 hours of sleep.One of these days maybe i can stop living in the Newfoundland time zone,but that's the way I am when I travel down here.I guess my problem is having a t.v.poised above my bed at an angle that allows comfortable viewing from a horizontal position,which in turn has me usually looking at the inside of my eyelids in short order,and then ending up with a good nights sleep by just after midnight.Of course the old dog gets a nappy time during the heat of the afternoon on most days anyway.

So with a final look at the Colorado river taken from Gateway Park in Yuma,and looking across to the California side,we bid farewell to this part of Arid-Zona for another year.Even though most of my time over the past 12 years of snowbirding has been in Mexico,Yuma is always that 2nd home to come back to.

The last 2 weeks here at Pilot Knob California have been relaxing,with great weather, outside of a few gusty days when the Algo-Dunes wanted to come for a visit and deposit a fine layer of gold colored dust all over everything.

Of note in the pic above is a shot taken by Sue of the moonrise over friend's Bill and Wendy's rig just a few days before their departure.

So today we travel westward toward Borrego Springs California with the threat of thunderstorms in the forecast.Los Angeles has had rain all night with some flooding,so whatever gets over the mountains and on to the desert will await us.If anything,removing a little dust will be worth it.

So my next entry should be from our new desert digs near Peg Leg Smith's Monument,a popular boondocking spot above the small town of Borrego Springs.

I want to include this photo taken yesterday of Vancouver's skyline that was sent to me.

It was taken from Cypress Mountain.Sort of cool huh?

My Little "Buddy" Heater

The weather for the past 2 weeks has been unseasonably warm here in the Yuma area, with night time lows in the high 50's to low 60's,so using a heater has not been necessary.But prior to arriving here,we had some cool frosty nights that went into the mid 20's,and my little Buddy Heater by "Mr.heater"has been a great addition to my little trailer home.
Such- silent- warm- even- heat it gives compared to the furnace,and one of the big reasons for it,is the battery savings, by not having to use the furnace when boon docking.
I have it hooked up to a 12 ft hose that goes through the storage compartment to the propane compartment.At this point it's hooked up to one of the 20lb bottles via an "extend-a-stay" fitting,so is always ready to use.It travels hooked up and sitting under the table.
I have added the filter at the heater end as recommended for use with the large propane tanks.
This set up gives me over 100 hours of use per tank full.

To make it more efficient,I have added a small 12 volt pancake fan out of a computer,that sits above the heater catching the rising heat and spreading it around,drawing only 0.12 amps at 12 volts,uses practically no power at all compared to the amount of air it moves.

This has been a wonderful addition to my small 21 ft. trailer,and I have not yet needed the use of the high 9000BTU setting,only the Low 4000BTU of this Ceramic radiant heater.And yes I crack open a vent and a few windows with no ill effect yet...yet...yet...yet..yet..yetttttttzzzz!

In our "Birds that come to visit" feature,is today the "Cactus Wren."This is the little rascal that likes to enter my van through the sometimes partially opened, side sliding door.He will poke around looking for goodies.I enjoy his raspy sound as he usually sits on a nearby cactus.

Final Trip To Town

Yesterday finally topped 80 degrees (28c) with a nice breeze(always a breeze)so as we are pulling up stakes in a couple of days and heading further west,decided to make a final trip to town for some groceries.
For the past several years,I have avoided grocery shopping at "Fry's" because of the always overcrowded,long slow line up situation that they always produce,but needed something that they seem to only sell...And that is pre-cooked and frozen...Deep fried country steaks with an 8 serving packet of spicy old country gravy mix...maybe my taste buds are shot but I do like that stuff.You microwave it in 2 minutes along with the pre prepared gravy and your good to go.
And I found nothing had changed at Fry's over the years,still full of old blue hairs clogging up the isles,wondering where to go next. I was 8Th in line at the express checkout.Sheeesh!
earlier the Wal-mart foods had just as many people,but no gridlock.

Yesterday I mentioned the new Casino at the Alogodones/I-8 interchange...above and below is a pic of it.Note its due to open next month.You can see Pilot Knob just behind it.

On the way into town I swung by the old Yuma Territorial Prison for a few pic's.I've done it before several years ago and didn't feel like paying to see it again,so just drove around and took a few shots.
Below is the Colorado River taken from the prison grounds,looking north east.

The guard tower

Another view of the prison

This is another angle taken from under the I-8 freeway,right on the border of Arizona/California.

That little dot on the wall,below the prison and the passing car,is a young homeless girl enjoying the sun.

Those Lazy Days of Summer (I mean Winter)

As some of you may have noticed I didn't post yesterday,as another vegetative state creeped over me.I'm finding it hard to find new material when all I do is sit in the warm sun contemplating my navel,as the old term states.
But as the pic above shows,I did spend several hours on Saturday at the Yuma Flea market.There are several passageways like this full of walk in kiosk's like these.
It was very crowded as usual,so I picked the quietest area I could find to snap a pic as to not offend anyone.

And earlier in the week I visited 2 of the local Indian Casino's.No I didnt touch the slots,I visited the gift shops searching for some tee-shirts with a distinctive S.W.Native Indian design.I didnt find exactly what I was looking for, but close enough to make a purchase,only to find later at the flea market, a much greater selection of the type I was looking for.
By the way for those of you who know this area and didnt come down this year,there's a brand new Indian Casino,a big one,at the intersection of the Interstate and Algodones Rd.Staggering distance for all the Pilot Knob'ers.

I must show last nights beautiful sunset,as they are fantastic in this part of the world.I couldn't do justice to the pic with my point and shoot Canon on auto.

Also I found a program to resize my pics before sending them to the blog.It sure saves time and bandwidth.Its called Irfanview.

And since the Arizona Cardnal's are going to the SuperBowl this year,what is more fitting than to honour a Red Cardinal,their namesake as one of the birds that have come to visit us,as this one did.

In The Desert,One Must Find Water

My search for a water supply like many other boondockers,leads me to a favorite spot for many of us.And that is the Interstate Rest Area, 10 miles west of here at the eastern edge of the Algodones,(means cotton in Spanish)Sand Dunes.Pic above shows the Rest Area looking east from Greys Well Rd.The water supposedly comes from a deep well in the dunes and is quite good.
I don't know if its from the Greys Well or not,but that well was dug not far from here to supply the small community building the "Plank Road"back in 1916.We will get to the Plank Rd shortly.


Here are two other boondockers filling their tanks with water.(Both from B.C. also)

A view of the sand dunes from the rest area,which is situated between the east/west lanes of the interstate.

Now I must search out the old "Plank Road"that I have been reading about.

I head west on a parallel (to the interstate) road called Greys Well Rd, passing a "Border Protection Agency"mobile outpost with floodlights.

A few miles further and I come across the remnants of the old plank road.

PLANK ROAD....Small surviving remnants of the unique "floating" wooden road built across the dunes in 1916.The plank road was used for 10 years before being replaced by a paved highway in 1926.

This is a replica of what it used to look like in the pic above.

And as an added piece of information,not far from here in a remote area of the dunes,was the spot that they constructed and filmed the space craft for the Star-Wars movie,"Return of the Jedi."

Here is a back-side view showing the construction.Of course its long gone now but a little info for you sci-fi fans. BOY! internet research is sure fun.I found quite a bit of interesting info about the Algodones Sand Dunes and Imperial Dunes Recreation area.

That Border Fence Thing

I must admit that I'm fascinated by the new border fence being constructed along the Mexico/U.S. border,but must make a correction from a few posts ago.I thought it was a concrete wall as it looked like it from a distance.But yesterday while driving out into the Imperial Dunes west of here,I got a closer look and it is a fence that you can see through and not a wall.When you look directly at it you can see through,but if you look from an angle it looks like a black solid wall.
This pic should zoom if you click on it for a closer look.

This area out here has several (Off Road Vehicle) campsites,like in the background of the pic above,and this being the start of a long weekend,(Martin Luther King Day), will fill up with campers bringing their Toy haulers full of Quads and Dunebuggys out to ride over the sand.I cant quite get my head around the fun in that...Too old I guess.But there will be thousands of them here as they come from all around,including Phoenix,San Diego and L.A.

In our little feature on "Birds that come to visit us," is the Roadrunner.Now how come Wiley Coyote can't catch him,but Wiley can catch and destroy the Vancouver Canucks,like last night.
These little guys,(not all that little) have visited us at several of our campsites this winter.
They are meat eaters,so some will come close for a handout of raw hamburger,etc.
One year I had a chance to watch 2 of them mating.......Now that was something to behold!