We spent one night in the Orange Grove RV park, outside Bakersfield, CA. (May I just say that the proverbial streets of Bakersfield rival Regina's in terms of roughness? And while we sang our way along with the song, through town, it was to the accompaniment of much clattering of pots and pans and various bottles in our fridge!) It was totally RV parkish - that is to say lots of cement and close neighbours, which we've seen more of on this trip than we expected or hoped to, but it was quiet and it truly was in an orange grove, and that was pretty cool. This was Annie’s morning view:
We charged up batteries, filled tanks that needed filling and emptied those that needed emptying, and headed west on California 58 through Mojave then eventually took the 247 south from Barstow. The day’s drive took us past several interesting-looking landmarks, none of which we could get close to: an absolutely ginormous wind farm:
then the Obsolete Aircraft Storage area (we could see many many hulking remains in the distance, and how fun would THAT have been to poke around in?!), the National Test Pilot School, the Hyundai and Kia proving grounds/track, and Edwards Air Force Base with it’s much NASA related testing sites and centers.
ALSO the 20 Mule Team Borax factory and mine. I know, right? The day was spent driving the Mojave Desert, very dry and to me, desolate, yet I was fascinated by the number of people obviously calling the desert, scrub and sand between Barstow and Joshua Tree, home.
Completely out of sequence, but just because I thought it was neat - this truck is carrying bales of cotton:
Moving on...
We’ve spent the past 2 nights at Joshua Tree. I have wanted to visit this area for… well… forever, after reading about it in outdoor magazines and seeing photos of amazing vistas in the park. And lots of parts of it didn’t disappoint: AMAZING landscape and scenery! Totally other-worldly for a couple of Canadian gals like us. Desert, hills, valleys, giant rocks, cacti, strange gnarly shrubs and tough-as-nails-looking little desert plants, and yes, Joshua trees. We camped at Jumbo Rocks; I can’t figure out why they call it that…..
It was fun. BUT my own photos of amazing sights in the park didn’t materialize: yesterday was grey and cold and not at all lent to photography. I had high hopes for sunrise this am but about midnight it started to rain. No, not just rain. RAIN. POURING RAIN! We are high and dry in the moho of course, but with the rain came chilly temps (also Jumbo Rocks is at quite a high elevation in the park, making it cooler to begin with) and so again, not a lot of photo ops. I got burny cold fingers just trying to set up the camp stove outside to cook the bacon. (I know I know - none of you at home have much sympathy; I get it.) The other disappointing part of the visit was that dogs are not allowed on trails in the park (this is true in all US National Parks). SO while there are miles and miles of probably-spectacular trails and backcountry to explore, we had to leave the dogs behind if we wanted to do so. AND we had to walk them around and around the campground. Now really that’s not such a hardship, since the campground was not busy and it was pretty cool, and THEY certainly didn’t seem to care. We did go on a short hike without them, and I do understand why they’re not invited on the trails - cacti and sensitive flora abound which is what makes the place so beautiful of course - but we still felt like the rules limited our ability to explore.
On the plus side, despite all the rain, we were what is known as dry-camping - no power or water and self-reliant. The same as boon docking except within park boundaries, we still had to pay for that privilege. But it all worked well. The fridge stayed cold and the stove got hot, both on propane, and our portable propane heater was a godsend. (While there is a forced air propane furnace on board, it sucks A LOT of battery power to run if we are not on shore power, so we didn’t use it.) The LED lightbulbs I installed last spring, while they make us look dead, allow us to use all the lights we want without worrying about killing the battery. It’s a good trade off. Anyway, I digress.
This morning, after a wet walk with the dogs, we headed out of the park. More crazy plants and scenery. I have REALLY enjoyed our drives the last couple of days and seeing the desert landscapes I've never seen before. After just a short drive we hit Palm Springs, where it is, you guessed it, RAINING. In fact there is a weather watch in effect for heavy rain and flash flooding in low-lying areas (here) and heavy snow in the mountains. Despite the warnings, we persevered to WalMart, scoring the last 2 tubs of GF cookie dough and this interesting pumpkin cider for me. Trader Joe’s stocked us up on a variety of chicken sausages, which we’ve grown fond of. All in all a good day! But good grief!
Burny fingers? Weather warnings? Is the universe trying to tell us something?!
Tonight we are at Sam’s Family Spa RV Park, at Desert Hot Springs, CA. It’s a neat little RV park and there are numerous hot pools to dip in as many times as you want while you stay. We dipped earlier - it felt great to get warmed through after a couple of chilly days and nights at Joshua Tree.
As I write this Jen is searching on line for a way to watch the Grey Cup from afar. I think we are out of luck. There’s an app for that, NBC Sports Live, but you have to be a subscriber….. if anyone has any suggestions we are all big green ears!!!!!
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