From Ocean to Desert
18 February 2014
With thanks to Janet Andrew…
This posting moves us from coastal humidity and rain, on to
desert. Jason went many days without
even getting his camera out. So more words here early on, then more photos.
The California coast which has been dry, dry—the worst
drought in 400 years, suddenly got 12-13” of rain in 2-3 days. Even so, you can see it wasn’t cold. The humidity in the camper was
challenging. We moved inland to Santa
Rosa, CA, sooner than we had planned to dry out Seven.
In Santa Rosa spent time with Robin
Page. She was Robin Hatch in her Montana
life and in the group of friends who together birthed older daughters and then
younger sons all within about 4 years.
Robin has been a highlight of my life. The welcome and
friendship from her and her partner Betsy have been a highlight of this trip.
We drove through
the San Joaquin valley and huge industrial commercial farming operations. Photographs weren’t possible because stopping
was difficult. On a
viaduct we could see nothing but apple blossoms for miles square to the horizon in every
direction.
We passed Fresno where President Obama landed that day; slept in an RV place at Tulare, where
Gov. Brown was visiting a huge agricultural exposition. Most of the folks in the “park” were there
for the show.
Found a Montana license
plate from Lewis and Clark County. I knocked on the door. Met a wild Texan woman who had bought her
huge rolling condo bus in Wyoming and drove it to Helena to license it
to avoid sales tax! She commented that
Montana was a business friendly climate, just too cold to live in. "We keep all our LLCs there."
Our first desert camp at Saddleback Butte State Park
east of Lancaster, CA.
This area is largely industrial and military. We were six miles south of Edwards Air Force
Base. Our camper was made in
Lancaster. We had a problem with the
door and pulled in to the service center.
Within an hour it was fixed and we were back on the road. When I got my credit card the guy
said, you won’t need that here.
Following are Jason’s photos of our hike up to Saddleback
Peak. From about 2400 ft to 3600 ft it was
not such a long walk, but even starting at 9 am it was too dang hot.
Jason photographing the Saddleback desert dawn
Then on to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. Most curious.
It was windy, hot and, to my
untrained eye it was barren.
You will not notice much for poppies.
They were hard to find. The other odd thing about all these Saddleback and Antelope Valley
photos is that they are taken in Los Angeles County. We were within an hour of LA.
Here’s my idea of the landscape:
The next three are what Jason saw.
Visited a homemade museum.
In 1913 some guy started pouring cement around rocks and building
on. According to the state park staff, he
proceeded to completely invent history for his collection. Altogether entertaining!
My photo of a Joshua tree blossom.
From Jason's photos it's easy to think it’s all glamour on this trip. We wind up places like this to post blogs, do
laundry, dump our holding tanks, take on fresh water etc.
RV Land America. They
are all the same. They cost more to camp
in because of hook ups etc, and are our least favorite spots. Much prefer dry camping without services in
parks.
But even so, not bad really!
And now onto Joshua Tree National Park.
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