Wednesday May 9th:
Took a drive up to see San Diego Old Town. We enjoyed the stroll around the town area, stopping in small stores and museums, and the lunch which was great. We will be coming back into town on another day to visit Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo.
Even this early, I must mention that the world wide reputation of "California drivers" has a very real basis in fact. They seem to my inexperienced eye to be rather impulsive in their habits. Sudden lane changes, three or four lanes simultaneously, is almost normal as it thier ability, which I envy, to shoot between two cars with only inches to spare at 75 mph, then realize that their exit ramp in right there and shoot over four lanes, barely missing bumpers, in three seconds and make their scheduled turn. Everyone else seems to take all of this "bumper car" mentality as quite unremarkable, but Carolyn and I both have a bad case of nervous hiccups when we finally turn the engine off at the campground. Sigh.
Thursday May 10th:
Drove up to "Valley Center", CA to visit with John and Patti Marlatt at their home. We immediately came downwith home envy as they have a big beautiful home on a hill overlooking the 18th hole of a golf course. John is in love with it as he loves to golf and thinks that he has gone to heaven. We stayed the night and really appreciate their hospitality as they cooked steaks on the grill and made home made potato salad for dinner. Wonderful, warm friends.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Thoughts Back on Twentynine Palms
Saturday May 12th:
Just a moment to step back and mention a couple of things that we observed in the Twentynine Palms/Joshua Tree NP area. This area is, of course a desert region, comprising the Mojave desert and the Colorado Desert areas. As we drove around we noticed that the older houses, usually only 3-4 rooms in size had a rather large water tank braced and mounted on top of the pitch of the roofs. I first thought that it was to catch rainwater, but one of the park rangers explained that the houses had shallow wells and that the water was pumped, sometimes by hand, from the well up to the tank on the roof to provide a reserve as well as provide running water inside the house. Also even the modern day houses had a LARGE air conditioning unit mounted up on the roof of the house. We almost never saw one down on the ground like at home. I guess that this got the A/C up so that the sand/dirt would not block the vents. All of the yards were surrounded by either a low wall or a mesh fence to keep out rolling brush or trash. The yards themselves were invariably only sand with Joshua trees or more usually, cactus planted for decoration. No grass that we could see exept on the Golf Courses.
Just a moment to step back and mention a couple of things that we observed in the Twentynine Palms/Joshua Tree NP area. This area is, of course a desert region, comprising the Mojave desert and the Colorado Desert areas. As we drove around we noticed that the older houses, usually only 3-4 rooms in size had a rather large water tank braced and mounted on top of the pitch of the roofs. I first thought that it was to catch rainwater, but one of the park rangers explained that the houses had shallow wells and that the water was pumped, sometimes by hand, from the well up to the tank on the roof to provide a reserve as well as provide running water inside the house. Also even the modern day houses had a LARGE air conditioning unit mounted up on the roof of the house. We almost never saw one down on the ground like at home. I guess that this got the A/C up so that the sand/dirt would not block the vents. All of the yards were surrounded by either a low wall or a mesh fence to keep out rolling brush or trash. The yards themselves were invariably only sand with Joshua trees or more usually, cactus planted for decoration. No grass that we could see exept on the Golf Courses.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
On to San Diego Area
Tuesday May 8th:
We drove on down from Twentynine Palms, CA to the Thousand Trails Resort south of San Diego and arrived about 1:30 p.m. Pretty area here near Otay Lakes and only 10-15 miles from Mexico. The first thing that we saw was a U.S. Border Patrol jeep just leaving the resort after doing its rounds. Cell Phone reception here is virtually non-existant as we are surrounded by hills. The area is VERY dry and in drought conditions, but this is an area in the "Coastal Desert" region. We will be here through May 16th then move on up to Sequoya NP in central California.
We drove on down from Twentynine Palms, CA to the Thousand Trails Resort south of San Diego and arrived about 1:30 p.m. Pretty area here near Otay Lakes and only 10-15 miles from Mexico. The first thing that we saw was a U.S. Border Patrol jeep just leaving the resort after doing its rounds. Cell Phone reception here is virtually non-existant as we are surrounded by hills. The area is VERY dry and in drought conditions, but this is an area in the "Coastal Desert" region. We will be here through May 16th then move on up to Sequoya NP in central California.
Rock Climbing
Saturday May 5th:
Took the dogs and drove back into the NP for a picnic lunch at one of the several campground areas there. The first two were full with weekend campers who were there to hike the trails and climb the hugh rock formations. We got lucky at the third and stopped for a lunch and enjoy the scenery.
A Garden of Cacti
Saturday May 5th:
We took a drive around the outskirts of the Joshua Tree NP today, along a scenic route that truly was, then up into the park from the south to the north as we hadn't gone that way previously. Again the scenery was varied as we come up through the Pinto Basin, which was an old old bed for a slow moving river that an ancient people had lived alongside. The river has long dried up and the people moved on, but the basin remains. Along the way there was a "Cholla" (pronounced "CHOI-YA") "garden". The cactus had taken hold over an extended area and was the most prevelant plant there. See the picture on the right.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Joshua Tree National Park
Wednesday, May 2nd:
We took a drive up into the Joshua Tree NP today. This odd lookinng thing is a Joshua tree. It is not a tree, but a member of the Lilly and Yucca families. Notice the white flowers and green buds on top of the branches. They are primarily a the higher altitudes in the park and we didn't see them until we passed about 3000 feet and the higher we went the more prolific they were.
On to California
Tuesday May 1st:
On the road again leaving the Verde Valley near Sedona, AZ and on down I-17 toward Phoenix. It was down hill most of the way and as we came down we began seeing the Arizona State plant, the Saguarro Cactus. You know the one that we always see in the old cowboy movies. It is tall with two or more arms reaching up to the sky and at this time of the year they were crowned with a beautiful big flower on to of the main trunk. Bypassed Phoenix and caught I-10 west across the desert. This section of I-10 isn't the broken up type that you experience across Florida and Louisiana so the driving was easy. More desert, this time laced with large water canals to feed the towns and cities. Crossing into California we encountered a hugh dry lake bed that has true whiteish sand and very little vegitation. This lasted until we came to the mountains that include the Joshua Tree National Park. Went past Palm Springs, CA and north up US-62 to Twentynine Palms. Stopped at the Twentynine Palms RV&Golf Resort to set up for the next week.
On the road again leaving the Verde Valley near Sedona, AZ and on down I-17 toward Phoenix. It was down hill most of the way and as we came down we began seeing the Arizona State plant, the Saguarro Cactus. You know the one that we always see in the old cowboy movies. It is tall with two or more arms reaching up to the sky and at this time of the year they were crowned with a beautiful big flower on to of the main trunk. Bypassed Phoenix and caught I-10 west across the desert. This section of I-10 isn't the broken up type that you experience across Florida and Louisiana so the driving was easy. More desert, this time laced with large water canals to feed the towns and cities. Crossing into California we encountered a hugh dry lake bed that has true whiteish sand and very little vegitation. This lasted until we came to the mountains that include the Joshua Tree National Park. Went past Palm Springs, CA and north up US-62 to Twentynine Palms. Stopped at the Twentynine Palms RV&Golf Resort to set up for the next week.
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