Warmer weather please.

Our campsite is just to the left of the road that goes through the park. Bottom right. The road that crosses I10 at that location is the Box Canyon RD. To get here from Salton Sea, we came in on I86 bottom left, then went on I10 to Joshua Tree Park. The drive trough the park is spectacular. The topography changes all the way through. We ended up at Keys View, very cold up there - 4 deg C and windy. We did drive through some of the campsites along the way, yup, no way we were getting in there. I did not keep track, so these could be White Tank, Split Rock, or Jumbo Rocks. On to Keys View. This overlooks the Coachella Valley. We then stopped at the Cholla Cactus Garden. Fruit or flowers of the Cholla I obviously have to throw in some Joshua Trees. All in all, an awesome drive. Last time through we were pulling the trailer, so we could not stop at any of these places. It was very busy and I could not find parking at a few spots, like Skull Rock. We did drive through to Twenty Nine Palms, ...

As I was hooking up the trailer I heard a jet, turned out to be a Blue Angel doing a loop. By the time I got the camera, all I got of the loop is the smoke trail. Not great photos but better than nothing.     We wanted to try the BLM lands south of Joshua Tree National Park. We knew that we would not fit the campsites in the park. Twenty five feet or less, we did find a spot in the BLM. On our way here I noticed a sign that said Mecca, when we turned off the hwy left for the BLM. To the right the sign says Mecca, interesting. I brought it up on Google maps and was in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Try again, as we thought we saw Dates for sale in Mecca, we would take that road back down to the valley. It is Box Canyon Rd. wow, talk about unexpected views. Here are a few photos but they do not begin to show the scenery. We finally found our Dates, bought eleven pound box for $45.00 We will need to freeze some. 😏 Next blog Joshua Tree National Park.

 After spending five days at the Truckhaven BLM it was time for a Passport America so we could dump, fill and do laundry. Pat always take her picker uppers and looks after any trash around the campsite. This time she found a wig, two tone black and white. Good find ha ha.  From our site here we have a nice view of the Salton Sea and we finally got to see something fly.   This is a mecca for motorized parasailers. There is a big meet here in a couple of weeks. We have been watching them most of the afternoon. They have a dedicated runway between the RV Park and the water, although the water is a long way off. One reason they like flying here is the way the wind acts. As it comes down the Salton Sea, it smooths out and is very stable. Even in a stiff breeze, they don't get bounced around a lot. There is a restaurant on site and Chicken Fried Steak was the special last night, it was delicious. Pat had Prime Rib French Dip, also good and not too expensive.  The weather t...

 Sunday evening the winds started, buffeting the trailer and howling like a Banshee. It calmed off a little for the night, so we did get some sleep. Monday morning it picked up again, we decided to stay put for the day, just hang around the trailer. I got to read a book or two, nice. Our middle vent cover decided to take a hike, I think it may have started to come loose when we were up north last summer from the rough roads. The wind must have rattled all the bolts but one off, so it was hanging on with the one bolt. I managed to get the nut off from the inside of the trailer and away it went. Landed fifteen feet from the trailer, I retrieved it, it is still all there, so I can put it back on. Here are pictures of the Salton Sea during the wind storm and after. El Centro is less than an hour drive from here, so we went to take a look and hit up Costco of course. Lunch and back home. A couple of sunsets. Other than the wind that one day the weather has not been to bad. We are the on...

 Waking up Sat. morning, the wind was still blowing, so no balloons today. The forecast was for wind all day and stronger winds Sun. That and the Class A's with their noisy generators, we decided to cut our losses and head out. Salton City was our next destination, about a four hour drive. We got to the same place we stayed last time down but there are No Trespassing signs there now. We had seen some BLM land on the high side of the hwy and headed back there. A few ATV'ers there but we can put up with them for awhile. A photo of our spot. If you look close you can see the Salton Sea just below the mountains. Views the other way. This is a map of where we stayed last time. Hard to see but there is a little green dot where the campsite is. The dotted lines on the right side of the map are bales of hay. Some sort of beach reclamation project. That may be why the no trespassing signs. Today, Sun. we took a drive to Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Might be a nice park but the guy at...

3 degrees Celcius last night, high of 15 today. Sunny but windy. It seams the weather has been the biggest denominator this trip. Last night the wind sounded like it was going to rip our slide topper off or gusts enough to tip the trailer over. It did neither thank goodness. It seemed calm this morning but they sent up a scouting balloon and the wind up high was over twenty miles an hour. They like it under eight. So all the balloons were packed up, they didn't even leave any up for tethered rides or pictures. It is pretty gusty again this afternoon, so it is unlikely they will fly today. We were told that last year they only flew one morning of the three days of the event, due to the weather. It's too bad as they have spent a lot of time organizing this festival and did a good job. But you can't control the weather. We caught the shuttle to the grounds this mornning and took in the car show. There weren't many there - I took a shot of this one for Frank, he has a fifty...

 Short update. Although not the nicest RV park Rice Ranch RV did what we needed it to. Water, dumped and clothes washed. Then a couple of hour drive to Lk. Havasu and found our parking spot. This is a parking lot for the boat launch. We get two long spaces, very nice. We do have some view of the lake. We took a walk down to the lake. The festival starts this afternoon. It does not look like it will be very crowded. Not many in this parking lot, OK with us.       Hopefully the wind will stay calm and the balloons will fly.

 Today, weather first. Last night while visiting with Dave and Sheila, it started to pour rain. I mean it was coming down in buckets, there were at least two inches of water on the ground. I borrowed an umbrella to go the forty or fifty feet between our trailers and I still got soaked. Pat made it back before the heavy stuff. Lucky for me, my shoes are water proof, not Pat's though, oh well, we didn't melt. It quit sometime in the night but the wind continued to howl. This morning brought clear skies with lighter breezes. The temps last night got down to eight or so, today at noon it is thirteen and expected to go to fifteen. It is not expected to change much in the next week, maybe colder at night, as it is clear skies. Yesterday we took a trip to the Valley of the Palms. It is a short walk when you get there but it was so windy we decided to pass on the hike. Some nice scenery though.  This is the trailhead to the valley. May still have to try this again next month, if we c...