Places Visited: Tomorrow we are heading north following the 49'er trail of gold. If you recall that is the way I ended our last travelogue. Thursday, June 9: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' My number one computer crashed again last night and one of the tiny metal wires that support the nose pads on my glasses has broken. No one near here silver solders glasses. I am aggravated. It appears that the hard drive in my number one computer is about gone. My BIL advises not to turn the computer on again and some of my important documents may be saved. That computer houses my entire web site and all my travelogues in addition to my travelogue mailing list and e-mail addresses. In short it contains virtually everything that is important to me in the way of data and information. My trusted BIL says it is time for a new computer. The computer is barely two years old but has been a constant source of problems from day one. If it were a car it would be classified as a lemon. Joyce has been yearning to return to Pensacola and our grandson for weeks and today I had had enough! Around 9:30 this morning we decided to return to Pensacola and call off the remainder of our California adventure. Until 9:30 we were planning to head further north following the 49'er trail along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Once the decision was made I changed the destination point in our Street Atlas Program to Pensacola, Florida instead of Sonora, California. Just as quick as that we were headed south instead of north. Our route out of California took us south on CA-99, a concrete road reminiscent of I-10 through Louisiana in the 1990's. California is not spending any money on highway repair and doesn't appear that they have spent any this decade but we won't dwell on that unless some of the California people want to grouse about highways in other parts of the country.
CA-99 traverses agricultural landscape. While dairies are scattered throughout the prevalent agricultural emphasis is on fruits and vines. This is raisin country and I suspect fresh grapes also since we are able to see numerous workers in the vineyards. Peach and plum trees, scattered citrus and walnut groves plus some hay fields seem to complete the landscape.
Vineyards and more vineyards with scattered fruit orchards. That is the order of the day. Notice the landscape beyond this vineyard. That is what this area of California looks like naturally, that is to say "not irrigated & tended to".
This pic is a good example of the terrain around Bakersfield that is not cultivated or irrigated.
In Bakersfield we turned east on CA-58 and headed over Tehachapi Pass. We chose this route over continuing south on I-5 until it connected with I-10 in the eastern suburbs of LA. We had experienced all of LA and their freeway systems that we cared to experience. In fact if I never travel on I-5 again it will be too soon. If I ever get a yearning for that experience again I will just drive down to the nearest shopping center pull into their parking lot and spend a few hours, --------- crank up and return home satisfied that I have fulfilled that yearning. Getting over Tehachapi Pass was a hoot. CA-58 is a 4-lane divided highway resembling an interstate. Trucks and other heavy rigs geared down and trudged their way up the grade. It alternates between 4%, 5% and 6% grades the entire 22 miles to the summit. I didn't have enough power to join the automobiles in the fast lane so I found a spot amongst the 18-wheelers. On the 6% grades we dropped down to 30-mph then up to 45 and 50 on the 4% grades only to hit another stretch of 6%. So it was for 22-miles.
Approaching the summit we see wind generators covering the pass.
Once reaching the summit in the small town of Tehachapi we arrived in "high desert" characterized by Joshua trees.
Not far east of Tehachapi near the small town of Mojave the serpentine belt on the motorhome parted. I took this pic outside our motorhome while waiting for the Roadside Service truck to arrive and tow us back to Mojave. The scenery is typical "high-desert", note the lone Joshua tree. The picture is of Edwards Air Force Base property. You will recall that the space shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base when there is bad weather in Florida.
Anyone familiar with automobile mechanics knows that the serpentine belt is an "all-important" item that delivers power to the alternator, water pump, steering pump, brake boost and cooling fan. Needless to say when it started coming apart I lost power steering and power brakes. I was able to safely pull off the highway and gather my composure after having lost both power steering and power brakes. No fear, we are used to problems such as this. I opened the engine compartment to make sure that my suspicion about the serpentine belt was correct and it was. We then called our trusty Roadside Service. In short order they found a repair shop that would take care of me in Mojave and would find a tow truck to come and get the motorhome for the short trip to Mojave. In short that is why we boondocked in Desert Truck Services huge parking lot. When the tow truck driver delivered us to the parking lot it was getting dark and the wind was blowing a gale. The tow truck driver made a big circle in the parking lot before stopping with the motorhome facing west. He explained to us that he was doing us a favor because if not facing west the wind would rock the motorhome so violently all night that we would not be able to sleep.
The tow truck driver pointed to a double wide mobile home 200' in front of us in the parking lot. The half closest to us was beat up pretty bad. He said "guess why that mobile home is so beat up". "No clue" I responded. Then he told me that the wind had blown it over in this parking lot earlier in the week. He and his tow truck had righted the mobile home. He grinned and said that he didn't want to come back in the morning and right us.--------------------- I agreed. The pics are of our motorhome and saturn on one side of the parking lot and the beat up mobile home on the other side. You have to love it ----------------- excitement by the minute. VBG
The tow truck driver was right. The wind howled all night long and shook the motorhome like we were riding in a boat. Sometime around daylight the wind died down and was calm for several hours then by 9AM it was howling again. Seeing all the wind generators on the hillside between us and Tehachapi should have been a clue that we were in a wind tunnel. The wind generators in this pic are the ones we can see from the parking lot we were staying in.
This is another cluster of those wind generators clustered in the pass near Mojave. The winds is honking when it comes over that pass and they are taking advantage of that wind energy. Surviving anywhere near those wind generators is going to be a wendy proposition. I guess we will know that in the future if we can see wind turbines we can expect the motorhome to "rock & roll". Camping within sight of these wind generators is something we will probably avoid in the future if possible.
This is the Mojave Desert and it stretches to the east for nearly two hundred miles.
Mojave is situated on the northwest corner of Edwards Air Force Base and is a hub for aircraft experimentation. An old Marine Corps Air Station is now home to a plethora of aircraft related industry. I am not sure what Edwards Air Force Base is used for now but I suspect it is an air craft test range.
Several times yesterday afternoon a big jet flew over very low and fast. It was not breaking the sound barrier but was pushing it. Each time when I heard it I jumped up and looked out the window only to see it disappearing over the hill. From the glimpse I got it looked like a B-1 bomber on a low-level run but I couldn't tell for sure. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave also seems to function as a "bone-yard" for the commercial aircraft industry. We can see around 50 former commercial jets lined up and sealed in the standard protective coating used to preserve aircraft. Others are obviously being robbed of parts reminding me of the "hanger-queens" that each squadron in the Navy had. I guess they serve to prove that the Navy in not the only organization that suffers from major parts shortages. One large hanger is being utilized to house a commercial aircraft that appears to be undergoing an overhaul. Friday, June 10: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free - boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' We left the motorhome in the care of the mechanics while we ventured out to see Mojave. We stumbled upon an RV-Park in downtown Mojave just off SR-14/Sierra Highway. It isn't listed in any of our books but is easy to find just turn at the McDonalds and you go in their front gate.
The aircraft industry is more involved here than I originally realized. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave is home to the organization that just made history by winning a big $$$ prize for being the first commercial outfit to successfully put something into orbit then land with it. To win the prize the feat had to be accomplished twice within so many hours or days. Anyway, this Burt Ratan project now has new financing by the British guy that owns Virgin Records & Virgin Airlines and recently completed a balloon trip around the world, something that he has attempted several times before. The mechanic told us that the company is manufacturing six of those space vehicles designed to take three paying individuals into an earth orbit. I took these pics of a strange looking object near one of the hangers that had "Rotary Rocket" written on the side. I have no idea if this is part of the Burt Ratan project or not.
This is also home to Voyager the aircraft that took off from here circled the world without refueling and returned here. If you recall that aircraft had extremely long wings. It is now in the Smithsonian Museum, and that is why I do not have a picture of it.
Several large aircraft are used to train cargo loaders in a school designed for cargo handlers.
To be such a small town there is a lot going on in the aviation world across the street from where we are. In addition to being in an area full of aircraft research and development we are in Borax country. In the late 1800's boron was mined near and in Death Valley loaded on wagons hitched to 20-mule teams for the trip from the "mine" to here in Mojave. It was a 20 day round trip for the mule trains. I think most of the older folks remember the 20-mule team borax washing powder. The washing powder was named for the 20-mule teams that pulled those heavy wagons from mines near Death Valley to here in Mojave. And now you know the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. Actually, there is more to the story of borax. Following the discovery of borax in Death Valley in 1881 Harmony Borax Works started their operation. Some people referred to borax as "white gold". Mining probably isn't the best description since Chinese laborers simply picked up the soft, fibrous "cotton-balls" of the mineral from the salt flats. These borax balls were dumped into vats of water, mixed with carbonated soda, and heated with a wood fire. Lime and dirt sank to the bottom, while the hot liquid was drawn off into cooling vats. Borax crystallized on rods dipped in the vats. Those crystals were removed and dried before being loaded into those 20-mule team wagons for the trip to Mojave. Borax is still mined in this area but in a different way. Now you know the rest of the story minus how it is currently mined. The hillside full of wind generators captivates my imagination but Joyce isn't interested. I have to enjoy them from a distance. Joyce saw a postcard that said the wind generators in Mojave provided power for 150,000 homes and that Mojave was home to the world's largest supplier of wind generated energy. I have no idea how old that post card was or which of the wind generator fields it was referring to. There is potential for thousands more of the wind generators in this huge wind tunnel. I wonder what the holdup is. From what we learned about the wind generator farm around Palm Springs they were extremely good investments but did have an extensive permitting process. That seems such a shame when the country is in such dire need for clean energy. When the mechanic started installing my serpentine belt he realized that the bearing on my tensioner pulley was frozen. That is why the belt came apart. So now in addition to replacing the belt we needed to replace the tensioner assembly. One wasn't available in Mojave but they found one in a town 40-miles away and sent one of the shop helpers for it. After that part arrived inspection determined that it was the wrong part so the parts man went searching again. This time finding one in a town 60-miles away. Several hours later the mechanic is under the motorhome muttering to himself. It seems that the tensioner can be spring loaded to the left or the right. Although this new one looked like the correct assembly it was tensioned for the wrong direction. The mechanic returned to the shop where everyone gathered around finally deciding to just replace the pulley on my old tensioner assembly which the mechanic did. The job was completed around 4:50PM. The shop had done their best, things just had not worked out for what should have been a one hour job. At least we will not have to spend the weekend in this parking lot. I think we about exhausted everything to do in Mojave today. Since it was so late we decided to spend another night in the parking lot rather than head off at 5PM. Ain't life grand! Saturday, June 11: Destiny RV Resort Blythe, California: $35 50amp-full hookup paved interior roads with grass sites. N33° 36.158' W114° 32.154' We waited until the sun got high enough in the sky that driving into the sun would not cause me to get irritable before we headed east on CA-58. In Barstow we continued east on I-40 to Needles before turning south on US-95. The entire drive east on CA-58 and I-40 was in high desert.
Not long after getting on I-40 we started seeing evidence of old lava flows.
We drove for 30 to 40 miles through this lava flow material.
At one point we passed what looked to be the source of this ancient lava flow.
As we neared Needles and the Colorado River we started to climb again. Most of the high desert we were traversing was at an elevation of 2,000' give or take several hundred either way. We climbed to 2,720' for Mountain Springs Summit before falling into a depression then climbing to 2,750' for South Pass. Once topping South Pass we glided down to 350' at the intersection of I-40 and US-95 near Needles and the Colorado River.
Then as we headed south on US-95 it veered to the west and we climbed back to the top of the high desert except this time we only reach 2,000' before coasting into Blythe, California on the Colorado River at the Arizona border on I-10. As long as we were at 2,000' elevation on the high desert the outside temperature was tolerable, probably in the high 80's would be my guess. However as we dropped down to Needles in the Colorado River Valley the temperature spiked forcing us to start the generator and run the house air conditioners in addition to the dash air. Joyce located Destiny RV-Resort with 50-amp connections and cable TV on the bank of the Colorado River in Blythe. We decided to stop early rather than push the 150-miles to Phoenix. We were also interested in what destruction Tropical Storm Arlene delivered to Pensacola where it was scheduled to come ashore this afternoon. It was almost a joke according to the weather station and our son said the same thing. While being a joke as far as normal hurricane damage goes it did destroy the road to the campground at Ft Pickens National Seashore near Pensacola. That road had been destroyed by hurricane Ivan late last summer and 7-miles of the road were in the process of being rebuilt and almost completed.
This is Saturday and Destiny RV-Resort has a huge boat ramp with typical summer activity in full gear. After getting the motorhome connected and both air conditioners churning and burning I headed down to the river to watch the action.
There is a lot of activity with literally hundreds of boats zipping this way and that. The Colorado River is so shallow that every boat I saw was powered by a pump like jet skis.
The RV-Park was party central. Many if not most of the RV's in the park appear to be "beach-houses" where people spend the weekend. It looked like everyone had either a speed boat or a jet ski while some had party barges. I don't know where everyone is now but when we arrived and there was too much to do to break out the camera and take pictures the far bank in this picture had a hundred or so people milling around drinking beer and enjoying themselves. In fact they were enjoying themselves so much that 5 law enforcement automobiles roared into the lot and converged on the crowd. I was busy getting my motorhome out of the way so they could get through the entrance. Later I heard that two young men from different groups on the beach had a difference of opinion. Law enforcement dispersed the crowd by the time I returned to take this picture. Until next week just remember how good life is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike &
Joyce HendrixPlaces Visited: Tomorrow we are heading north following the 49'er trail of gold. If you recall that is the way I ended our last travelogue. Thursday, June 9: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' My number one computer crashed again last night and one of the tiny metal wires that support the nose pads on my glasses has broken. No one near here silver solders glasses. I am aggravated. It appears that the hard drive in my number one computer is about gone. My BIL advises not to turn the computer on again and some of my important documents may be saved. That computer houses my entire web site and all my travelogues in addition to my travelogue mailing list and e-mail addresses. In short it contains virtually everything that is important to me in the way of data and information. My trusted BIL says it is time for a new computer. The computer is barely two years old but has been a constant source of problems from day one. If it were a car it would be classified as a lemon. Joyce has been yearning to return to Pensacola and our grandson for weeks and today I had had enough! Around 9:30 this morning we decided to return to Pensacola and call off the remainder of our California adventure. Until 9:30 we were planning to head further north following the 49'er trail along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Once the decision was made I changed the destination point in our Street Atlas Program to Pensacola, Florida instead of Sonora, California. Just as quick as that we were headed south instead of north. Our route out of California took us south on CA-99, a concrete road reminiscent of I-10 through Louisiana in the 1990's. California is not spending any money on highway repair and doesn't appear that they have spent any this decade but we won't dwell on that unless some of the California people want to grouse about highways in other parts of the country.
CA-99 traverses agricultural landscape. While dairies are scattered throughout the prevalent agricultural emphasis is on fruits and vines. This is raisin country and I suspect fresh grapes also since we are able to see numerous workers in the vineyards. Peach and plum trees, scattered citrus and walnut groves plus some hay fields seem to complete the landscape.
Vineyards and more vineyards with scattered fruit orchards. That is the order of the day. Notice the landscape beyond this vineyard. That is what this area of California looks like naturally, that is to say "not irrigated & tended to".
This pic is a good example of the terrain around Bakersfield that is not cultivated or irrigated.
In Bakersfield we turned east on CA-58 and headed over Tehachapi Pass. We chose this route over continuing south on I-5 until it connected with I-10 in the eastern suburbs of LA. We had experienced all of LA and their freeway systems that we cared to experience. In fact if I never travel on I-5 again it will be too soon. If I ever get a yearning for that experience again I will just drive down to the nearest shopping center pull into their parking lot and spend a few hours, --------- crank up and return home satisfied that I have fulfilled that yearning. Getting over Tehachapi Pass was a hoot. CA-58 is a 4-lane divided highway resembling an interstate. Trucks and other heavy rigs geared down and trudged their way up the grade. It alternates between 4%, 5% and 6% grades the entire 22 miles to the summit. I didn't have enough power to join the automobiles in the fast lane so I found a spot amongst the 18-wheelers. On the 6% grades we dropped down to 30-mph then up to 45 and 50 on the 4% grades only to hit another stretch of 6%. So it was for 22-miles.
Approaching the summit we see wind generators covering the pass.
Once reaching the summit in the small town of Tehachapi we arrived in "high desert" characterized by Joshua trees.
Not far east of Tehachapi near the small town of Mojave the serpentine belt on the motorhome parted. I took this pic outside our motorhome while waiting for the Roadside Service truck to arrive and tow us back to Mojave. The scenery is typical "high-desert", note the lone Joshua tree. The picture is of Edwards Air Force Base property. You will recall that the space shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base when there is bad weather in Florida.
Anyone familiar with automobile mechanics knows that the serpentine belt is an "all-important" item that delivers power to the alternator, water pump, steering pump, brake boost and cooling fan. Needless to say when it started coming apart I lost power steering and power brakes. I was able to safely pull off the highway and gather my composure after having lost both power steering and power brakes. No fear, we are used to problems such as this. I opened the engine compartment to make sure that my suspicion about the serpentine belt was correct and it was. We then called our trusty Roadside Service. In short order they found a repair shop that would take care of me in Mojave and would find a tow truck to come and get the motorhome for the short trip to Mojave. In short that is why we boondocked in Desert Truck Services huge parking lot. When the tow truck driver delivered us to the parking lot it was getting dark and the wind was blowing a gale. The tow truck driver made a big circle in the parking lot before stopping with the motorhome facing west. He explained to us that he was doing us a favor because if not facing west the wind would rock the motorhome so violently all night that we would not be able to sleep.
The tow truck driver pointed to a double wide mobile home 200' in front of us in the parking lot. The half closest to us was beat up pretty bad. He said "guess why that mobile home is so beat up". "No clue" I responded. Then he told me that the wind had blown it over in this parking lot earlier in the week. He and his tow truck had righted the mobile home. He grinned and said that he didn't want to come back in the morning and right us.--------------------- I agreed. The pics are of our motorhome and saturn on one side of the parking lot and the beat up mobile home on the other side. You have to love it ----------------- excitement by the minute. VBG
The tow truck driver was right. The wind howled all night long and shook the motorhome like we were riding in a boat. Sometime around daylight the wind died down and was calm for several hours then by 9AM it was howling again. Seeing all the wind generators on the hillside between us and Tehachapi should have been a clue that we were in a wind tunnel. The wind generators in this pic are the ones we can see from the parking lot we were staying in.
This is another cluster of those wind generators clustered in the pass near Mojave. The winds is honking when it comes over that pass and they are taking advantage of that wind energy. Surviving anywhere near those wind generators is going to be a wendy proposition. I guess we will know that in the future if we can see wind turbines we can expect the motorhome to "rock & roll". Camping within sight of these wind generators is something we will probably avoid in the future if possible.
This is the Mojave Desert and it stretches to the east for nearly two hundred miles.
Mojave is situated on the northwest corner of Edwards Air Force Base and is a hub for aircraft experimentation. An old Marine Corps Air Station is now home to a plethora of aircraft related industry. I am not sure what Edwards Air Force Base is used for now but I suspect it is an air craft test range.
Several times yesterday afternoon a big jet flew over very low and fast. It was not breaking the sound barrier but was pushing it. Each time when I heard it I jumped up and looked out the window only to see it disappearing over the hill. From the glimpse I got it looked like a B-1 bomber on a low-level run but I couldn't tell for sure. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave also seems to function as a "bone-yard" for the commercial aircraft industry. We can see around 50 former commercial jets lined up and sealed in the standard protective coating used to preserve aircraft. Others are obviously being robbed of parts reminding me of the "hanger-queens" that each squadron in the Navy had. I guess they serve to prove that the Navy in not the only organization that suffers from major parts shortages. One large hanger is being utilized to house a commercial aircraft that appears to be undergoing an overhaul. Friday, June 10: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free - boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' We left the motorhome in the care of the mechanics while we ventured out to see Mojave. We stumbled upon an RV-Park in downtown Mojave just off SR-14/Sierra Highway. It isn't listed in any of our books but is easy to find just turn at the McDonalds and you go in their front gate.
The aircraft industry is more involved here than I originally realized. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave is home to the organization that just made history by winning a big $$$ prize for being the first commercial outfit to successfully put something into orbit then land with it. To win the prize the feat had to be accomplished twice within so many hours or days. Anyway, this Burt Ratan project now has new financing by the British guy that owns Virgin Records & Virgin Airlines and recently completed a balloon trip around the world, something that he has attempted several times before. The mechanic told us that the company is manufacturing six of those space vehicles designed to take three paying individuals into an earth orbit. I took these pics of a strange looking object near one of the hangers that had "Rotary Rocket" written on the side. I have no idea if this is part of the Burt Ratan project or not.
This is also home to Voyager the aircraft that took off from here circled the world without refueling and returned here. If you recall that aircraft had extremely long wings. It is now in the Smithsonian Museum, and that is why I do not have a picture of it.
Several large aircraft are used to train cargo loaders in a school designed for cargo handlers.
To be such a small town there is a lot going on in the aviation world across the street from where we are. In addition to being in an area full of aircraft research and development we are in Borax country. In the late 1800's boron was mined near and in Death Valley loaded on wagons hitched to 20-mule teams for the trip from the "mine" to here in Mojave. It was a 20 day round trip for the mule trains. I think most of the older folks remember the 20-mule team borax washing powder. The washing powder was named for the 20-mule teams that pulled those heavy wagons from mines near Death Valley to here in Mojave. And now you know the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. Actually, there is more to the story of borax. Following the discovery of borax in Death Valley in 1881 Harmony Borax Works started their operation. Some people referred to borax as "white gold". Mining probably isn't the best description since Chinese laborers simply picked up the soft, fibrous "cotton-balls" of the mineral from the salt flats. These borax balls were dumped into vats of water, mixed with carbonated soda, and heated with a wood fire. Lime and dirt sank to the bottom, while the hot liquid was drawn off into cooling vats. Borax crystallized on rods dipped in the vats. Those crystals were removed and dried before being loaded into those 20-mule team wagons for the trip to Mojave. Borax is still mined in this area but in a different way. Now you know the rest of the story minus how it is currently mined. The hillside full of wind generators captivates my imagination but Joyce isn't interested. I have to enjoy them from a distance. Joyce saw a postcard that said the wind generators in Mojave provided power for 150,000 homes and that Mojave was home to the world's largest supplier of wind generated energy. I have no idea how old that post card was or which of the wind generator fields it was referring to. There is potential for thousands more of the wind generators in this huge wind tunnel. I wonder what the holdup is. From what we learned about the wind generator farm around Palm Springs they were extremely good investments but did have an extensive permitting process. That seems such a shame when the country is in such dire need for clean energy. When the mechanic started installing my serpentine belt he realized that the bearing on my tensioner pulley was frozen. That is why the belt came apart. So now in addition to replacing the belt we needed to replace the tensioner assembly. One wasn't available in Mojave but they found one in a town 40-miles away and sent one of the shop helpers for it. After that part arrived inspection determined that it was the wrong part so the parts man went searching again. This time finding one in a town 60-miles away. Several hours later the mechanic is under the motorhome muttering to himself. It seems that the tensioner can be spring loaded to the left or the right. Although this new one looked like the correct assembly it was tensioned for the wrong direction. The mechanic returned to the shop where everyone gathered around finally deciding to just replace the pulley on my old tensioner assembly which the mechanic did. The job was completed around 4:50PM. The shop had done their best, things just had not worked out for what should have been a one hour job. At least we will not have to spend the weekend in this parking lot. I think we about exhausted everything to do in Mojave today. Since it was so late we decided to spend another night in the parking lot rather than head off at 5PM. Ain't life grand! Saturday, June 11: Destiny RV Resort Blythe, California: $35 50amp-full hookup paved interior roads with grass sites. N33° 36.158' W114° 32.154' We waited until the sun got high enough in the sky that driving into the sun would not cause me to get irritable before we headed east on CA-58. In Barstow we continued east on I-40 to Needles before turning south on US-95. The entire drive east on CA-58 and I-40 was in high desert.
Not long after getting on I-40 we started seeing evidence of old lava flows.
We drove for 30 to 40 miles through this lava flow material.
At one point we passed what looked to be the source of this ancient lava flow.
As we neared Needles and the Colorado River we started to climb again. Most of the high desert we were traversing was at an elevation of 2,000' give or take several hundred either way. We climbed to 2,720' for Mountain Springs Summit before falling into a depression then climbing to 2,750' for South Pass. Once topping South Pass we glided down to 350' at the intersection of I-40 and US-95 near Needles and the Colorado River.
Then as we headed south on US-95 it veered to the west and we climbed back to the top of the high desert except this time we only reach 2,000' before coasting into Blythe, California on the Colorado River at the Arizona border on I-10. As long as we were at 2,000' elevation on the high desert the outside temperature was tolerable, probably in the high 80's would be my guess. However as we dropped down to Needles in the Colorado River Valley the temperature spiked forcing us to start the generator and run the house air conditioners in addition to the dash air. Joyce located Destiny RV-Resort with 50-amp connections and cable TV on the bank of the Colorado River in Blythe. We decided to stop early rather than push the 150-miles to Phoenix. We were also interested in what destruction Tropical Storm Arlene delivered to Pensacola where it was scheduled to come ashore this afternoon. It was almost a joke according to the weather station and our son said the same thing. While being a joke as far as normal hurricane damage goes it did destroy the road to the campground at Ft Pickens National Seashore near Pensacola. That road had been destroyed by hurricane Ivan late last summer and 7-miles of the road were in the process of being rebuilt and almost completed.
This is Saturday and Destiny RV-Resort has a huge boat ramp with typical summer activity in full gear. After getting the motorhome connected and both air conditioners churning and burning I headed down to the river to watch the action.
There is a lot of activity with literally hundreds of boats zipping this way and that. The Colorado River is so shallow that every boat I saw was powered by a pump like jet skis.
The RV-Park was party central. Many if not most of the RV's in the park appear to be "beach-houses" where people spend the weekend. It looked like everyone had either a speed boat or a jet ski while some had party barges. I don't know where everyone is now but when we arrived and there was too much to do to break out the camera and take pictures the far bank in this picture had a hundred or so people milling around drinking beer and enjoying themselves. In fact they were enjoying themselves so much that 5 law enforcement automobiles roared into the lot and converged on the crowd. I was busy getting my motorhome out of the way so they could get through the entrance. Later I heard that two young men from different groups on the beach had a difference of opinion. Law enforcement dispersed the crowd by the time I returned to take this picture. Until next week just remember how good life is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike &
Joyce HendrixPlaces Visited: Tomorrow we are heading north following the 49'er trail of gold. If you recall that is the way I ended our last travelogue. Thursday, June 9: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' My number one computer crashed again last night and one of the tiny metal wires that support the nose pads on my glasses has broken. No one near here silver solders glasses. I am aggravated. It appears that the hard drive in my number one computer is about gone. My BIL advises not to turn the computer on again and some of my important documents may be saved. That computer houses my entire web site and all my travelogues in addition to my travelogue mailing list and e-mail addresses. In short it contains virtually everything that is important to me in the way of data and information. My trusted BIL says it is time for a new computer. The computer is barely two years old but has been a constant source of problems from day one. If it were a car it would be classified as a lemon. Joyce has been yearning to return to Pensacola and our grandson for weeks and today I had had enough! Around 9:30 this morning we decided to return to Pensacola and call off the remainder of our California adventure. Until 9:30 we were planning to head further north following the 49'er trail along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Once the decision was made I changed the destination point in our Street Atlas Program to Pensacola, Florida instead of Sonora, California. Just as quick as that we were headed south instead of north. Our route out of California took us south on CA-99, a concrete road reminiscent of I-10 through Louisiana in the 1990's. California is not spending any money on highway repair and doesn't appear that they have spent any this decade but we won't dwell on that unless some of the California people want to grouse about highways in other parts of the country.
CA-99 traverses agricultural landscape. While dairies are scattered throughout the prevalent agricultural emphasis is on fruits and vines. This is raisin country and I suspect fresh grapes also since we are able to see numerous workers in the vineyards. Peach and plum trees, scattered citrus and walnut groves plus some hay fields seem to complete the landscape.
Vineyards and more vineyards with scattered fruit orchards. That is the order of the day. Notice the landscape beyond this vineyard. That is what this area of California looks like naturally, that is to say "not irrigated & tended to".
This pic is a good example of the terrain around Bakersfield that is not cultivated or irrigated.
In Bakersfield we turned east on CA-58 and headed over Tehachapi Pass. We chose this route over continuing south on I-5 until it connected with I-10 in the eastern suburbs of LA. We had experienced all of LA and their freeway systems that we cared to experience. In fact if I never travel on I-5 again it will be too soon. If I ever get a yearning for that experience again I will just drive down to the nearest shopping center pull into their parking lot and spend a few hours, --------- crank up and return home satisfied that I have fulfilled that yearning. Getting over Tehachapi Pass was a hoot. CA-58 is a 4-lane divided highway resembling an interstate. Trucks and other heavy rigs geared down and trudged their way up the grade. It alternates between 4%, 5% and 6% grades the entire 22 miles to the summit. I didn't have enough power to join the automobiles in the fast lane so I found a spot amongst the 18-wheelers. On the 6% grades we dropped down to 30-mph then up to 45 and 50 on the 4% grades only to hit another stretch of 6%. So it was for 22-miles.
Approaching the summit we see wind generators covering the pass.
Once reaching the summit in the small town of Tehachapi we arrived in "high desert" characterized by Joshua trees.
Not far east of Tehachapi near the small town of Mojave the serpentine belt on the motorhome parted. I took this pic outside our motorhome while waiting for the Roadside Service truck to arrive and tow us back to Mojave. The scenery is typical "high-desert", note the lone Joshua tree. The picture is of Edwards Air Force Base property. You will recall that the space shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base when there is bad weather in Florida.
Anyone familiar with automobile mechanics knows that the serpentine belt is an "all-important" item that delivers power to the alternator, water pump, steering pump, brake boost and cooling fan. Needless to say when it started coming apart I lost power steering and power brakes. I was able to safely pull off the highway and gather my composure after having lost both power steering and power brakes. No fear, we are used to problems such as this. I opened the engine compartment to make sure that my suspicion about the serpentine belt was correct and it was. We then called our trusty Roadside Service. In short order they found a repair shop that would take care of me in Mojave and would find a tow truck to come and get the motorhome for the short trip to Mojave. In short that is why we boondocked in Desert Truck Services huge parking lot. When the tow truck driver delivered us to the parking lot it was getting dark and the wind was blowing a gale. The tow truck driver made a big circle in the parking lot before stopping with the motorhome facing west. He explained to us that he was doing us a favor because if not facing west the wind would rock the motorhome so violently all night that we would not be able to sleep.
The tow truck driver pointed to a double wide mobile home 200' in front of us in the parking lot. The half closest to us was beat up pretty bad. He said "guess why that mobile home is so beat up". "No clue" I responded. Then he told me that the wind had blown it over in this parking lot earlier in the week. He and his tow truck had righted the mobile home. He grinned and said that he didn't want to come back in the morning and right us.--------------------- I agreed. The pics are of our motorhome and saturn on one side of the parking lot and the beat up mobile home on the other side. You have to love it ----------------- excitement by the minute. VBG
The tow truck driver was right. The wind howled all night long and shook the motorhome like we were riding in a boat. Sometime around daylight the wind died down and was calm for several hours then by 9AM it was howling again. Seeing all the wind generators on the hillside between us and Tehachapi should have been a clue that we were in a wind tunnel. The wind generators in this pic are the ones we can see from the parking lot we were staying in.
This is another cluster of those wind generators clustered in the pass near Mojave. The winds is honking when it comes over that pass and they are taking advantage of that wind energy. Surviving anywhere near those wind generators is going to be a wendy proposition. I guess we will know that in the future if we can see wind turbines we can expect the motorhome to "rock & roll". Camping within sight of these wind generators is something we will probably avoid in the future if possible.
This is the Mojave Desert and it stretches to the east for nearly two hundred miles.
Mojave is situated on the northwest corner of Edwards Air Force Base and is a hub for aircraft experimentation. An old Marine Corps Air Station is now home to a plethora of aircraft related industry. I am not sure what Edwards Air Force Base is used for now but I suspect it is an air craft test range.
Several times yesterday afternoon a big jet flew over very low and fast. It was not breaking the sound barrier but was pushing it. Each time when I heard it I jumped up and looked out the window only to see it disappearing over the hill. From the glimpse I got it looked like a B-1 bomber on a low-level run but I couldn't tell for sure. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave also seems to function as a "bone-yard" for the commercial aircraft industry. We can see around 50 former commercial jets lined up and sealed in the standard protective coating used to preserve aircraft. Others are obviously being robbed of parts reminding me of the "hanger-queens" that each squadron in the Navy had. I guess they serve to prove that the Navy in not the only organization that suffers from major parts shortages. One large hanger is being utilized to house a commercial aircraft that appears to be undergoing an overhaul. Friday, June 10: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free - boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' We left the motorhome in the care of the mechanics while we ventured out to see Mojave. We stumbled upon an RV-Park in downtown Mojave just off SR-14/Sierra Highway. It isn't listed in any of our books but is easy to find just turn at the McDonalds and you go in their front gate.
The aircraft industry is more involved here than I originally realized. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave is home to the organization that just made history by winning a big $$$ prize for being the first commercial outfit to successfully put something into orbit then land with it. To win the prize the feat had to be accomplished twice within so many hours or days. Anyway, this Burt Ratan project now has new financing by the British guy that owns Virgin Records & Virgin Airlines and recently completed a balloon trip around the world, something that he has attempted several times before. The mechanic told us that the company is manufacturing six of those space vehicles designed to take three paying individuals into an earth orbit. I took these pics of a strange looking object near one of the hangers that had "Rotary Rocket" written on the side. I have no idea if this is part of the Burt Ratan project or not.
This is also home to Voyager the aircraft that took off from here circled the world without refueling and returned here. If you recall that aircraft had extremely long wings. It is now in the Smithsonian Museum, and that is why I do not have a picture of it.
Several large aircraft are used to train cargo loaders in a school designed for cargo handlers.
To be such a small town there is a lot going on in the aviation world across the street from where we are. In addition to being in an area full of aircraft research and development we are in Borax country. In the late 1800's boron was mined near and in Death Valley loaded on wagons hitched to 20-mule teams for the trip from the "mine" to here in Mojave. It was a 20 day round trip for the mule trains. I think most of the older folks remember the 20-mule team borax washing powder. The washing powder was named for the 20-mule teams that pulled those heavy wagons from mines near Death Valley to here in Mojave. And now you know the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. Actually, there is more to the story of borax. Following the discovery of borax in Death Valley in 1881 Harmony Borax Works started their operation. Some people referred to borax as "white gold". Mining probably isn't the best description since Chinese laborers simply picked up the soft, fibrous "cotton-balls" of the mineral from the salt flats. These borax balls were dumped into vats of water, mixed with carbonated soda, and heated with a wood fire. Lime and dirt sank to the bottom, while the hot liquid was drawn off into cooling vats. Borax crystallized on rods dipped in the vats. Those crystals were removed and dried before being loaded into those 20-mule team wagons for the trip to Mojave. Borax is still mined in this area but in a different way. Now you know the rest of the story minus how it is currently mined. The hillside full of wind generators captivates my imagination but Joyce isn't interested. I have to enjoy them from a distance. Joyce saw a postcard that said the wind generators in Mojave provided power for 150,000 homes and that Mojave was home to the world's largest supplier of wind generated energy. I have no idea how old that post card was or which of the wind generator fields it was referring to. There is potential for thousands more of the wind generators in this huge wind tunnel. I wonder what the holdup is. From what we learned about the wind generator farm around Palm Springs they were extremely good investments but did have an extensive permitting process. That seems such a shame when the country is in such dire need for clean energy. When the mechanic started installing my serpentine belt he realized that the bearing on my tensioner pulley was frozen. That is why the belt came apart. So now in addition to replacing the belt we needed to replace the tensioner assembly. One wasn't available in Mojave but they found one in a town 40-miles away and sent one of the shop helpers for it. After that part arrived inspection determined that it was the wrong part so the parts man went searching again. This time finding one in a town 60-miles away. Several hours later the mechanic is under the motorhome muttering to himself. It seems that the tensioner can be spring loaded to the left or the right. Although this new one looked like the correct assembly it was tensioned for the wrong direction. The mechanic returned to the shop where everyone gathered around finally deciding to just replace the pulley on my old tensioner assembly which the mechanic did. The job was completed around 4:50PM. The shop had done their best, things just had not worked out for what should have been a one hour job. At least we will not have to spend the weekend in this parking lot. I think we about exhausted everything to do in Mojave today. Since it was so late we decided to spend another night in the parking lot rather than head off at 5PM. Ain't life grand! Saturday, June 11: Destiny RV Resort Blythe, California: $35 50amp-full hookup paved interior roads with grass sites. N33° 36.158' W114° 32.154' We waited until the sun got high enough in the sky that driving into the sun would not cause me to get irritable before we headed east on CA-58. In Barstow we continued east on I-40 to Needles before turning south on US-95. The entire drive east on CA-58 and I-40 was in high desert.
Not long after getting on I-40 we started seeing evidence of old lava flows.
We drove for 30 to 40 miles through this lava flow material.
At one point we passed what looked to be the source of this ancient lava flow.
As we neared Needles and the Colorado River we started to climb again. Most of the high desert we were traversing was at an elevation of 2,000' give or take several hundred either way. We climbed to 2,720' for Mountain Springs Summit before falling into a depression then climbing to 2,750' for South Pass. Once topping South Pass we glided down to 350' at the intersection of I-40 and US-95 near Needles and the Colorado River.
Then as we headed south on US-95 it veered to the west and we climbed back to the top of the high desert except this time we only reach 2,000' before coasting into Blythe, California on the Colorado River at the Arizona border on I-10. As long as we were at 2,000' elevation on the high desert the outside temperature was tolerable, probably in the high 80's would be my guess. However as we dropped down to Needles in the Colorado River Valley the temperature spiked forcing us to start the generator and run the house air conditioners in addition to the dash air. Joyce located Destiny RV-Resort with 50-amp connections and cable TV on the bank of the Colorado River in Blythe. We decided to stop early rather than push the 150-miles to Phoenix. We were also interested in what destruction Tropical Storm Arlene delivered to Pensacola where it was scheduled to come ashore this afternoon. It was almost a joke according to the weather station and our son said the same thing. While being a joke as far as normal hurricane damage goes it did destroy the road to the campground at Ft Pickens National Seashore near Pensacola. That road had been destroyed by hurricane Ivan late last summer and 7-miles of the road were in the process of being rebuilt and almost completed.
This is Saturday and Destiny RV-Resort has a huge boat ramp with typical summer activity in full gear. After getting the motorhome connected and both air conditioners churning and burning I headed down to the river to watch the action.
There is a lot of activity with literally hundreds of boats zipping this way and that. The Colorado River is so shallow that every boat I saw was powered by a pump like jet skis.
The RV-Park was party central. Many if not most of the RV's in the park appear to be "beach-houses" where people spend the weekend. It looked like everyone had either a speed boat or a jet ski while some had party barges. I don't know where everyone is now but when we arrived and there was too much to do to break out the camera and take pictures the far bank in this picture had a hundred or so people milling around drinking beer and enjoying themselves. In fact they were enjoying themselves so much that 5 law enforcement automobiles roared into the lot and converged on the crowd. I was busy getting my motorhome out of the way so they could get through the entrance. Later I heard that two young men from different groups on the beach had a difference of opinion. Law enforcement dispersed the crowd by the time I returned to take this picture. Until next week just remember how good life is. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike &
Joyce HendrixPlaces Visited: Tomorrow we are heading north following the 49'er trail of gold. If you recall that is the way I ended our last travelogue. Thursday, June 9: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' My number one computer crashed again last night and one of the tiny metal wires that support the nose pads on my glasses has broken. No one near here silver solders glasses. I am aggravated. It appears that the hard drive in my number one computer is about gone. My BIL advises not to turn the computer on again and some of my important documents may be saved. That computer houses my entire web site and all my travelogues in addition to my travelogue mailing list and e-mail addresses. In short it contains virtually everything that is important to me in the way of data and information. My trusted BIL says it is time for a new computer. The computer is barely two years old but has been a constant source of problems from day one. If it were a car it would be classified as a lemon. Joyce has been yearning to return to Pensacola and our grandson for weeks and today I had had enough! Around 9:30 this morning we decided to return to Pensacola and call off the remainder of our California adventure. Until 9:30 we were planning to head further north following the 49'er trail along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Once the decision was made I changed the destination point in our Street Atlas Program to Pensacola, Florida instead of Sonora, California. Just as quick as that we were headed south instead of north. Our route out of California took us south on CA-99, a concrete road reminiscent of I-10 through Louisiana in the 1990's. California is not spending any money on highway repair and doesn't appear that they have spent any this decade but we won't dwell on that unless some of the California people want to grouse about highways in other parts of the country.
CA-99 traverses agricultural landscape. While dairies are scattered throughout the prevalent agricultural emphasis is on fruits and vines. This is raisin country and I suspect fresh grapes also since we are able to see numerous workers in the vineyards. Peach and plum trees, scattered citrus and walnut groves plus some hay fields seem to complete the landscape.
Vineyards and more vineyards with scattered fruit orchards. That is the order of the day. Notice the landscape beyond this vineyard. That is what this area of California looks like naturally, that is to say "not irrigated & tended to".
This pic is a good example of the terrain around Bakersfield that is not cultivated or irrigated.
In Bakersfield we turned east on CA-58 and headed over Tehachapi Pass. We chose this route over continuing south on I-5 until it connected with I-10 in the eastern suburbs of LA. We had experienced all of LA and their freeway systems that we cared to experience. In fact if I never travel on I-5 again it will be too soon. If I ever get a yearning for that experience again I will just drive down to the nearest shopping center pull into their parking lot and spend a few hours, --------- crank up and return home satisfied that I have fulfilled that yearning. Getting over Tehachapi Pass was a hoot. CA-58 is a 4-lane divided highway resembling an interstate. Trucks and other heavy rigs geared down and trudged their way up the grade. It alternates between 4%, 5% and 6% grades the entire 22 miles to the summit. I didn't have enough power to join the automobiles in the fast lane so I found a spot amongst the 18-wheelers. On the 6% grades we dropped down to 30-mph then up to 45 and 50 on the 4% grades only to hit another stretch of 6%. So it was for 22-miles.
Approaching the summit we see wind generators covering the pass.
Once reaching the summit in the small town of Tehachapi we arrived in "high desert" characterized by Joshua trees.
Not far east of Tehachapi near the small town of Mojave the serpentine belt on the motorhome parted. I took this pic outside our motorhome while waiting for the Roadside Service truck to arrive and tow us back to Mojave. The scenery is typical "high-desert", note the lone Joshua tree. The picture is of Edwards Air Force Base property. You will recall that the space shuttle lands at Edwards Air Force Base when there is bad weather in Florida.
Anyone familiar with automobile mechanics knows that the serpentine belt is an "all-important" item that delivers power to the alternator, water pump, steering pump, brake boost and cooling fan. Needless to say when it started coming apart I lost power steering and power brakes. I was able to safely pull off the highway and gather my composure after having lost both power steering and power brakes. No fear, we are used to problems such as this. I opened the engine compartment to make sure that my suspicion about the serpentine belt was correct and it was. We then called our trusty Roadside Service. In short order they found a repair shop that would take care of me in Mojave and would find a tow truck to come and get the motorhome for the short trip to Mojave. In short that is why we boondocked in Desert Truck Services huge parking lot. When the tow truck driver delivered us to the parking lot it was getting dark and the wind was blowing a gale. The tow truck driver made a big circle in the parking lot before stopping with the motorhome facing west. He explained to us that he was doing us a favor because if not facing west the wind would rock the motorhome so violently all night that we would not be able to sleep.
The tow truck driver pointed to a double wide mobile home 200' in front of us in the parking lot. The half closest to us was beat up pretty bad. He said "guess why that mobile home is so beat up". "No clue" I responded. Then he told me that the wind had blown it over in this parking lot earlier in the week. He and his tow truck had righted the mobile home. He grinned and said that he didn't want to come back in the morning and right us.--------------------- I agreed. The pics are of our motorhome and saturn on one side of the parking lot and the beat up mobile home on the other side. You have to love it ----------------- excitement by the minute. VBG
The tow truck driver was right. The wind howled all night long and shook the motorhome like we were riding in a boat. Sometime around daylight the wind died down and was calm for several hours then by 9AM it was howling again. Seeing all the wind generators on the hillside between us and Tehachapi should have been a clue that we were in a wind tunnel. The wind generators in this pic are the ones we can see from the parking lot we were staying in.
This is another cluster of those wind generators clustered in the pass near Mojave. The winds is honking when it comes over that pass and they are taking advantage of that wind energy. Surviving anywhere near those wind generators is going to be a wendy proposition. I guess we will know that in the future if we can see wind turbines we can expect the motorhome to "rock & roll". Camping within sight of these wind generators is something we will probably avoid in the future if possible.
This is the Mojave Desert and it stretches to the east for nearly two hundred miles.
Mojave is situated on the northwest corner of Edwards Air Force Base and is a hub for aircraft experimentation. An old Marine Corps Air Station is now home to a plethora of aircraft related industry. I am not sure what Edwards Air Force Base is used for now but I suspect it is an air craft test range.
Several times yesterday afternoon a big jet flew over very low and fast. It was not breaking the sound barrier but was pushing it. Each time when I heard it I jumped up and looked out the window only to see it disappearing over the hill. From the glimpse I got it looked like a B-1 bomber on a low-level run but I couldn't tell for sure. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave also seems to function as a "bone-yard" for the commercial aircraft industry. We can see around 50 former commercial jets lined up and sealed in the standard protective coating used to preserve aircraft. Others are obviously being robbed of parts reminding me of the "hanger-queens" that each squadron in the Navy had. I guess they serve to prove that the Navy in not the only organization that suffers from major parts shortages. One large hanger is being utilized to house a commercial aircraft that appears to be undergoing an overhaul. Friday, June 10: Desert Truck Service Inc Mojave, California: Free - boondocking in gravel parking lot. N35° 2.728' W118° 9.729' We left the motorhome in the care of the mechanics while we ventured out to see Mojave. We stumbled upon an RV-Park in downtown Mojave just off SR-14/Sierra Highway. It isn't listed in any of our books but is easy to find just turn at the McDonalds and you go in their front gate.
The aircraft industry is more involved here than I originally realized. The old Marine Corps Air Station here in Mojave is home to the organization that just made history by winning a big $$$ prize for being the first commercial outfit to successfully put something into orbit then land with it. To win the prize the feat had to be accomplished twice within so many hours or days. Anyway, this Burt Ratan project now has new financing by the British guy that owns Virgin Records & Virgin Airlines and recently completed a balloon trip around the world, something that he has attempted several times before. The mechanic told us that the company is manufacturing six of those space vehicles designed to take three paying individuals into an earth orbit. I took these pics of a strange looking object near one of the hangers that had "Rotary Rocket" written on the side. I have no idea if this is part of the Burt Ratan project or not.
This is also home to Voyager the aircraft that took off from here circled the world without refueling and returned here. If you recall that aircraft had extremely long wings. It is now in the Smithsonian Museum, and that is why I do not have a picture of it.
Several large aircraft are used to train cargo loaders in a school designed for cargo handlers.
To be such a small town there is a lot going on in the aviation world across the street from where we are. In addition to being in an area full of aircraft research and development we are in Borax country. In the late 1800's boron was mined near and in Death Valley loaded on wagons hitched to 20-mule teams for the trip from the "mine" to here in Mojave. It was a 20 day round trip for the mule trains. I think most of the older folks remember the 20-mule team borax washing powder. The washing powder was named for the 20-mule teams that pulled those heavy wagons from mines near Death Valley to here in Mojave. And now you know the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. Actually, there is more to the story of borax. Following the discovery of borax in Death Valley in 1881 Harmony Borax Works started their operation. Some people referred to borax as "white gold". Mining probably isn't the best description since Chinese laborers simply picked up the soft, fibrous "cotton-balls" of the mineral from the salt flats. These borax balls were dumped into vats of water, mixed with carbonated soda, and heated with a wood fire. Lime and dirt sank to the bottom, while the hot liquid was drawn off into cooling vats. Borax crystallized on rods dipped in the vats. Those crystals were removed and dried before being loaded into those 20-mule team wagons for the trip to Mojave. Borax is still mined in this area but in a different way. Now you know the rest of the story minus how it is currently mined. The hillside full of wind generators captivates my imagination but Joyce isn't interested. I have to enjoy them from a distance. Joyce saw a postcard that said the wind generators in Mojave provided power for 150,000 homes and that Mojave was home to the world's largest supplier of wind generated energy. I have no idea how old that post card was or which of the wind generator fields it was referring to. There is potential for thousands more of the wind generators in this huge wind tunnel. I wonder what the holdup is. From what we learned about the wind generator farm around Palm Springs they were extremely good investments but did have an extensive permitting process. That seems such a shame when the country is in such dire need for clean energy. When the mechanic started installing my serpentine belt he realized that the bearing on my tensioner pulley was frozen. That is why the belt came apart. So now in addition to replacing the belt we needed to replace the tensioner assembly. One wasn't available in Mojave but they found one in a town 40-miles away and sent one of the shop helpers for it. After that part arrived inspection determined that it was the wrong part so the parts man went searching again. This time finding one in a town 60-miles away. Several hours later the mechanic is under the motorhome muttering to himself. It seems that the tensioner can be spring loaded to the left or the right. Although this new one looked like the correct assembly it was tensioned for the wrong direction. The mechanic returned to the shop where everyone gathered around finally deciding to just replace the pulley on my old tensioner assembly which the mechanic did. The job was completed around 4:50PM. The shop had done their best, things just had not worked out for what should have been a one hour job. At least we will not have to spend the weekend in this parking lot. I think we about exhausted everything to do in Mojave today. Since it was so late we decided to spend another night in the parking lot rather than head off at 5PM. Ain't life grand! Saturday, June 11: Destiny RV Resort Blythe, California: $35 50amp-full hookup paved interior roads with grass sites. N33° 36.158' W114° 32.154' We waited until the sun got high enough in the sky that driving into the sun would not cause me to get irritable before we headed east on CA-58. In Barstow we continued east on I-40 to Needles before turning south on US-95. The entire drive east on CA-58 and I-40 was in high desert.
Not long after getting on I-40 we started seeing evidence of old lava flows.
We drove for 30 to 40 miles through this lava flow material.
At one point we passed what looked to be the source of this ancient lava flow.
As we neared Needles and the Colorado River we started to climb again. Most of the high desert we were traversing was at an elevation of 2,000' give or take several hundred either way. We climbed to 2,720' for Mountain Springs Summit before falling into a depression then climbing to 2,750' for South Pass. Once topping South Pass we glided down to 350' at the intersection of I-40 and US-95 near Needles and the Colorado River.
Then as we headed south on US-95 it veered to the west and we climbed back to the top of the high desert except this time we only reach 2,000' before coasting into Blythe, California on the Colorado River at the Arizona border on I-10. As long as we were at 2,000' elevation on the high desert the outside temperature was tolerable, probably in the high 80's would be my guess. However as we dropped down to Needles in the Colorado River Valley the temperature spiked forcing us to start the generator and run the house air conditioners in addition to the dash air. Joyce located Destiny RV-Resort with 50-amp connections and cable TV on the bank of the Colorado River in Blythe. We decided to stop early rather than push the 150-miles to Phoenix. We were also interested in what destruction Tropical Storm Arlene delivered to Pensacola where it was scheduled to come ashore this afternoon. It was almost a joke according to the weather station and our son said the same thing. While being a joke as far as normal hurricane damage goes it did destroy the road to the campground at Ft Pickens National Seashore near Pensacola. That road had been destroyed by hurricane Ivan late last summer and 7-miles of the road were in the process of being rebuilt and almost completed.
This is Saturday and Destiny RV-Resort has a huge boat ramp with typical summer activity in full gear. After getting the motorhome connected and both air conditioners churning and burning I headed down to the river to watch the action.
There is a lot of activity with literally hundreds of boats zipping this way and that. The Colorado River is so shallow that every boat I saw was powered by a pump like jet skis.
The RV-Park was party central. Many if not most of the RV's in the park appear to be "beach-houses" where people spend the weekend. It looked like everyone had either a speed boat or a jet ski while some had party barges. I don't know where everyone is now but when we arrived and there was too much to do to break out the camera and take pictures the far bank in this picture had a hundred or so people milling around drinking beer and enjoying themselves. In fact they were enjoying themselves so much that 5 law enforcement automobiles roared into the lot and converged on the crowd. I was busy getting my motorhome out of the way so they could get through the entrance. Later I heard that two young men from different groups on the beach had a difference of opinion. Law enforcement dispersed the crowd by the time I returned to take this picture. Until next week just remember how good life is. Mike & Joyce Hendrix
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