On to Borrego Springs

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Before I begin, I need to tell you about the grave near our site in Slab City.  According to Pat, our neighbor, Billie Jewell Sullivan’s ashes are buried at this spot where he lived his last years, here in Slab City.  He was known as “Old Hippie”, by those around here.  He was born May 9, 1937 and died June 2, 2011 at the age of 74.  He was a down on his luck hard core alcoholic and drug addict.  After his death, Pat and some of his other friends here erected this shrine made for him which I thought was a nice gesture.
 
Here is the view of the southwest from our Slab City site.  See the trash to the left and the rear of Salvation Mountain in the background.  There is trash and filth everywhere, but there is a unique flavor to the place.

 

Back side of Salvation Mountain
 

Neighbor to the north.                 Resting this morning before heading out.

A few more fine establishments.

 

We actually got packed and on our way by 9 a.m. this morning and as the day progressed, I am glad we did.  We had a very busy morning.  Dolly followed me in the jeep into Niland where we stopped on a back street and I hooked the jeep.  We then traveled about 10 miles down highway 111 just past Calipatria to a rest stop that had a free dump station and free water.  Got that done and then kept going south till we hit Brawley.  Brawley has a Walmart and we need food and bottle water for our long boondocking stay in the Borrego Springs area.
 
Now it is past 11:30 and we have over an hour to go.  Desolate country going west out of Brawley.
We followed highway 86 to the Travel Haven truck stop in Salton City where I filled the motorhome.  We then headed west on S22 that goes  through the Anza-Borrego State Park.   You can clearly see the Santa Rosa Mountains to the north and the ruggedness of the landscape in the park.
 

  As we near Borrego Springs on S22, it looks like we are going into a dead-end canyon surrounded by mountains. 
We descended to the desert floor and I could see motorhomes and trailers dotting the area.  I knew we were to our new home.
 
By the time I unhooked the jeep, and all of us jumped into it and scouted the area for our perfect boondocking spot, it was getting late.  Once situated, we had to get positioned, then put the slides out and turn on the water and set-up the Dish.  Had to call Dish to move our local channels from Phoenix to San Diego.

Once done with all that, it was around 5 p.m. and getting dark.  Then it was dinner and a little bad news on the TV out of San Diego and our day is done.

There will be a lot more pictures of this area tomorrow and the days to come.  We will stay here for a week or more.

See you later.