Badlands near Borrego Springs

 Slept better last night but must say being close to the interstate does make for noise.  I was up around 8:30 this morning taking Yuma for his final walk around here.  Made a quick dash into Walmart to return an item and get a few more items for my project 😃

We had our first course of breakfast and I decided to head on to Borrego Springs before finishing breakfast.  I don't have the most patience for waiting 😌  It was 10:30 and we were pulling out of the Walmart parking lot.

Only a little over an hour drive.  We came down hwy 86 to Salton City and made a right on S22 known as Borrego Salton Sea Way.  We only went half way to Borrego Springs before we found where I want to camp for awhile.

All the times going to Borrego Springs I would see RVs high on the ridge overlooking the badlands and the Salton Sea but never drove up there because it was too crowded.  This time there were very few RVs on the ridge so we pulled into an area with only one RV.  Our lucky day, they were just leaving so we have the whole area to ourselves 😀

Behind Nick are the badlands and just a glimpse of the Salton Sea in the background.

It was sunny this morning when we left Indio but clouds started rolling in and the sun was barely visible for the remainder of the day.  Here are pictures of the area we are staying.

Standing on top of the White Lion looking down the front of it.

Yuma looking at the Salton Sea in the distance.

I decided after finishing the remaining two courses of breakfast to just set up camp and stay home and work towards finishing my project.  Hopefully, it will be finished tomorrow.  I sure hope it works 😁  I know! You are dying to know what the project is.  It is a rather lengthy story so I will just give you the broad idea and go into more detail tomorrow night.

It has to do with utilizing two solar systems and create the ability to switch from one when it is running low at night to another system for the remainder of the night.  The second solar system replaces the need to run the generator except on very cloudy days.  The gory details coming soon to a blog near you!

While working we were buzzed by these flying machines.

It is now after 8 o'clock PT and we had cheeseburgers for dinner and soon our pudding and whip cream dessert. Then bedtime.  Hopefully we have sunny skies soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Football play-offs

 So nice to wake up to nice sunny warm weather.  Didn't sleep well last night for some reason and neither did Nick.  May be the traffic noise but not sure.  I had a new project in mind and that kept going over in my head.  All I need is one more chance to screw things up 😀

It was already 70 by the time I took Yuma for a walk and started breakfast.  Going to be a warm 80 this afternoon, but we're going to be indoors most of the day watching football play-offs.

View of snow capped mountains west of Indio taken from the parking lot.

We have great reception and were able to receive both games.  Unfortunately neither of the the two teams I was rooting for won 😖  Oh well.  I wish Cincinnati Bengals and the L.A. Rams well in the Super Bowl.  I really don't have a favorite right now.

No one has said anything to us all day here in the Walmart parking lot so we're going to stay one more night and head to Borrego Springs in the morning.  

I must say I do like it here in Indio and it wouldn't be hard for me to live here if I live another life 😁  However, we're all looking forward to moving on and do a little exploring now that the games are out of the way.

We had salmon for dinner and I must say it was delicious! 😋 First time I have ever cooked salmon!   I'll have to run into Walmart in the morning and get a couple more paddies for each of us.  That is unless the sticker shock hits me 😱

Thanks for stopping by.

Visit to Joshua Tree National Park

 Before I start today off let me cover yesterday's wasted day first.  Started our morning out as normal and around 10:30 while eating breakfast and reading blogs all of a sudden my internet went completely dead on my phone and my hotspot.

I tried figuring it out myself for about an hour and then called Verizon for help.  After almost an hour of elevator music I finally got someone on the line.  She tried to help for awhile and then finally turned me over to Ron, a Verizon technician.  

That poor guy went through everything in his book to help and nothing worked.  I finally said maybe the tower went down all of a sudden and I would run the 26 miles down to Indio, California to the Walmart and see if they work there.  I needed a few things anyway.

Yep! 😁  Got 5G and the hotspot got 4G.  All is good.  That pretty much ended our day and it was time for Gold Rush at 5 o'clock.  Luckily, that worked perfectly and we finished our day with fried chicken breasts, corn and dessert.

Dolly sent a nice picture of a Red Tailed hawk on our bird feeder😋

Now for today.  We're on Pacific Time now so we woke early had a quick breakfast and by 11 o'clock we were on our way for a day visit in the Joshua Tree NP.

The southern entrance is not very exciting for 35 miles till you hit the main road coming in from 29 Palms in the north.

Our drive was pretty along a winding road up into the park and then down into the valley where all the huge stones and Joshua Trees are.

Of course Nick had to climb it.

Arrived at our first Joshua Tree.

We both got in on the act when we came upon a huge one.

Finally after about 50 miles we arrived at Key View.  The road ends here overlooking  the Salton Sea, Coachella and Indio in the valley way below.

San Jacinto Mountains.

Salton Sea.

Indio in the Coachella Valley.

Santa Rosa Mountains.

Cholla Patch.

 Skull Rock checked out Nick.😀

We arrived back at the White Lion and quickly packed to head towards Indio and some good ole Internet service.  First we drove up to the campground at the Cottonwood Welcome Center and dumped and took on water again.  Cost only a donation of $5.

We arrived at the Walmart in Indio for the night.

Hopefully, we can get local TV stations here to watch the play-offs.  If so, we'll stick around for another night 😊

Thanks for stopping by.

Moved to Joshua Tree NP

 It was 9:30 before Yuma and I got moving.  Checked my grill and the piece of hotdog was still there so the Kit fox was a no show 😥

Today is move day so we won't be exploring today.  Nick will have to wait for his next trip west to complete his hike to the top of Palm Canyon.   

We had our normal breakfast and quickly packed everything and we were out of there by high noon.

First stop was the Pitstop in Quartzite to dump tanks and take on water.  They are kind of high priced but have an efficient one stop operation so we were in and out and then ran up the block and filled both vehicles.  Hoping not to have to buy diesel until we arrive back in Arizona in a couple of weeks.

Then we jumped on I-10 going through the Mule Mountains and over the Colorado River to Blythe, California.

We stopped at the Albertsons in Blythe for a few groceries and then we were on our way to our destination.  Less than two hours west of here.

Yuma keeping watch 😉

Went through the sandy Colorado Desert and then the long climb up Romero Pass to the Chiriaco Summit at an elevation of 1600 feet.  Just over the top we traveled about 10 miles down toward Indio, California but we stopped at the entrance to the southern end of Joshua Tree NP.

We arrived at our destination at 5 o'clock Mountain time and are located on BLM land just before the entrance to the park.  We're planning to explore in the park for a few days and if we get good local TV reception, we will stay the weekend.

We had dinner at 6 and are now resting before hitting the sack.  For some reason moving is always a little stressful and tiring even for Nick.  Tomorrow we will start using Pacific time since we will be in California for several weeks.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hiking beyond the Palm Trees

 This morning was another nice one and we had our full breakfast from 9:30 to 11 o'clock while lounging in the sun.  Nick has big plans for the day and I'm going to rest.

At noon, Nick went for a 6 mile run and accomplished it in 52 minutes.  He's planning to run a half marathon in April and is getting ready for it.

At 2 o'clock Nick filled a backpack and headed for Palm Canyon.

A number of years back Yuma and I tried to hike much further into the canyon to see where it goes, but the huge boulders we had to climb made us decide to turn back before we could accomplish our goal.

Nick decided he would give it a try today. He is better prepared and much younger so I wished him luck and off he went in a cloud of dust 😁

Yuma and I did nothing but lay around till Nick returned.  Yuma worries when one of us leaves so he kept watch.  At 5:30 he was back.  A little tired with running and hiking but he had a great time.

From here it is Nick's story.

Palm Canyon dead ahead.

Passing the palm trees.

Looking back from where I have come.

Rough but still climbing.

No path to follow and it is rugged.

More obstacles.

There's the Jeep down there.

The horseshoe above is my goal.

It's at this point I had to make a decision.  Maybe I should have started earlier in the day 😕 It's after 4 o'clock and it is a good 45 minute climb or more to reach my goal. 

Beautiful view from up here.

My decision is to head back down to make certain I have time to get home by dark so Grandpa doesn't worry.

Doug again.  We relaxed till dinner of two hotdogs a piece and Yuma gets half of one and the other half we left in the grill pan hoping the Kit fox returns tonight.  Got the flash ready on the camera and we're ready to get a great picture if it shows tonight.

Decided to post the only decent picture I got last night.  If it returns later you will see it tomorrow night.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hike to the palm trees in Palm Canyon

 Woke up to another beautiful sunny morning around 8 o'clock and was up by 9 taking Yuma for his walk.

It was a little chilly still so decided I would turn on the Big Buddy I fixed yesterday but didn't turn on because it was so warm.  I clicked and clicked the starter button and it wouldn't turn on.  DARN! 😩

I disconnected the gas line and put a propane bottle on it and it started right up.  First thought was the gas line may be clogged so took both ends off and blew air through it and put it back on and still wouldn't start.

Nick helped me to push the quick connect on tightly but when I pulled on it the fitting would slip back off.  Then I noticed the fitting was so close to the wall of the heater it wasn't connecting completely so I bent the fitting away from the wall and pushed the quick connect fully in place where I couldn't pull it off and the heater started right up.  Problem resolved for sure this time.  By the time I was done, the sun had warmed up the MH so I didn't need it. 😊

By this time it was after 10 and I hadn't even put my coffee on so did that.  Noticed my coffee cup was still half full laying in the sink so when the coffee was finished I poured fresh coffee over the old.  They say day old coffee is the best!  

I took one sip and spit it out. 😝 Tasted like soap.  That's when Nick told me he had washed his hair in the sink the night before and that's why it tasted like soap. 😱😱  Oh my gosh!  No wonder it tasted so bad.

Anyway, we got breakfast out of the way and laid in the warm sun for awhile.  At 1:30 we headed for Palm Canyon finally.

Yuma met friends right off

Heading up the path into the canyon

Looking back

First sighting

It's about a quarter of a mile up the canyon to the palm trees that are located in a crevice high on the mountainside.

Zoomed in on lowest two trees

I told Nick I had tried to climb up to them a number of years back but came up short.  He asked if he could try and I said go for it!  If I were his age I would.

Without the zoom

See Nick sitting by the second tree?

There he is

Heading back down

We were home at 4:30 and I was bushed from the climb.  Had dinner at 6 o'clock and rested for the rest of the evening.

While doing my blog, Yuma kept barking out the window.  By this time it is 10 o'clock.  I knew it was an animal trying to get to the tray under my grill because it has done it for the last few evenings.  

Looked out the window with a flashlight and there was a beautiful Kit fox on the table wondering where the light was coming from.  Stayed the longest time, but couldn't get a good picture so will be ready tomorrow night.  Time for bed now.

Thanks for stopping by.