Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Today was a nice sunny day but a bit on the cool side with a high of about 62F. This morning we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, which was yummy as usual, then we headed north towards Quartzsite to see if there were any blooms in the desert yet. I guess it is still too early for blooms but the desert sure is green, I don’t think we have ever seen it so green.

We headed in towards Castle Dome and the ghost mining town out in the desert, we drove about 6 miles in but there were no blooms to be seen and the road is gravel & dusty so we turned around and headed back out. The surveillance balloon was down today and we got the best look at it ever as usually it is high in the sky. We have seen these balloons here and near Fort Huachuca and apparently they have all kinds of high tech equipment in them and can read a licence plate on a car at the Mexico border that is about 50 miles away.

Balloon



Mountains



Castle Dome



Cholla



A Double Saguaro



The Desert



We decided to drive on up to Quartzsite and boy is it ever dead now that the big shows are over, there are a few vendors left but not many. We wandered around for a little bit and I did get John a nice T-shirt for $4 – the last of the big time spenders.

By this time we were ready for a washroom break so we stopped at Carl’s Jr. and I got a mint oreo milk shake, not really what I needed but it was yummy and John, not being a real big milk shake fan, got an iced tea.

We decided at this point to drive over to Blythe, CA and come back through the Imperial Valley rather than returning the way we came, a new route for us. We went through a couple of little burgs in California and they were pretty sad looking, mostly abandoned buildings and it didn’t look like there were too many people still living there. There are still lots of RV’s out in the desert boon docking, both around Quartzsite and near the sand dunes in the Imperial Valley.

When we got back we stopped and picked up a cooked chicken and salad for dinner. As usual, today was another great gift of a day in the south and we look forward to another good day tomorrow.

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