Thursday, February 3, 2011

Fun Day here in Sunny California

We may have to go back here and tour the museum. Lots of really old war stuff in here, I was told.


B17 Bomber doing flyover at The General Patton Museum



Al took both these photos of the planes. I guess since he's taller he was able to get a better shot, LOL!



From the road and at a distance, you can see us in the center. Two campers on the right are some guys who are working on the aqueduct. They are camping here while they are working, from 6am to 6pm. They just set up today, and when we said we were looking for a site, they pointed the one out next to them. Very nice guys, nice having them as neighbors.




Picture from our window. Nice view on all sides!



Al captured this sunset picture just outside our camper.



We left Quartzsite and are now in California. Not sure the name of the town, but we are located near the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. There is BLM (Bureau of Land Mangagement) land here and we can camp for free. With our water tank full and our other tanks empty, we decided to try it out. With the solar working great and a generator as a backup, it was a no-brainer for us. We love the natural setting and the view all around us is so spectacular. What more could we want!




We arrived yesterday and picked a site that was so perfect, we thought we had the best site here. Then we found out, we were on a water aqueduct and they were planning on working on it the next day. We found out from some workers here that we were probably going to be asked to move. There is a pipe that they needed to work on that goes from Lake Havesau in AZ to another lake in Southern California. We missed the sign that was up, and only needed to move a short distance. It is confusing looking at the maps, but after we figured it out, it wasn't difficult to find another good site!



We weren't ready to do any touring of the area yet, as we felt we needed a down day. We did need to get milk and also some gas for the generator. There is just nothing around here unless you want to drive 20 to 30 miles. There was a gas station at the next exit 5 miles east of here, so we knew we could get gas and milk there. We were shocked when the clerk rang up the milk at $5.99 per gallon. Since we needed milk and it would cost more to drive 20 to 30 miles, we decided to get it anyway. Someone has to have his milk to survive!



On our little jaunt, we passed by "The General Patton Memorial Museum". We drove into the parking lot and noticed people standing around outside the building. A man came over to us and informed us that a B-17 Bomber was going to do a flyover at the museum. It was leaving Palm Springs, about 60 + miles from here and headed our way. We got out of the truck and waited about 15 minutes for it to arrive. It flew low enough for us to get some good shots. I guess General Patton pulled a few strings and we were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.



We met a neat guy named Jeff who is camping here. You won't believe his setup. I am saving it for my next post. Stay tuned!

4 comments:

  1. Great photos, lucky you, right place, right time, good photos of the plane and the sunset is fab!!

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  2. Great place to be. Guess you make up for the cost of the milk by camping free!

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  3. We live in such beautiful country and most people never even get to see it...so glad you are able to view these things first hand.
    I bet the pictures don't quite do it justice even!
    Next winter I think we should go with you :)
    We will pull our own trailer, Sam can work from the road, I will homeschool the kids through the winter...
    Think on it and let me know your thoughts, I think I'm on to something here...;-)

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