4/28 (-1) Stowing Katundu & Reducing Redundancy

For tomorrow we leave at dawn…sounds good, but it will probably be more like 8 am. Countering the geese, we're headed South. Down the I5 towards Palm Springs to spend a couple nights at a botanical garden & zoo in Palm Desert. We will camp a few miles away up in San Jacinta Mountains Nat'l Mon (SR74 if you following on CA map) at 4000'. Since we may not update our blog before the 10th of May, I'll give some hints as where we might go: south to Anza-Borrego State Park (a park about the size of RI), then Oregon Pipes NP in AZ, winding up in Phoenix, AZ. I'll be saving up pictures & descriptions for our next encounter.

Our Dream Machine (PAWEKP(i)X) is groaning under all the camera gear (much reduced since digital cameras) and food (we've never been very successful living off the land). "Katundu" is Chitumbuka for luggage.
We went over the last minute details with our House-sitters, the McGees, House manager, Sofia Hulbert, and Chief recordist & mail mgr, Diane Alexander, (She will send DVDs of the TV programs' finales to us somewhere.). We received a special blessing for us and our RV from our Pastor and hugs all around from friends at Church. So, it looks like we had better go now.

A couple of new features (courtesy of my favorite CIS personel) show up in this blog: you now have our countenances on "About Us" and second one, the little "RSS" in the upper right corner—click on it and it will show a summary of the most recent blogs. David explained it to me, but I would rather not try explain it to anyone else. Thank you, David & Marian.

4/13 - TRIAL RUN - Day 4

TO SEE THE TINY MITES ON THE FLOWER, CLICK ON THE PICTURE.





THE WINNEBAGO RIALTA AT FOSSIL FALLS



This is the last day of the TRIAL RUN; the next day we headed home to put our affairs in order and prepare for the real TRIP, which begins on Sunday, April 29th. We will give details etc. in the first Blog to be published whenever we find an Internet connection.
On the 13th , we headed up over Walker Pass, SR178, thru the beautiful valley of Lake Isabelle to camp along the Kern River at Sandy CG. In spite of the dry year there were some nice flowers, including the Goldfields and Evening Primrose shown above and along the Kern River shown below.
A few details. First, this blog exists because of the thoughtfulness of Jean's sister, Marian and her husband, David Cortesi. They got the inspiration, set it up, and taught us how to use it. Second, the Dream Machine, DM, our home away from home, is a 20' long, self-contained, RV built by Winnebago on a Volkswaggon chasis with a 5 cylinder Audi engine. We cruise nicely at 60-65 mph getting about 16 m/g. (If we push it up to 65-70 mph, mileage drops to 15.) How do we get along in this small space of about 15' by 7', you ask? The answer is really quite simple: the Dream Machine is like Dr Who's Tardis—it is much larger on the inside than on the outside! It has many rooms—bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, office, etc., etc. It must also be noted that after more than 60 years together, we are somewhat compatible. More details will follow in the ensuing months.

4/12 - TRIAL RUN -Day3

After filling our tummies with buttermilk pancakes, we headed up US395 toward The Fossil Falls and the surrounding black lava flow. Jean found a few flowers tucked among the black rock. I liked her shot of Guterrezia microcephla (that's what she called it!) in the midst the black lava.
We pulled into Lone Pine to find it was sprawling up and down the highway and the movie-struck town has a new Movie and Film Museum. We accelerated the Dream Machine up the foothills toward the Alabama Hills (locations for numerous Western and Sci-Fi movies)—a good test for over-heating the engine. The Rialta passed with flying colors, so we settled down to some serious photography. I've shown one monster that lives in these flame-red rocks (You have to use your imagination.). My favorite of the trip is this interpretation of Mount Whitney.

4/11 - TRIAL RUN - Day 2

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After climbing over wind-swept Tehachapi Pass at 3800', we dropped down to the equally windy Mojave Basin. A few miles up SR14 brought us to Red Rock Cyn SP and Ricardo CG at 2900' and 63°F, about 265 miles. The desert floor was dry as a bone, conditions in which most people would say, "There are no wildflowers; it's too dry." Of course Jean found many—such as this Morman Tea, a member of the Horsetail family or Ephedra. From this genus, ephedrine is made which is used for asthma and to constrict certain blood vessels. The Jack just happened to hop in the way of my 420 mm lens near sunset.
That night at about 9:30 pm, we heard a small tap at the door, which turned out to be a very apologetic young man named John. It seems, he, his wife, and two young daughters were literally out in the cold. Their tent had blown apart in the strong wind and their car battery went dead as they used the headlights to try to save the tent. We went up with our jump cables, helped him start his car and sent him on his way to China Lake/Ridgecrest to find a motel—and we have "thank you" drawings from the little girls to prove it.

04/10 - TRIAL RUN - Day 1

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These first few blogs are also "Trial Runs".
After a leisurely start, we were passing by a refreshing scene of green hills and a deep blue lake on SR 252 headed for Tehachapi Pass just after noon, when Jean suggested, "Why don't we camp here?" I couldn't think of a good reason for not enjoying the spring day more intimately. So we pulled into Basalt CG, San Luis Res. about 1 pm with a temperature of 75°F—a good day: 83 miles!

Trial Run Up & Down East Side of Sierra

We're off Tues., 04/10, to see how the Dream Machine behaves with some hard & fast driving on the East Side from Mojave to Lone Pine. We also will test our solar pannel set-up to see if it really produces 1.2A under real life conditions. It will also be a time to check-out photo gear, computer equipment, and various miscellaneous improvements.