Shoshone

We drove into Shoshone and came across this lot with all sorts of art.

                        Then on the other side of the road I saw these cliffs.

Come to find out they are called “Dublin Caves”. They were used to house miners and vagabonds in the early 1900 through the 1960's. Some had chimneys. I could see into them and they weren't very big. It is said that some famous people stayed there: Death Valley Scotty, Shorty Harris and the Ashford brothers.

                                                                                                                                                                    

There were still some bedsprings inside the caves. I'm sure if it wasn't for the doors to the entrances you'd find more vandalism or squatters.

There was also a graveyard with many old grave sites.

But, to my surprise, the graveyard was still being used!

Notice there is only a day of birth for Carol Lee

One site stated: “Senator Charles Brown”, 1883 to 1963.

Tecopa Hot Springs

On the way to Tecopa we stopped at Barstow to get groceries. The stairs to the motor home broke. Another thing to fix. I'm beginning to think we need to paint LEMON on the side of the rig.

We were going to stop at a BLM campground to see the Mojave National Preserve. We turned and went in about 5 miles when we came to a steep hill with lots of boulders. We could see the campground, but didn't think we could negotiate the hill. So, had to unhook the car and back-up until we could turn around. When we got to Baker there were no campgrounds so had to continue to Tecopa Hot Springs. We will have to save Mojave National Preserve for another trip.

Notice the sign "U - We Wash"

 An interesting site in Tecopa.  

A relic of another era.

 

Well Tecopa Hot Springs is an interesting place. The county springs are enclosed with a his and her's side. NO clothing allowed and don't dunk your head under. There are about 3 different campgrounds and each has it's own spring. Some are just tubs that are enclosed in a building. Others, not sure how they are set up

 

The area has some mountains with gorgeous colors. Lots of borax.

 

Borrego Springs

 

A narrow escape!

Took a day trip around the Salton Sea. The west side of the lake is 4 lanes and very busy and wasn't taking as long to drive around as we thought. So we stopped in at Borrego Springs to see the metal sculptures. 

 

 

There are quite a few sculptures and they are spread out around the town. The Chamber had a brochure showing where they are located. These are just a few.

Look at the detail

 

Bashford's Hot Mineral Spa

The mineral "pots"

Well we have been here 2 weeks now. Just been relaxing and going to the pool or the mineral pots and of coarse a trip to the Slabs. 

 

  

                                                 This is the cooling tower for the pots.

 The road into Bashfords, off Hwy 111



 

 

 

The spa sits below part of the All-American Canal” which is 85 miles in length and the Chocolate Mountains

 There is also the Chocolate Mountain Gunnery range with signs do not trespass, live ordinance.

The canal road is a great place to walk the dogs and I sometimes deviate off to gravel roads and have come upon some interesting finds.

                                         A little shooting practice.

Not sure if this is a house.  It is not very wide.

A child's boot.  Who knows how it came to be in the middle of nowhere or how long its been here.

Four wheeling is one of the past times, but you can see the dust they kick up for miles away.

East Jesus

This is another place we came across last year, by accident. We were just driving around Slab City and noticed the unusual art. At the time we didn't know it actually had a name. This year as we visited it again, one of the members told me the name and that they have a web site. East Jesus is in Slab City, outside Niland, CA. Here again there have been some changes. The founder, Charles Russell passed away May 2011. Some of his art work was taken away to prevent it from being destroyed, either by weather or human hands. It is my understanding that friends are maintaining this art community and trying to decide the direction they will take.. It is an interesting place.  Many artist continue to contribute to the displays. 

Salvation Mountain

There is a lot of history behind Salvation Mountain and its creator Leonard Knight. Leonard went into a long term care facility in Dec 2011. There is a volunteer group trying to maintain the mountain. We were here last year and you can already see some changes. It will be interesting to see if he mountain still exists in a few years. To me it seemed the mountain was already showing some neglect.

We were in Yuma for two weeks. Had a mobile RV repair come by the site and fix things that broke

while in Mexico.  The RV park we stayed at was one of the smaller ones.

 Not what we like to stay in.  Not much space between the units and there are

 many many such RV parks in Yuma.  If the RV'ers didn't come in the winter

 I think Yuma would blow away.

 

Went to the one of the flea markets and picked up a rug and a few other things for the Motor Home. One day we went to Algodones to get glasses. Picked them up the next day and also got a couple of stained glass for the window at home. Algodones was busy, we forgot there was a US holiday. When retired you don't think of those things. Anyway, it was the busiest we had seen any Mexican town, lots of people on the streets.

 

Heading to Bashford's Hot Mineral Springs we passed the Imperial Sand Dunes. Looked like there was a rally going on.

 

So now in Bashford's for a month. We were here last year for a week and we are talking to a lot of the same people that were here last year.

San Felipe and back in USA

The water fluctuation allows for a great sand bed to use as a take off and landing for ultralights

 

 Notice this one has the engine strapped to his back.






 

We went to town to do some window browsing and this window had some pretty party dresses. There were so many stores that were boarded up and very few people in town.

Leaving town you see these colorful mountains on one side and the salt flats on the other. We drove into a wind devil (couldn't see any dirt) and the motor home was swaying back and forth. Tom had a time keeping us on the road. 

When we stopped for lunch and a potty break we realized that the make shift cardboard cover for the bathroom vent had gone flying off at some point

Came across this man getting around in what I can only describe as a modified wheel chair. But, notice it is completely powered by his turning a crank with his arms. He must have some powerful arm muscles.

 

Tom was relying on the GPS again. Road signs can be vague so when I said he needed to turn he followed the instructions on the GPS. Wrong again. We went around the block to get back to where we needed to be. There were kids just getting out of classes for lunch and parents picking them up. We made quite the spectacle. Then in San Luis where we were to cross back into the US the GPS kept telling us to turn Right, wrong. Then it kept telling us off route. We missed the signs where to turn for the boarder crossing. We followed some signs reading “cargo routa” figuring that would get us to where we should be. By so doing we where about 1 – 2 blocks from the street we should have been on, so no signs for the boarder crossing. Luckily we figured out were only a few blocks off from the street for the boarder crossing. Now we just waited one hour in line to get to the boarder. The crossing had all sorts of lines with steel poles. There was no way we could avoid having one of the mirrors hit a pole. Tom went very slowly so only hit the mirror enough to turn it into the motor home. Throughout all of MX we didn't hit a mirror and now trying to get into the US we do. So we declare how much liquor we have on board, dog food, cat food, one avocado, eggs only hard boiled and various lunch meats. We had emptied our freezer, no raw chicken or any other meat that we perhaps couldn't take across. Because we had an avocado, and supposedly too much liquor (Tom's beer tripped us up) we had to go to the inspection area.  Twenty minutes later they came to check the refrigerator. They were so concerned with the avocado because it had a seed in it. They said we could keep the avocado if we took the seed out!  So I cut it and gave them the seed . They were so concerned with the avocado they didn't ask to see the vaccination certificates for the pets. They didn't even check to see if we had too much liquor on board or the type of dog / cat food we had.

Now we are in Yuma and trying to get everything fixed. Well hopefully that will go better than trying to get the laundry done. The washer and dryers use a card and the machine to get a card and add money kept telling me unable to complete transaction. Even people with a card couldn't add money to the card as they got an error code too. Hopefully a better day tomorrow. Oh, for a lavandria where you drop off the laundry and come back in the afternoon all washed, dried and folded.

So, now we have to decide where we are headed next.