Until next time....

7:00 am - Monday - March 2nd - Borrego Springs, CA - 45° F, 65% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.......forecast high today is 67° F.  The view this morning, and also the last morning view in the Anza Borrego Desert this time around......↴

We slowly drifted into a conscious state Sunday morning as the curtains in the bedroom began to take on that all too familiar orange glow as the rising sun sent its warm rays westward.  The forecast for Sunday had high winds beginning around 10 am, so Nick and Kate were busy getting ready to roll their wheels back to their workaday lives in order to beat the wind prediction.  A little after 8 am we had our 'until next time' hugs and wished them safe travels home......

.....their visit was such a brief interlude it seemed we had barely gotten started, but that is the life of a vagabond......always saying 'until next time'.

The winds did come as prophesied by the weather prognosticators, and with some force.  For the first time since we arrived February 4th the wind blew our turf around quite a bit.  I spent time before the winds arrived cleaning all of the passenger side windows, and doing some more organizing in the trailer in advance of VW insertion Monday morning, and by 10 am was satisfied with my progress....not much left to do Monday morning.

TLE and I spent the bulk of our day reading while the Newell was buffeted about by the winds out of the west.   Our current neighbors, Tom and Martha Ann, invited us over around 5 pm for cocktails, and snacks.  We had wanted to have one last parting sunset fire, but the winds precluded that, so we retired inside their travel trailer.  They are from Colorado near the 
Telluride area, and as often happens, have invited us to visit them in our travels.  I always tell people who extend invitations that we will show up some day, so be prepared.  We talked endlessly for almost 2 hours before the wonderful gin and tonics served by Martha Ann took their toll......

....and we headed back to the Newell.  They are both around our age, have visited many of the same places in the southwest we love, so meeting them has been a blessing.  We look forward to connecting with them again down the road.

After a short nap I read until after 9 pm before calling it a day....our final day in the Anza Borrego this time around.....thanks for stopping by!

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Family is everything.......

7:08 am - Sunday - March 1st - Borrego Springs, CA - 60° F, 44% humidity, wind 11 mph out of the north by northwest......actually, right here it is CALM.....no wind whatsoever, so go figure.....I'm not complaining....it was very windy all last night until about 3 am this morning when it just stopped.  Forecast high for today is 67° F.

It was a little breezy first thing Saturday morning, however, the winds stayed away until late morning, but they did come.  We began our day around 9 am driving down to Calcite Road to hike the slot canyon with our kids and grand kids.  We've made this hike several times over the past few years, but it never gets old, especially when you are taking someone there for the first time.......

 At the entrance

 Getting narrower

 Nick and Charlie clowning around

 Getting very narrow

 Back at the entrance

....of course with any first time visit to Borrego Springs one must be introduced to Galleta Meadows, and the metal sculptures.......

.....and for sure you must see the 'Sand Serpent'.....

 Everyone says I have a big head.....finally found someone with a bigger one

 Selfie shenanigans in the car

.....after Galleta Meadows we ventured into town to Big Horn Fudge for some ice cream....by this time it was after 1 pm, and the winds had arrived in full force, so no alfresco dining this day.  The ice cream was the perfect interlude before heading home to get out of the wind, and take a nap.

We had planned to get 'take out' in town and bring it home for dinner outdoors, but the winds put a kibosh on those plans.  Instead we drove into town around 4:15 pm for an early dinner at Kesling's Kitchen (Yelp gives them 4 stars on over 200 reviews) for some flatbread pizza, which is their specialty, and is it ever special....wish I had taken a picture of mine!  The also have numerous beers on tap, which is always a bonus.

They have an ample selection of draft and bottled brews

We were home just before 6 pm, and caught a little bit of sunset magic.....not much, but just enough.......

.....the winds were even more ferocious when we returned so we all retired to our individual 'homes' for the evening.  The wind continued to howl until around 3 am this morning, but as I write it is dead CALM.

We didn't get to do everything I wanted to do, but I think it was just enough for Nick, Kate, Charlie and Jolene.  Now they have been introduced to the magic that is the Anza Borrego Desert, and I hope they will return many times to continue exploring every nook and cranny of this amazing place.  We so loved having them visit for the weekend, and even though weather conditions were not optimal, we all had a wonderful time together.....family is everything!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Jeepers creepers.......

7:28 am - Saturday - February 29th - Borrego Springs, CA - 60° F, 22% humidity, wind 6 mph out of the west by northwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 80° F.  The view this morning.......↴

My daughter Kate, and her daughter Jolene this morning

Friday, or 5th Saturday as I am want to call it, began with heavy overcast, so I deployed our Honda 2000i generator to assist the solar panels in forwarding electrons to our house batteries.  The forecast winds never materialized....in fact it was one of the calmer days we have experienced here in the Anza Borrego Desert this month.

After doing a few chores around our campsite I settled into my anti gravity chair on the 'lido deck' to do some reading, and that is how our day went with the brief exception of making a quick run into the grocery store to pick up a few snacks in anticipation of the arrival of Nick, Kate, Charlise, and Jolene that evening.  We were gone for less than 30 minutes before resuming our positions on the 'lido deck'.

All day long we saw a continuous parade of Jeeps being driven, and Jeeps being hauled on trailers passing by us on S-22.....if I was forced to hazard a guess I would say a thousand Jeeps passed by our site Friday.

We were unsure about the arrival time of our kids as Friday traffic can be, and usually is terrible in SoCal.  Add on top of that the fact that there is a large Jeep rally taking place in Ocotillo Wells this weekend.  Our kids had planned to be on the road by 2:30 pm, but did not actually leave until 3:20 pm.  They hit a lot of the aforementioned Jeep rally traffic and finally arrived just before 7:30 pm.....4 hours to drive 120 miles.....crazy!

The skies actually cleared for a few hours, but by sunset they had returned with a vengeance, which precluded any sort of a meaningful sunset.....this was the best could do about 6 pm.....

.....as I said the kids arrived just before 7:30 pm, and after 20-30 minutes of setting up their trailer for the weekend, we sat by the fire talking, laughing, and enjoying the unusually warm evening until almost 11 pm.....that's the latest I've gone to bed in a long time.....lol.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Obliterated........

7:40 am - Fifth Saturday - February 28th - Borrego Springs, CA - 57° F, 27% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the north by northwest.....heavy overcast today with a forecast high of 82° F.

When we visited with Rich and Marnie last week we agreed to meet for breakfast at Kendall's Cafe this week, and then take a hike up to the rock snake sculpture.  Ultimately it was decided to meet at 8:30 am for breakfast, so we were in the VW by 8:20 am.  A rare thing occurred at breakfast.....we all ordered the same thing......1 egg, bacon, and french toast.....the #2 breakfast special.....how often does that happen?  Conversation over breakfast was non-stop.

Instead of driving back to the Newell to begin the hike we left S-22 at Rockhouse Road and parked about 100 yards from the trailhead......

.....from there it is only 1/2 mile to the rock snake sculpture.  It probably took us less than 20 minutes to cover the distance, and there we were......

......to our great surprise we found two new sculptures since we were here 10 days ago.....

 Compass

 Mastadon

......regrettably, for the first time since we began coming to this site years ago someone had vandalized three of the existing sculptures.....the big wave surfer, the crow, and part of the wolf howling at the moon.....it made me sick to my stomach to see those beautiful works of art destroyed beyond recognition.....

 The big wave surfer was completely obliterated

 Just the moon part of the wolf howling was destroyed

The crow was obliterated beyond repair

......I could not bring myself to take pictures of the destruction, but here they are before they were destroyed........at least we have the pictures, and the memory.  We finished our hike back to our VW's and once again exchanged our 'until next times'.  Spending 9 months working with Rich and Marnie, and then reconnecting three times since we left has been special, and we look forward to seeing them down the road.....who knows what the future holds, correct?

After getting home I checked the level of our fresh water tank......

....we've got about 65 gallons to last us the last four days we are here, which is way more than we need.  We have, over the course of our stay, poured in about 22 gallons on new water, so without the addition we would be down to a little over 40 gallons....still more than enough to finish out our sojourn.

By the time sundown came Thursday we had very, very heavy cloud cover, so there was no sunset, but that doesn't mean we can't have a sunset fire, right?  We invited our new neighbors, Tom and Martha Ann to join us, and they brought with them some wonderful guacamole and chips.  The are from Colorado, and travel with their travel trailer during the winter......Borrego Springs is also one of their favorite places to boondock, so they must be really good people.  We talked until almost 7 pm.....where did the time go?

Through the cloud cover I was able to catch a picture of the crescent moon, and Venus side by side (the moon is on the left)......TLE made some scrambled eggs for dinner, and we spent the rest of the evening reading, and listening to the 'Sirruisly Sinatra' station on Sirrius/XM Radio....a great way to end a special day in the Anza Borrego.

Thanks for stopping by!

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An unexpected journey.......

7 am - Thursday - February 27th - Borrego Springs, CA - 50° F, 26% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the west by northwest.....a few clouds on the eastern horizon, but otherwise clear, blue skies once again.

It used to be that I was the instigator for taking bicycle rides, and most of the time I still am, however, TLE has now entered the fray suggesting rides she would like to take on her new eBike.  Imagine that?  Wednesday she suggested we extend our ride up to the western edge of Borrego Springs to the other Galleta Meadows steel sculptures which we have not yet visited this time around.  We were off on our eBikes around 11 am heading down S-22 toward Borrego Springs, but instead of heading directly into the village, we turned left on Borrego Valley Road taking it west to Borrego Springs Road where we turned right......

.....where there are a variety of sculptures of horses......

......elephants........

.....saber toothed tigers......

.....giant eagles capturing hapless creatures......

......and dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes...........

.....from Galleta Meadows we continued into the village on Borrego Springs Road ending up at the Big Fudge Factory for another mocha frappuccino, before finishing our ride back to our boondock oasis.  In all we covered 23.5 miles....WOW, that was unexpected.....TLE is still boasting about that mileage, which she did willingly!  We each have our own Garmin cyclocomputers, and mine indicated I burnt 1,350 caloric units......

....we were gone for almost 3 hours, and it was almost 2 pm....where has the day gone?  After a short cool down on the 'lido deck' I changed clothes, got my Kindle, and spent the rest of the afternoon on the 'lido deck' enjoying the afternoon breezes and views......

 I'm a pirate once again!

 Life is tough on the 'lido deck'

......soon it was time for another sunset fire, and the obligatory sunset picture.  TLE filmed the sunset for your view pleasure....it goes fast....

....I managed to capture the crescent moon just below Venus....considering I was using a phone camera it came out rather well, if I don't say so myself.....

.....and just when we thought it was over we got an unexpected bonus around 5:50 pm......

.....when a few wispy clouds were lit up by the sun, now well behind the western mountains.

Thanks for stopping by!

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