Day 9: Sep. 18, 2005
Rendezvous Wrap


Prev
Next
The last "official" event I attended before leaving San Bernardino was the eGroup breakfast. This is a gathering of folks connected by nothing more than a fondness for the Mother Road and membership in an online group. Mike Ward serves as MC which involves the awarding of many door prizes, many from his own vast collection of maps and such. The second picture includes a few of the people I've spent time with during that last few days. That's Manoj Patel of the Wigwams on the left, Brenda St Clair, another Ohioan, in the middle, and Dave Willman on the right. Steve Varner is in the background.
Helen Baker gave me one more recommendation before I left and that was to stop at Hadley's. This is sort of a giant roadside produce stand but it is like no other. Besides the typical California offerings like oranges and lemons, there are rows of dried fruits and vegetables, roasted nuts, and ostrich eggs. Medium sized eggs are 13.99 each and large ones are 18.29. There is, of course, no such thing as a small ostrich egg. Helen also suggested a date shake and I followed that suggestion, too. Quite tasty.
Just a bit farther east there are several large fields of windmills. There are literally hundreds of these three bladed whirligigs rising above I-10 presumably producing lots of electricity.
Short of Palm Springs, I turned north on CA-62, to reach the west entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. The first couple of pictures show the park pretty much as I expected; Desolate landscape with lots of Joshua Trees. I was unaware of the sweeping vistas and rock formations. That is San Gorgonio Pass centered in the third picture here with Mount San Jacinto off to the left. The rock formation I've included is called Skull Rock. Unbeknown to me, Joshua Tree has a reputation for rock-climbing. I got my first clue when I passed three young men walking along the road. One of them carried a coil of rope over his shoulders that looked to be about half the size that he was. Joshua Tree is a desert and is both beautiful and ugly. It would be a truly frightening place to be walking through on the way to a new home but it is a great place to drive through and I'm sure it's a great hiking area with your car parked at the campground and your cell phone in your pocket.
[Prev] [Site Home] [Home] [Next]