Still going

Wind settled down considerably, but still pretty gusty up in the Tejon Pass.

Stopped at a Walmart to buy hair clippers.  Getting pretty shaggy by now, and thought I'd better shape up a bit....  I just put the 1/2" foot on those clippers and go over my whole face and head, real easy.  Then found a laundromat and washed the dust out of these clothes.  Now feeling decidedly more respectable.....

I was headed for Brian Ranch airfield, between Palmdale and Hesperia, to get some useful maintenance work done while this wind blows out, hopefully before heading home in 6 days.  I was even turned off the highway and headed down the lane to the airfield, when the awful realization hit that if I went down there and started all that maintenance, I wouldn't get away again at all....  So I checked the weather forecast for Blythe, SE of here and on the border of Nevada. That said light winds tomorrow, so I turned around and headed that way!  Sure is a wonderful freedom to be able to change my plan like that, instantly and without any consultation with anyone!

So this is where I went for the last two days.


View SE California in a larger map
(Click on  SE California  to get the interactive Google Map and read markers and zoom in and out.)

So back onto the freeway traffic, through San Bernadino and the outlying suburbs of LA.  No way that I could live here and drive like this all the time....

Finally out of the city complex, and soon passing Palm Springs, but no desire to go in there....

Thousands, and I do mean thousands, of wind generators in the Banning Pass near Palm Springs.  Very impressive!  A lot of power being generated there today....  I'd like to fly here, but very congested airspace, and all those windmills mean lots of wind, most of the time....

Couldn't make to Blythe cause fading light and headlights still not working, so stopped at Chiriaco Summit to look for a campsite. Not easy around here cause very few off-roads, and hampered by the trailer to go exploring narrow tracks....  Big trucks jostling to park at the noisy and dusty truck stop..... But I had noticed the abandoned old two-lane highway replaced by the freeway.  My hunch, gathered from many hundreds of such searches late in the day, made this feel likely.   Followed that old road out and found just the perfect secluded spot!

And my iPad shows exactly where I am.  What incredible technology!

The reason I wanted to go to Blythe is because there are some ancient intaglios (large drawings laid out on the ground), that can only really be seen from the air.  Only problem might be that they appear to be just inside a serious MOA (Military Operations Area)...  I'll have to find out the details from the locals at Blythe when I get there....