November 7 - 12, 2013 - California, Here We Come!

Heading west towards California!  

Arrivin'...                                               and departin'...

You know I just HAD to wander down this dusty 'ol road!!  (with the jeep, of course!)

Finally!

Had to go through this inspection station...not sure why exactly!  There was no one in any of the booths!



 

The Colorado River, by the RV park we are at tonight...

Ah....such a nice view!   
                          Oh....you thought I was talking about the palm trees and the mountain?!!

Got a kick out of these two images across the road from each other...

Moving on, we headed even further south...all of a sudden I see this sign..."Hazmat ahead - Road Closed".  So I called Greg who was on the same road as me, only back a ways.  Looked for an alternate route, found one and we both proceeded to take that to another entry point on the road we had to be on.  

Detours always make me a bit nervous, but I was given a gift!  
I see this guy scooting across the road!

                  It was a Road Runner!  That was just SO COOL!











Go a few miles down the road.
Then I see trucks and police cars.  Our "detour" wasn't enough. Spoke to a policeman. He said my best bet was to head back north and take the interstate highways to Brawley. So I said okay, and asked if I could just park along the detour road a bit to wait for Greg. Sure.  
As I'm hanging out there, I see SUVs and cars making a right onto this dirt road ahead. They were going VERY slowly and dust was kicking up like crazy.  I get out the binoculars and see that further down, they were making another right, then getting back onto the main road!  

So I walked over to the policeman and he says that they aren't allowed to tell anyone to take this road...liability stuff and all.  The road belongs to a farmer who is graciously allowing people to go on it.  I was still concerned about taking it and then he says..."You SEE what's going down that road?!" (and points to this semi going through it), lol, so I knew we could do it!  

Greg arrives, we bring the bike into the RV and he drives (Not me!  You kidding?!) onto the bumpy dirt road.  Well...it was a bit rough to say the least!  Stuff went flying, cabinet doors opened and slammed shut, and lol, the jeep turned a nice shade of dirty brown! Thank goodness we brought the bike inside!  

Once back on the road, we headed out separately again!

I'm parked on the side of the road taking pics of the sheep (and bleating to them!) and Greg catches up.  We were talking for a bit, when all of a sudden THREE dogs show up out of no where barking like crazy at him!  

And on the detour earlier, he was chased almost off the road, by FOUR dogs!  (What is going on??!!)

Our route took us through Cibola Wildlife Refuge...it was awesome, but so "other world" looking!

The sun was setting, so I pulled off on this flat area and waited there for Greg...played my collection of Celtic music and gazed out at the view...

The internet was very sketchy, but we really wanted to stay right here tonight...

So we did!  

The sky was clear.  

Except for the occasional truck that went by, it was completely...and I mean COMPLETELY silent here! No wind or animal sounds or scurrying of bugs (believe me - I checked!  My ultraviolet light showed no scorpions!)...nothing!  

It felt like we were on another planet. So amazing...

The moon would be setting at 12:30 and then it would be completely dark outside!  Did some reading while I waited.  Then I alternated hanging out the driver's window and the passenger's window, looking up at the stars!  It was so beautiful...brought tears to my eyes.   

I have this program called Star Walk, that shows you exactly what is in the sky at your location...constellations, satellites, stars, planets, meteor activity and deep space clusters and nebulas!   

I saw Orion's belt and sword - with the nebula haze, Betelgeuse, Andromeda (anyone remember the original Lost in Space?), 

Jupiter...


...Cassiopeia, the Big and Little Dippers, Pegasus, Canis Major and Sirius (have you seen Louis Giglio's video about "How Great is our God" relating to this star?), one satellite, 3 shooting stars (Leonids!), Taurus and my absolute favorite - Pleiades - the Seven Sisters! Saw all seven stars, and then some!   

Pleiades is special to me.  Years ago, for Christmas, Greg gave us (the family) each a star in our name.  They are located near Pleiades.  And what was so awesome tonight is that aside from Jupiter, they were the brightest and sparkliest lights in the sky.  

Needless to say, I was up 'til three star gazing...