Bob-Kats on the Road 4-21-11

Back-Tracking

So, we left Borrego Springs and went back to Tucson. You can do that stuff when you are retired and do not have to explain to anyone. Just do it, as they say. But, if anyone wants to know, we did it because we were happy in Tucson and because Tucson may be the most perfect place on earth -- at least this time of year.

But it occurs to me that there are a lot of things I wanted to show you that we didn’t have time for on the way to Borrego Springs.

Marfa, TexasBest known for the “lights of Marfa”. They are mysterious. That is pretty much what I know. Lights that appear for no known reason and some residents, apparently spooked by such an event, link them to UFOs. We had left Big Bend on our way west and Marfa is along that path. There is not much out there, but my eye catches something. It looks one of those cubical things that people shelter in as they wait for a bus. No, no … it’s a tiny Prada store? Yes, that is it exactly.

Well, it isn’t really. It’s art. I knew that. And I knew just who to ask about it. Brian, of course, and he knew the people who created it. On the internet if you wish further enlightenment, but it’s definitely the coolest thing in Marfa.

Van Horn, TexasVery nice little town full of very nice people. We were there one night. Everything was fine until time to go. The jacks wouldn’t go up and the slides wouldn’t go in. This is a fairly serious problem in that you no longer have a moving home, but a fully stationary one and that home is now located at the KOA in Van Horn, Texas. Phone calls were made. Mike at Thor Motor Coach became my new best friend. A jerry-rigged solution was found and we were on our way to Las Cruces, New Mexico where permanent repairs could be made.

Las Cruces, New MexicoI loved New Mexico years ago and was happy to discover that I still do. Just crossing the state line made me smile. Part of it could have been relief at having made it through El Paso in one piece, but mostly I was just happy to be back in New Mex. And I immediately loved Las Cruces as well.
The KOA there was great. Situated atop a high hill, it overlooks the city and faces the mountains on the other side making for amazing views. We had the high rent real estate on the edge for our site, so no one between us and the view. I could hardly make myself go to bed at night. I just wanted to sit and look.

New Mexico has without a doubt the most spectacular sunsets of any place I have ever been.

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

I am speechless.

Reminder - it's close to100 degrees F

Interesting thing: The white stuff is not sand. It is gypsum. (White Gypsum National Monument? Not quite the right ring to it) If you walk barefoot on it at high noon mid-summer, it will feel cool on your feet. It will not stick to your clothes. I tested this out. See below.

I am assuming that none of you would take the trouble to go to New Mexico and then drive on past White Sands, but just in case DO NOT MISS THIS!!!

Tucson, ArizonaI was here maybe 10 years ago, but had either failed to notice or forgotten that Tucson is surrounded by beautiful mountains. (had a lot on my mind apparently) There was nothing I did not like about this place. Well, maybe one thing -- there is no good way to get from the city into the mountains. It is not far and it is not far even to the top of Mount Lemmon, but stop and go traffic, traffic lights all the way to the base of it? Tucson, build a parkway, expressway, whatever, but fix this! So, it takes an hour to get there, but oh, so worth it.

You pass through the dessert with its emblematic saguaros, climb quickly, the saguaros disappear and other trees and plants appear and then disappear to be replaced themselves by something completely different and then you are flying above the city, seeing beyond the city. You are at 8,000 feet amid tall pines and outside where it was quite hot when you left, there is now snow in places. You can’t quite believe this even though you have stopped at every single turn out along the way to verify this was indeed happening. I know this sounds like I have not gotten out of Marshall, Michigan in the last half century, but I don’t care -- I was completely wowed by it all!

And at the top of the mountain, one of our favorite birds, the yellow-eyed junco -- who is at once cute and fierce-looking.

Wellton, Arizona

An overnight here. I thought it a strange place as it seems to be nearly completely comprised of senior housing parks. I mean acres of them. Trailers, prefab houses, RV’s, whatever you can think of to live in, they’ve got them. There is really not much else there.

Between the various housing parks, are large agricultural fields. I don’t know what this is -- garlic? -- but I do like the picture.

Los Angeles, California

A short but rather harrowing drive from Borrego Springs. Bob thought it might cheer me up to see my grandchildren. It did.

Jakob studies a flower. Megan is sure he will be a botanist now.

Misha took her blanket with her on a walk in case she got sleepy along the way.

Bob-Kats on the Road 4-15-11

Very tough leaving Borrego Springs.  Wherever or however Jo was, we were leaving her behind.  I made one last solo visit to the desert behind us and was again stuck by the abundance of life there.  Quail bursting out from bushes as I passed, rabbits everywhere – a baby cottontail ran over my foot.  My old friend Jackrabbit was there as usual being cool.  He thinks if he freezes, he’s invisible.  And there he is --about four feet tall with those impossibly long legs and enormous ears.

The smell was wonderful, a mix of desert-clean and flowers.  There were masses of flowers everywhere.  How could anything bad happen here?

The desert behind the park

Beautiful Anza Borrego

Font’s Point is four miles down a deep sand road.  So much fun in the jeep!  And then when you get to the end, the most amazing view.

Font’s Point

Montezuma Road

Salton Sea in the Background

Henderson Canyon

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

Teddy bears ready to bloom

Some No Bigger Than a Baby’s Thumbnail

So small . . .

But so numerous they can paint a hillside.

Sahara Mustard

If there is a plant in the world worthy of hatred, Sahara mustard is it.  Poison ivy is annoying, but Sahara mustard is evil.  It was brought in from North Africa on the date palms still evident in Borrego Springs.  The first record of it was in 1927, so it’s a longtime resident.

The plant has tiny unimpressive flowers, no fruit and nothing will eat it.  The roots emit a substance that inhibits other plants from growing around it.  Its large umbrella shape and ability to efficiently remove water and nutrients from the sandy soil further insures that nothing else will grow near it.  A large plant will have 16,000 seeds (did someone count?  Presumably) and it has a very high germination rate.  The seeds become sticky when wet and adhere to the wheels and under-carriages of cars and are spread many miles that way.  The small plants drop seeds into the ground in large numbers forming a huge seed bank, so there will be endless mustard plants popping up with every rain.  The large plants sever at the base and wheel off in the wind to scatter their seeds far and wide.  Already areas that had wild flowers now have nothing but Sahara mustard.  A 2005 study showed California would have to spend $121 million per year just to control the spread of this invasive plant.  Yeah, right, like that is happening.  And the most effective control is hand-pulling of plants.

Bob and I decided to adopt one scenic drive and clean it of mustard.  The plant must be pulled with gloves – another lovely thing, the plant has stinging hairs and your hand will burn after only a few plants – then the roots are cut off and the seed-bearing part put into a plastic bag.  The bumper sticker just says pull, but if you leave the plant intact on the ground, you may even have helped it spread its seed.

Harvested Sahara Mustard

Bob and I worked two hours every day for five days and filled 12 contractor bags full –packed and heavy.  Another lovely thing about mustard – it stinks!  Yech, disgusting. The ride to the dumpster with bags of mustard was LONG!  But it was odd – it was strangely addictive.   Every day at around the same time, it was you want to go pull?  And we were off hunting the big ones.

But when we were finished, beautiful!  One long sweep free of mustard with room for flowers.

Farewell, Anza Borrego

(Bob’s Extra – Laundry duty)

Laundry is a nasty business when you are on the road . . . finding one, hauling baskets and plastic bags there, getting all those quarters and wasting (what seems to be an eternity) precious time watching the minutes click down on washing machines and staring at tumbling dryers.  I thought I had a solution by purchasing 30 pair of underwear for the trip . . . Kat did not implement this solution.  So about every 10 to 12 days we get the DLB’s . . . Dreaded Laundry Blues.

Kat thought she had the solution when she found Laura at the “Wash Tub” in Mission Texas, who not only washed and dried our mess, but professionally folded and packed it for easy transfer to our closets and drawers.  However, Laura had children and refused to travel with us across the US.

When we rolled into Marathon, Texas, the DLB’s struck.  The park only had one operating washer in an un-air-conditioned 3 X 5 closet of a room . . . so off to town we went.  We found a local at the market who declared, “Yup, we got a great little laundromat just down the road but when the surprise hard freeze hit last week, all the water pipes broke . . . there’s just one washer left in town and it’s at the RV park down the road”.

These are pictures of our “Circle Suds Laundromat” in Borrego Springs . . .

Located on Christmas Circle Roundabout

4 of the 7 washers and 4 of the 6 dryers were “out of order”

Well Maintained Washers

Desert Air-Conditioning