We crossed the Colorado River outside of Yuma, Az. and were back in California. We had been following warmer weather for a couple of weeks moving south and westward in order not to freeze our important parts off.
The Imperial Dam/Squaw Lake area is very pretty with hundreds of acres of wetlands and birds, birds and more birds. Certainly made this ole Boy happy! We spotted long-tailed grackles, red winged and yellow breasted blackbirds, great blue Herons, even a white phase of the female blue heron, vultures, mallards, grebes, etc. You get the idea. Some folks from New Hampshire helped us with identification. Kae says she will need to get a bird book when we get back to Nevada City so we can learn more as we travel. Personally I don’t really care what they are called as long as they fly when I jump at ‘em. I love to see birds take off and if they make noise, that is even better for this old bird dog! I had some of the best swims and hikes I'd had in a long time. No stickers or cactus and I could nap right outside all day long if I wanted. Temperatures were in the high 70’s to mid 80’s every day. The Ladies tracked the storm systems on the Weather Channel and decided we were in the best weather anywhere in the whole nation. We opted to stay for about 10 days. As my cat friends would say - puuuurrrrfect!
We left Squaw Lake and traveled north and west to Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area. 70,000 acres of sand dunes and desert dedicated to die-hard Off Highway Vehicle-OHV- enthusiasts. I guarantee you that we were not there to go ‘quading’ but to merely stay for a few nights in a no fee area, but the winds were so fierce and the Pod rocked so hard we high tailed it outta there early the next morning. We headed northwest, to be nearer the mountains in the Anza-Borrego State Park as we were looking for a little shelter from the impending storms. Before we left the Ladies just had to take time to photograph the strangest cloud formations any of us had ever seen! Kae said this really felt like a scene straight out of some Sci-Fi movie and she was sure the Mother Ship was coming for our little survival Pod!
The Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest park in the California State Park system with over 600,000 acres. It was amazingly empty of folks which was just fine by us. We drove into a camping area snuggled up against some small hills offering blessed relief from the constant winds. We had a rain squall or two, but that was actually a little exciting when we were out walking around. We didn’t get any photos ‘cause we could hardly stand up in the winds, let alone try to focus on something. There are definitely times when a guy really loves this traveling doghouse and all of its creature comforts.
Next morning we headed due west to San Diego to visit Kae’s nephew, Scott Grimes. Funny thing though, we got caught in a snow storm over Crestwood Summit on Hwy 8. This supposed to be sunny southern California, folks! We made it through and found Scott in his sweet little bungalow in an older section of San Diego. We parked on the street and spent a night hanging out with him. The next day we drove up to Encinitas for lunch and a photo session at Paramahansa Yogananda’s Self Realization Fellowship gardens.
Scott is a really interesting young man involved in conservation and land trust projects as an independent consultant. We traveled with him over to the Pauma Valley to see one of his projects and around toward Mt. Palomar where we encountered more snow! He is helping to save and restore very special places in San Diego County for future generations and I, for one, am very grateful there are these smart and sensitive people who know how to use the financial and political systems for the benefit of all us creatures. Seeing and smelling these pockets of wilderness in the middle of all the ‘Urbanization’ gave me a thrill and a hope that the earth may survive Man after all because some few really cared.
Our next stop was at a very cool Dog Beach in San Diego – right on the ocean and huge! It was the first dog beach in the United States. Needless to say this old guy had a wonderful time!
On up the coast again for a couple of nights in the Beach State Park at Encinitas and one of the best sunset shows yet!
The Ladies decided to see if any swallows had returned to San Juan Capistrano. Even though it was a bit early they figured the flocks may have sent scouts ahead to see if the tourist season and the festivals were ready to start. Lo and Behold not only did they find a beautiful mission and gardens to photograph, but also, hopefully, one very tired swallow!!
Next we headed up-coast toward Long Beach and a visit with Kae’s Niece, Leslie, her Husband, Kevin and their new boy, Kai. I do mean new, like under three months! Kai had a bit of a rough entry into this existence what with low birth weight and a nasty bad virus infection that kept him in infant intensive care for weeks, but he is a fighter and made it into this world ready for action! They are a way fun, energetic couple of grade school teachers and we had a grand time visiting and planning a visit with them coming to Nevada City to see us in the near future.
We moved on to Malibu and another fun beach place. We met four really nice gals, who I might add, were darn good cooks too! They were from Long Beach but told us about one of their favorite ocean park campgrounds, Jalama Bay Park. Believe me it is not on any map we had but we were sure we could find it.
Over the next few days we visited some friends of Cokie’s - Margie in Hermosa Beach and Leslie in San Pedro. Nice ladies with good snacks for me and walks for all. On we went up Hwy. 1 to Lompoc and the search for Jalama Bay Park. By golly, we found it out by Surf (what else?) and a military installation. Another fun place for doggie types and very few folks around too.
We continued up to Pismo Beach State Park then cut across and inland to Lake Lopez. Next route was Hwy. 41 east across the ‘belly’ of California through Kettleman City, (boy! is that an aromatic stretch of country!) through Stratford and into Fresno. (hot, smoggy and way too big!)
We did a quick run up Hwy. 99 and out into the countryside east of Chowchilla to Eastman Lake Recreation area. WHEW!! My Ladies were way hot and tired after that long day’s run but Eastman Lake is worth the stop. Wildflowers for them and water for me! How sweet!
We took the back road into Oakhurst and the beginning of Hwy. 49. Kae and Cokie wanted to do this total 49 thing and neither had ever traveled from this beginning (end?) northward to home. On the way we stopped for an evening and visited with Kae’s brother, Mick and his wife, Lyn for a dinner. Way fun and good pizza, too!
We shot up 49 to Shingle Springs to visit with my buddies Mikey and Jake, the “wind-up” Corgie guys. That’s always a great visit and Jake is a lot mellower now than when we first met. I think he has learned that just because I am a lot bigger than he is, I am a very mellow fellow. He just had some initial adjustment problems with being young and uncertain of his place in the world. I helped him learn some manners ‘cause big, old “Uncle BoBos” are just made for these kinds of life lessons.
After that we headed for home base to do the Gals’ tax thing, help friend Valda with some home repairs and generally hang out for a while.
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