Glad to hear you guys are okay. I'm just getting caught-up on my threads after being away for 33 days.
I like your ideas on the battery compartment lock and magnetic catch on the table. We almost folded ours up by mistake with it set. I think I'll add that next week when we get Daisy home for cleaning. It's been raining here non-stop from the tropical storm south of us. Looks like it's turning away now though.
Randy
__________________ Randy and Pat Godfrey
2nd VP Florida Unit WBCCI# 7591 - AIR# 17017
2007 Safari SE 23' - Daisy
2006 Lincoln Mark LT - Hoke
Our Safari is celebrating its 1st Anniversary this week.
The factory-build order was made official on the day before last Thanksgiving…
Thanksgiving now takes on an additional significance for us.
We are also celebrating the beginning of our wonderful winter desert camping season.
So we returned to our Anza-Borrego Desert in Southern California.
And again we chose a beautiful and quiet boondocking location…
Even the use of generators is prohibited at this specific site (thankfully)!
The trailer curbside image (below) has Ghost Mountain as a backdrop.
The trailer street-side image has the Laguna Mountains as the backdrop.
I continue to be fascinated by the remarkable story of Marshal South and family’s experiment in desert living from 1930 to 1947 on Ghost Mountain. Their story is told in the book, "Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles – An Experiment in Primitive Living", Sunbelt Publications, 2005, edited by Diana Lindsay, and available at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Marshal-South-Ghost-Mountain-Chronicles/dp/0932653669
Additional information is at: http://www.ghostmountainmovie.com/
After visiting Marshal South’s gravesite, I have since learned that the symbols on his gravestone of the cactus, eagle (thunderbird) and sun represent his House of the Sun and philosophy: Through Fellowship, Peace and Brotherhood souls pass from the thorny bitterness of earth to the higher realms of light.
On the second day of our desert outing I slowly drove the three-mile bumpy, narrow, dirt road (occasionally scraping the truck’s sides with cactus thorns) through Blair Valley, passed a dry lakebed, and reached the trailhead to Marshal South’s former home called Yaquitepec.
It was now mid-afternoon and the sun was setting much earlier so I scrambled up the one-mile rocky trail up Ghost Mountain to take pictures.
Part way up I realized that I had left my water bottle in the truck, but I felt that I needed to continue up to take pictures before the sun set. So I ignored the sensation of a drying mouth and reached the top of the ridge and took pictures of Vallecito and Mason Valley below.
The trail continued a short way further horizontally on the ridge and then, after a few more steps upward, I arrived at the skeletal remains of Yaquitepec: a large rusted bed frame, adobe walls and oven base slowly dissolving, cement and barrel cisterns… all being reclaimed by nature.
A stone and steel sundial still remains there, stubbornly resisting the wear and tear of time.
It is wonderfully silent up here… (And also at our campsite, except for an occasional passing aircraft or motor vehicle).
I reflected on poet-author Marshal South’s words, "A silence holds the desert… Few individuals understand the tangible quality of silence, for silence has been all but banished from the modern world. In its place has come a muffled medley of ten thousand jarring undertones which beat so ceaselessly upon dulled nerves that they are accepted as quietude… Silence is a real thing, a fundamental and healing thing."
(Page 252, "Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles – An Experiment in Primitive Living", Edited by Diana Lindsay, Sunbelt Productions)
The view from Yaquitepec is spectacular: Badlands to the east, Sawtooth Mountains to the south.
Sunset had already come to the valley below, so I alerted Larry via the 2-way radio that I was now about to descend and expected to be back at camp in 45 minutes. I had forgotten that the trail went along the ridge a short way before actually descending. I just took what at first looked like a trail down but soon I realized that it was not. I did eventually intersect the switchback trail and made it back ok without being bitten by rattlesnakes or scorpions or dying from dehydration (and joining the other ghosts on Ghost Mountain).
I made it back to camp just in time to chop firewood kindling as Larry cooked steak on the hibachi in the dark.
I slept well and felt quite mellow after yesterday’s adventures. I got up early to take some more pictures and enjoy the early morning ambience of golden sunrays in and about the trailer. Larry is usually up before me and enjoys taking the dogs out on early morning walks.
I savored fresh brewed coffee as I listened to a PBS-FM radio station (turned down low) while gazing out of the windows, while the turkey, nutcracker and flamingos looked on in amusement.
By mid-morning I visited the historic (and haunted) Vallecito Stage Station.
Around 1925 Marshal South and his wife Tanya began taking desert camping trips, exploring sites in the area and often stayed at the Vallecito Stage Station until the night when Tanya saw the Ghost of the White Horse. (Page 19, "Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles")
Larry made a great turkey/bacon sandwich, which I enjoyed for lunch. With this energy boost, I was ready to try out a new kite. This Patriotic Parafoil Kite comes in a compact and lightweight bag and is easy & fun to fly. It looks great in the blue sky along with the American Flag and both look great above the Airstream…
On previous outings when the large, patio awning was deployed, we noticed that the screen door top corner scraped on it when opening or closing the door. So Larry obtained 3/8-inch diameter vinyl tubing from the plumbing section of Home Depot, split the tubing lengthwise and applied it to the top corner of the screen door.
Larry made convenient and lightweight holders for those greasy Equal-i-zer spring (sway) bars. From Home Depot he obtained a set of two 48-inch ABS black pipes, 2&3/8-inch wide end caps and tension plugs. He used ABS glue to attach the end caps. Now the bars are easy to handle, stay off the ground and slide into the back of the truck without getting grease on everything.
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