Down the Open Road: Last Days in the Desert

All good things must come to an end. Very shortly it will be time for us to secure all things – inside and out – and make sure everything is ready for us to travel. We leave this spot here in the desert on Ogilby Road with another year of good memories as we begin our last days in the desert of SE California.

We’re sure that many of you have heard the term “Old Glory”. It is the nickname for the flag of the United States. We definitely fly it proudly whenever we can so it helps when we have two flags that we can use. They do, however, get a little beat-up from the elements and therefore need some TLC . When Kay can lay her hands on either a sewing machine or find someone who can do the sewing we definitely take advantage of it and continue to fly the flag with pride.

Note: The original "Old Glory" was a flag owned by the 19th-century American sea captain, William Driver (March 17, 1803–March 3, 1886), who flew the flag during his career at sea and later brought it to Nashville, Tennessee. Driver was deeply attached to the flag, writing: "It has ever been my staunch companion and protection. Savages and heathens, lowly and oppressed, hailed and welcomed it at the far end of the wide world. Then, why should it not be called Old Glory?"

Having breakfast at Duners Diner (definitely not a Breakfast at Tiffany’s kind of sampling) was quite the experience. Our California friends Bob and Rosemary, have done the whole Sand Dunes experience for many years, joined us to give us a little background on this place. Good food, good friends and some very different ambiance – for sure!

Rosemary & Bob with us for breakfast.

What a line up of sand toys.

Quite the parking lot, don't you think?

The Mexican border fence in the picture below was taken from the Imperial Sand Dunes in California. It is not one continuous structure but is actually a grouping of short physical walls that stop and start, secured in between with "virtual fence" which includes a system of sensors and cameras monitored by Border Patrol Agents.

Kay’s first beading experience was courtesy of Susie from Ohio, as we replicated a beaded Ocotillo that Kay picked from Boquillas, Mexico (near Big Bend) a few years ago. Susie was the perfect person to give Kay her first lesson on beading, giving her practical tips and making her work! She brought the materials over to our house (while the men folk went out looking for gold) and we enjoyed time just talking about anything we wanted. A girl session!

Susie, Kay's bead teacher. . .and friend.

We talked about embellishing the Ocotillos for better stability. Hot glue gun to the rescue along with rocks from the desert – wall-la! Not too shabby for a novice. And it was even more fun gifting it to Rosemary, where it currently sits on the dash of their RV. As Susie says, we could easily sell them for $10 apiece. Maybe a roadside stand in the desert next season . . . highly unlikely!

The definition of desert states that it is a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all.

It was great to start to see some color.

Zero rainfall here. The only complaint you’ll hear from us is when we get the winds that blow sand from the Imperial Sand Dunes nearby. We had just too many of those during this stay which makes for some dusty conditions both inside and out of the coach. You can be forever in a state of cleaning on the interior which you have some control over. We look forward to finding an RV wash or maybe a good rain to at least take off some of the dust. It’s on our wish list once we start traveling.

The sand storm engulfed the view of the mountains.

14 hours later (the next morning) - back to normal again!

This parting picture of the sunset reflected on the coach is quite unusual. It was changing ever so quickly that we didn’t have time to disconnect the LP tank or take the wheel coverings off for fear of losing the color reflection.