Stepping into an alternative universe

or we finally find a place where our Beverly Hillbillies camper belongs.......

Today was a strange day.

Last night we stayed at an upscale RV campground south of Santa Barbara. The entire thing, including the store, showers, sidewalks, etc., looks to be less than 5 years old, and it's huge. All new everything, with small "stations" at each (numbered) site that were complete with night lights! Perfect concrete everywhere, a jacuzzi, heated swimming pool, you name it. We were close to the ocean, with hiking trails behind us. We really enjoyed the two days we stayed there.

During the night it rained and rained and rained. It was fun, hearing the rain on our camper. It may be 41 years old, but it is still very tight. One of the reasons is that the top is not like the tops of many other campers--if you look at the photos you can see that the top is curved over the edge. That eliminates seams on the top that could leak. That's probably the only reason it is still usable.

We knew today would be a rain day, so decided to use it to travel to Joshua Tree National Forest. We thought we would find an RV campground outside the park for the first night, so we could fill our reservoir with water and charge all of our batteries before heading into the park to camp for a couple of days. National parks don't have full hookups for RVs, gearing themselves more toward tent camping and people willing to dry camp.

It rained most of the day, as we had expected, making the going slow and uncomfortable. As we drove, Vicky got some great shots out of the window of the coast and the drive out of Los Angeles toward the East.




Pretty rainbow, huh?



I had been over this route before and had seen the windmills, but had forgotten how many there were. They went on for miles. It occurred to us that there was probably a lot of wind in the area. That's the kind of reasoning one gets from two smart people.



Well, we got wind all right. When we reached the turnoff from Interstate 10 we headed full bore into a wind advisory--20-30 mile per hour winds with gusts up to 50. We had to slow to about 30 mph because we were so top heavy. It was difficult keeping our big fella on the road. I didn't enjoy it.

We drove through Yucca City and Joshua Tree. What a forlorn part of the world. Lots of empty businesses, nothing green, and sand blowing all around. We hoped Joshua Tree National Forest was better than what we were seeing in the areas outside of it.

The land is beautiful, though.





Our RV campground tonight is quite different from last night's. We are crammed in among people who live here year round, and who have made their small spots their own little (often messy) homes. I had to dig our water spout out of the sand hole, and wash it off before attaching our hose. There is a golf course here, and an indoor pool, so it is like a small city sitting in the middle of the desert.


Vicky called this part the gift shop:


The wind blew and blew, so hard that it was rocking the camper even though we weren't moving. On our way to check out the laundry Vicky noticed a sign written by somebody who was trying to sell her spot in the campground. In the description of her place she mentioned Saturday night dances. Saturday.....night....dances......and......it......is.....Saturday.

So we asked around. Sure enough. There was a dance. 100 FEET FROM OUR CAMPER. There was a one-man band, and he was good. We danced for about an hour and a half, nonstop. We would have done more, except I was not wanting to push my foot too hard.

So here, in the middle of the desert, in this odd campground, we found our first opportunity to dance. And we had a great time! We met some nice people who gave us all kinds of good advice about the next stages of our journey.

We're going to stay here again on our way through. Don't know when that will be, but I'll bet it will be on a Saturday.