----lyrics courtesy of the Animals (a 60s rock group for those of you who aren't baby boomers)
We had planned to spend the Christmas season in the Bouse, AZ, area, in the Buckskin Mountains. It was lovely and isolated and there were endless hiking opportunities. Then we planned to go to Twenty-nine Palms, California and stay at the RV resort there for the New Year's Eve dance.
And the weather, as of a few days ago looked perfect! Sunny weather, warm, and no rain.
That was Saturday's forecast. By Monday it looked a LOT different. Thank goodness our once/day signal came through and we could see how much the forecast had changed.
So it looked like rain was coming in on Thursday. That could be trouble, as we might not be able to move from our site for several days.
Then, things started to look a little funny to us. It rained Tuesday night a bit and early Wednesday morning as we were preparing for our hike. That was not predicted even in the most recent forecast.
Something felt wrong to us. That's the best I can describe it--it felt wrong. So, instead of hiking, we packed up and left. To where we hadn't decided, but we felt we should get to a place where the footing was more solid and where we could move if a bigger storm was coming in.
During the day on Wednesday, as we drove out of the mountains, the weather got progressively worse. As we drove we encountered more and more rain. What to do?
Our answer was to drive the 120 miles to Twenty-nine Palms, California, early and stay in the RV resort that we have frequently used during our road trips. We thought it might be a good place to wait out the rain, and then we would decide what to do.
Good decision. The rains became torrential. It rained, hard, all night. Glad we are not stuck in the desert.
So not only do we need to wait out the rain, but it will be at least a couple of days before any desert roads are dry enough to safely try.
Instead of spending Christmas in the Buckskin Mountains, as we had planned, we have decided to just hole up in our site at the RV resort and wait until after New Year's to move.
Something told us to move. We both realized that something was wrong. The predicted beautiful weather was changing too rapidly. We don't mind rain while in the desert--in fact it is often wonderful. The rain brings out the smells of sage which can be overpoweringly sweet. But this felt different.
Earlier in this road trip we had to wait out four days of rain in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park. But where we are now is much better than that because we will drop the camper for a few days and use the pickup to drive into Joshua Tree National Park. We decided today to spend the week doing this so we could be here for the New Year's Eve Dance. Let the desert dry out for our next excursion to wherever we decide to go.
Neither of our names are Luke, but we both trusted our feelings. When it decides to really rain in the desert it really rains. Hard. And otherwise benign washes can become death traps. Roads can be slick which can cause the pickup to slide into rocks that tear the sidewalls. The desert is not a place to be driving during a hard rain, or sometimes even for a few days afterwards.
Now we are safe. We have hikes to look forward to that we love, in the only RV park we truly feel is like a home to us.
And we can take real showers, like I did this morning. That's why you don't smell me as you are reading this. Kind of nice, isn't it?
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