California, Here we Come!

As we drove along late yesterday afternoon, we often felt the winds shaking our motorhome and heard them rattle the vent above the RV cab. At one point a gust of wind blew the vent hood right off and the sudden wind pressure split the vent lid in two, giving me a two inch wide view of clear blue sky. I was comforted in thinking that Quartzsite, alias RV city, would have some RV repair shops because we needed a new vent lid and a new hood as well. And I was reassured in reading the the weather forecast that no rain was expected overnight.

Alas, we woke up the next morning to the usually lovely sound of rain tapping on the roof. So I scurried to cover the storage area under the split vent with rugs to keep my few but valued possessions dry, since the vent is directly above my main storage area.

Hmm, it appeared that no one in Tent City had a 'real' building to put an RV into to work on the roof, and, understandably, no one was willing to climb up on a slippery roof in the rain to do a repair job.

Finally I was referred to Lifestyle RV's. Hooray, they had a real building with a real shop and real repair guys just waiting for someone to come in needing their vent fixed! I was their gal. Here's my trusty RV minus her front vent hood.

Yes, you can't see it, it isn't there. Here's the repair guy working on said trusty RV. And here she is with her shiny new vent hood (and vent lid, which you cannot see)!

Thirty minutes and $100 later, I really was off to California! But California did not look like the sunny "PR" we all know and love and have heard so many times.

There were some bright spots though, and also some interesting ones. Approaching Desert Center, my little GPS companion informed me that we were 25 feet below sea level. It was interesting to look around and realize that if the mountains between this desert and the ocean ever developed a crack and leaked like my vent lid, most of this city would be under water. The low spot was small though and we began to climb shortly.

A short way down the road, toward Palm Springs, we found the mother of all wind farms. This wind farm must have thousands of the giant three-blade wind turbines. These pictures shows only a very few.

They covered huge fields on both sides of the highway and went up the mountainside as well. Some were turning, some were not.

We turned north toward Yucca Valley, where we planned to spend the night. Yucca Valley lies over a mountain pass from Palm Springs, a pass that tops out at 4500 feet.

You can see the infamous white stuff on the mountain side in this picture.

It was very cold and windy at Yucca Valley, California, and although no snow there, I doubt that Wyoming and Montana were much colder (or even Minnesota!).

As evening approached, the clouds that covered the sun were thick and heavy.

I guess you could say we got just a slice of sunset tonight.

And tomorrow is a new day.