We got underway, heading East, just before 9:00 the morning.
The landscape can be both desolate and beautiful
One of several passes we climbed through
Patriotic fervor can be found everywhere
This wind farm on the San Gorgonio Mountain Pass (through which we passed) in the San Bernadino Mountains … where the winds funnel through …
contains more than 4,000 separate windmills (up from 2,700 when we we last drove through here)
We do not know why there are several types of supports for the turbines
or why some have three vanes and others have just two
and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley.
Miles of apparently planted trees in the Palm Springs area
Trees along I-10 which seem to have been blown over
Others cut off about four feet above the green
Sound barrier
An oasis of green and agriculture
A lazy hitchhiker catching up on his reading
An ocotillo whose green branches indicate recent rainfall
An ocotillo where rains have been absent
Piping water through the mountains
Desert Center's dead palms
As we approached Blythe, California, the landscape became both flatter and greener, as the nearby Colorado River provided a source of water for irrigation.
Colorado River
And then we were in Arizona
The Border Patrol was actively searching through the trunks of two cars
We also got our first sighting of Saguaros
They have a relatively long lifespan, often exceeding 150 years. They may grow their first side arm any time from 75–100 years of age, but some never grow any arms. A saguaro without arms is called a spear. Arms are developed to increase the plant's reproductive capacity, as more apices lead to more flowers and fruit..
The growth rate of saguaros is strongly dependent on precipitation; saguaros in drier western Arizona grow only half as fast as those in and around Tucson. Saguaros grow slowly from seed, never from cuttings, and grow to be over 40 feet in height. The largest known living saguaro is the Champion Saguaro growing in Maricopa County, Arizona, measuring 45.3 feet high with a girth of 10 feet. The tallest saguaro ever measured was an armless specimen found near Cave Creek, Arizona at 78 feet in height before it was toppled in 1986 by a windstorm.
A saguaro is able to absorb and store considerable amounts of rainwater, visibly expanding in the process, while slowly using the stored water as needed. This characteristic enables the saguaro to survive during periods of drought.
When rain is plentiful and the saguaro is fully hydrated it can weigh between 3200-4800 pounds.
Finally, we reached our destiation
where abandoned RVs, aircraft
and busses we'd seen several years ago remain.
At 7:00 PM this evening, the temperature is reading 103o! Fortunately, our air conditioning is keeping us comfortable.
Tonight, the was again ablaze with color.