February 11th Sunday 1 week in

We expected the wilderness area to be bleak and forboding.  Here is the way it went:

We ran into a sheep farm, not the first and not the last of whch they are scattered here and there.

Here is what the water does for the arid land; it becomes a blooming garden.

Then there are the feed lots where cattle are beefed up for market. The sound of thousands of birds could be heard as they nest nearby devouring the abundance of birdfood. The grain comes out of the silos and is funneled directly to the troughs. 

Here is the sign for one of the breeders.

Here is a small canal through which the water fows into the fields.

Here's where the water comes from.

This  is Jeanne following me in one of our "other" rigs.  Ha. Ha.

Then there is a kind of the Sahara that we ran into a little later near Glamis.  It reminds me of the movie "Dunes". 

Surprise, surprise - we ran into some dunebuggies. 

Here's the central point for where the races begin, kind of like a regatta in an ocean of sand.  The area I estimate at about 20 square miles of blowing sand.

The next shot I couldn't resist. It remined me of the first few scenes in Star Wars I, where Luke meets Hans Solo.

Here's a shot of the kind of  high end "buggies" that the weekenders from San Diego with the big bucks use to impress the crowd.    I thought it looked like a space ship. 

So today, being Sunday, we went to a Spanish Mass with Mexican Americans, and there were 3 Baptisms, with flamingo music and the name of the church is St. Joan of Arc, Blythe, CA. How American can you get?