05-01-10

Oh well, Patti didn't win any money at the casino but while she was in Parker she was able to get our prescriptions filled at Wall Mart .
Unfortunately we still haven't been able to leave Quartzsite. There has been a big storm going through the northern part of the state with high winds and snow around Prescott and Flagstaff, which is where we wanted to go.
The plan now is to leave on Monday. That still gives us six days to get to Moab.

I have to admit it has been quite boring waiting for the weather to settle down.

Debby and Mike invited us to go with them on a ride to see the Salton Sea so
yesterday, we all piled into Mike's truck and headed west on I-10 to the city of Indio where we headed south. About 60 miles south of Indio we came to the Salton Sea.

It was much larger than I had expected.

It is a great waterfowl area.

At one time the area was a thriving resort and vacation destination. Now it looks a little run down. Most of the resorts are closed and the ones that are still open are pretty shabby.
Some organization is in the process of rebuilding the Yacht Club, so maybe they are expecting a rebirth.

For more information on the Salton Sea, Google "Salton Sea" and check out the many sights there.

From the Salton Sea we continued south to the town of Niland where we had lunch at Ballasteros Mexican restaurant. The food was very good and reasonably priced.
From Niland we went east to a place called Slab City.

Slab City is an abandoned Army Tank Base.

Now it is a community of Hippies, Artists, and other people with alternative life styles.
The camping is free so of course there are some people who take advantage of the situation and have made a mess of things.

The first thing you see after passing the old Guard shack

is "Salvation Mountain".

There's a church,

a place that sells solar equipment.

A library and two out door preformance area, one called the Range,

and another called the Stage Door,

There is a hitch hiker camping area at the south end of the camp and the Slab City Oasis, for community meetings campfires and movies.
There is even an 18 hole golf course called Gopher Flats and the Slab City Singles Club.
There is an interesting mix of High end RV's,

run down trailers and campers and

Of course there is the inevitable "Magic Bus".

And some art vehicles.


For more information on Slab city just Google "Slab City" there are several sights with photos and info.

After leaving Slab city we drove to the Sam's Club store at Desert Springs.
From there we drove northeast to Yucca Valley to check out a piece of property that Debby's son was interested in buying. It is about 12 miles out of town on a narrow sandy road that took us into some pretty country with lots of large rock outcroppings.



When we finally got to the property there was a guy there that told us that he had just purchased it.
We went back to Yucca valley and turned east.
After traveling across 125 miles of empty desert we finally arrived at Parker AZ, where around 8:30 we stopped at The Crossroads Restaurant for dinner.
We got home around 10:00 and went to bed almost immediately.
Wow! What a long, interesting day!