My stay in Beatty was great, not only was the weather outstanding but the local company in the form of real people was more interesting than television. Can’t beat that. Maybe a Seahawks game could, but that’s about it.
One afternoon we were sitting around bs’ing and this burro and her little one wandered down out of the hills for a visit. The elder burro’s stomping ground is up in the hills and the entire town of Beatty. Everyone around me seemed to know her and her baby and as she wandered into the RV park it was obvious she was a regular in the park as she headed straight for us. The three of us were sitting outside the mini store at the picnic table just talking at the time. The guy that actually worked in the store jumped up, ran inside, and grabbed a sack of carrots.
I asked what this was all about of course and the story I got was that when the Spanish had come up here with their Mexican slaves and their burros to work the silver mine nearby, that often burros got away and over time became feral. Seems as though there are large populations of feral burros all over the Southwest. These particular burros were very healthy looking. Seems that they are much loved by the locals and have their run of the town and surrounding area.
Well, now, what’s up with you?
Enjoying a carrot…
The mom just walked right up to the picnic table like she owned the place. The carrots disappeared quickly. The baby was a little shy, he kept his distance.
The baby staying away from us.
The guys told me that the baby was likely a yearling and they were pretty sure that this was among it’s first few trips down into the ‘humans’ valley. Not quite use to things like mom yet.
I did get close enough for this picture.
And this one.
He’s probably thinking, “Come on, MOM”!
After being kicked out of Beatty, (the RV park had reservations from enough people that it was soon to be filled so they had to send me on my way, some kind of week long western miners celebration), I headed due south with the plan of staying at my brothers for a few days or a couple weeks and help him with his project car. Turned out he didn’t think he had the money for a full blown attack on the car so we just worked on projects around the house. Since I’m getting free room and a place to park my RV at Brennen’s house next door, I took advantage of the situation to save money for my trip to Europe in 2014.
On the backroads in Nevada, this strange hill.
There’s mining over there. I guess from the reddish hue that this is an iron mine, but what do I know.
Soon after leaving Beatty, arrived in Rosamond and my brothers place. Did some work, messed around, hung out at Norma’s Pub, and generally had a good time over the next few weeks. Even went to a Brew Fest in Lancaster. All the weird beers you could want. From all over.
Beer FEST!!!
Ya see where I’m sitting right there when I took this picture? Note the cup holders. That’s where I put my glasses while I was eating my hot dog. And then I just up and wandered away. Around a week later, after I’d figured out that I’d lost my glasses, I drove down there and checked at the office…they called security and this guy runs down from their office with my glasses! Way cool of them to find them and to hang onto them.
Lot’s of nice beer everywhere.
That stage over there had something going on, didn’t pay much attention. Some local band.
Some of the beers were huge.
Had a great time sampling lots of different beers from around the area and the west. But it does get old after a few hours so I spent a lot of time just wandering around.
Late that afternoon, we walk back to my brothers Class C RV and discover, damn, the pancake antenna on the roof is missing. Shit.
It had been ripped off the RV by a tree a few weeks before when Dan had tried to park too near a low one but since he’d been at a RV park he just picked it up and brought it home. It was broken open and much stuff was twisted and bent out of shape but not much damage. So I reconnected some broken wires and remounted it to the roof. Problem was that I was missing a few wood screws of the proper length. Wasn’t going to use anything too long on the roof and risk putting a hole into the RV. But a few days passed while we were busy on other projects and it got forgotten. Then we drove the 15 miles to the Beer Fest with it just hanging on by 2 screws. Wind caught it and off it blew. The entire antenna, looks like this, was broken into two main pieces and scattered alongside the freeway. We discovered that the next day when we went looking for it. It didn’t look that bad to me, looked pretty much like it had the first time it’d been ripped off the roof. So, once again, I put it all together and soldered the broken wires back in place. And recoiled several coiled inductors. Lucky the circuit design and sectional antenna mounting (internally) were very obvious so everything seemed to go back together correctly. Back up on the roof, this time we used the proper length screws and several of them. Then caulked everything. And it worked! Doesn’t pick up all the stations I do 50 feet away with my rotating batwing antenna but does pick up the same number it did before it was ripped off the roof. So, all’s well that ends well I suppose.
Spent the next couple weeks hanging out at my brothers but then felt the itchy feet syndrome again. Like I said earlier, I was trying to save money for Europe but I just had to go traveling again. I picked a spot that was close by, Big River, California. That town would fill the bill. And with the added bonus of having some of the best winter weather in the southwestern desert. Rosamond is OK, but it does get cold and rainy during the winter.
Off I went on what is typically a 4 and one half hour drive. But this time I decided to take the southern route through Twentynine Palms. According to my mapping program, it’s the same distance and time to destination going through 29 Palms instead of going northerly through Barstow with the bonus of never having gone that way before.
Me, the open road, and the GPS.
Just an hour or so outside of Big River.
It’s lonely out here. Miles and miles and miles of nothing. Can’t see this on the east coast very often. If ever. I love it.
The trip was interesting what with all the new scenery and such but thought I’d left at a reasonable hour, I’d sort of forgotten it was December and that darkness comes early. So when I got close to Big River, and since I came in on a road I wasn’t familiar with, I was kind of lost. The brand new GPS my brother had bought, and he’d loaned to me for this trip, was confusing so it wasn’t much help. Couldn’t get it to reroute me quickly enough so I kept missing turn offs and streets. Gah! I was hurrying around, in the dark, and now early evening trying to find a RV park I’d stayed at before a few years before. What I’d forgotten was that the damn place closes it’s main gate after 5pm and here it was nearly 7pm. Eventually, I found the place and turned down it’s long, steep, driveway. And the gates closed. No way to turn around. So I had to back my RV all the way back up the hill around 3/4 mile. Really annoying. One of the few RV parks I’ve ever stayed at that had gates, and actually closed and locked them at a certain time. And this park at 5pm!!!
Screw them. Off I drive down the river road (the Colorado River) trying to find that other RV park I’ve stayed at and where I remembered that they didn’t have a gate. Couldn’t find that park in the dark and somehow circled around and ended up back on the highway to Parker. OK, screw it, there’s a couple RV parks in Parker, I’ll just go there.
And I did. Ended up at Blue Water RV Park and Casino. No web site for just the RV park but the casino has one. Here…
Now, it’s a nice park and all but it, like most RV parks, has an annoyance. And here, that is that there is NO official WiFi. There’s an unofficial WiFi that someone that has pull with the office staff puts in when the bad guys aren’t watching, and it kind of works well when it’s working, but it goes out so much that many people are forced to consider calling the local cable company for a park site install. Which is what I did after a week. And guess what. Like all cable companies who don’t give a sh1t, this one has a guy that wanders around the RV park inviting people to sign up for the cable & personal WiFi service for $30/month. Not that bad until you consider that the cable was free with the monthly space rental. But, I really wanted better WiFi so I told the guy, sure, sign me up…how long will it take to install? Three days?, cool. So, four days pass, and no one shows up. I had his phone number and called. Next day! Nope. Day after? Nope. So finally, I stopped calling him. Ten days later a truck pulls up in front. Guy walks up and says that he’s here to install my cable WiFi. I tell him no f’in way. But I insist that he repairs the cable connection that’s in pretty bad shape what with the rust and corrosion on it. He’s not happy, grumbles under his breath and all, but I don’t care. You take 14 days to show up after making an appointment with me and I’m sending you home. A-holes.
So, it was a struggle with the benefactor installed WiFi, but I made do. Didn’t like it, but I adjusted. There were times when it would be out for several days at a time. It really looked like collusion between the local cable company and the casino. The RV park staff was really evasive about it all.
Well, I don’t want it to seem like I didn’t enjoy myself there because I did. Walking or bike riding distance from a big casino, several restaurants, several bars, what more could I want? Oh, and many reasons to ride my bike around the local area. Next to the river, up to the stores, etc. The weather was very nice. And it was looking like the Seahawks might just go to the Superbowl! Wow. And here the main bar has a 17′ TV screen.
And that’s what we’ll talk about next time. In 2014. See you then.