Hello 2019…

It was shaping up to be a great upcoming year, as in late 2018 I’d brought home a rescue cat and we were getting along fine, I’d had a hernia repaired and that seemed to go well, my RV was running well, and I was enjoying my membership in the Preferred RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada. With all that going on or accomplished, it seemed the year would be great. And here’s a shot of my 4 yo tabby I’m calling Kwnn (short for Kat With No Name) and pronounced as Kwan. She had the name Blackie when I got her but it doesn’t suit her.

And here’s the new weather station I installed. The picture doesn’t do it justice as IRL it’s brightly colored. I can see what the temp is outside from the wireless remote which is what I got it for.

And I’ve taken up making my own fries lately. Yum.

My neighbor here at the RV parks owns this fancy dune buggy…
And his friend owns this one. Nice looking rigs.

Though it was January, temps were mild for a while during the month, but it did start to get cold enough that I started to think that maybe it was time to head to Mexico. But first I decided to travel west to China Ranch Date Farm & Bakery which is 60 odd miles from Pahrump. It’s Historical! It ended up being early February when I decided to visit and I’d known about it since I started hanging out in Pahrump but I’d never been, so it was the time to go explore. Weather was spring like.

The trip down to China Ranch passed through the southern end of Death Valley. So as you’d expect, it has sort of a desert-y vibe going on. Endlessly fascinating when it’s not hot.

And here is the entrance road to China Ranch. It’s much improved from how it was for nearly a century.

And here we are at China Ranch. The reason a Chinese American came here just a few miles south of Death Valley and created an oasis is rather murky but it’s likely he came here to get away from the rampant racism that pervaded the ol’ west at the time. He hid out here for a few years, but slowly developed the land around a natural spring and small creek. Grew some crops and became well liked by the locals for his vegetables, meats, and other goodies. And eventually it morphed into a date farm.

Anyway, here’s a tiny museum…

And here’s the gift shop… And then we have all these antique farm pieces scattered all over the property.  Kinda neat all the old farm implements. And inside the building is this typical curio shop and date store, along with a bakery. I did indulge with some treats.

The path takes you down along the creek. It had overflowed due to recent heavy rain about the time I visited. You can see that it’s not much of a creek so the Chinese guy really had to work hard at developing the land around here for farming. I don’t remember all the details as the story is murky but it seems like even though he was well liked by the few locals in the area, and grew some great vegetables, also raised meat, someone didn’t like a Chinese guy besting his race and drove him off the land so he went back to China. “Sometime in 1900, a man named Morrison appeared, and, as the story goes, he ran the Chinese farmer off at gun point and claimed the Ranch for his own. Morrison eventually sold out, but the name had stuck.” Racist a-hole.

According to the sign, there are some tiny fish that were a new species in ’72 that live only here. I didn’t take this trail on this visit, but I’ll plan on that hike some other time. Pretty neat. Really enjoyed my visit to China Ranch. I knew from my research that there are many people staying here in RVs as volunteer caretakers and considering it myself in future. Could be fun, but it’s rather remote with little to do except hike when off duty.

So it was around mid February and the weather in Pahrump was not cooperating with my needs. It was entirely too cold. Had to run my heaters for several hours per day and all night every night. And it didn’t look much better 10 days following and beyond according to weather predictions. So I looked south and decided to head to Yuma. I considered San Felipe, but it is always a hassle returning to the US at the border and only thought I’d stay one month…not long enough to consider putting up with the border hassle. One other reason I wanted to head south other then avoiding the cold was that I bought a salvage basement compartment door to replace the door that had been damaged in the accident I’d had back in August and it arrived the wrong color. So I needed to get it painted. I had asked for a quote from the paint shop here in Pahrump and they came back with a quote of $1,000. No way. I didn’t want to wait until fall to get it done down in Mexico and Yuma is handy so Off to Yuma I went. The morning I left Pahrump, February 18th, I was only 5 miles out of town and found this. SNOW! Never even considered snow here in the desert just a few miles from Death Valley & Las Vegas.

There are the mountains I pass by on the way to Las Vegas. But as I got through LV and points south, there was no more snow and eventually, it warmed up to the 70’s. Arrived in Yuma and set up at the RV park I’d be staying at. After 3 days of sturggling with their Wifi volunteered to improve it. They accepted, and so I paid for a months stay. Even though I was now a couple hundred miles south, it was still kind of dicey weather wise. But it was warmer. Days & nights. And the sun was sure to peek through the clouds at least once per day. Not a bad decision to come here after all.

I’ll be here a month so no hurry on the paint job I needed and I planned to have a tooth cleaning while I’m so near to Los Algodones too. That small Mexican town has over 200 dentists and most of them have the best training you can imagine. I’ll go there and try to find an automotive paint shop while there to visit the dentist. At this point I was not sure there is a paint shop, so what I’ll do is ask around while I’m there. The border crossing is only 5 miles from the RV park I’m staying at so pretty handy. The other choice is the much larger Mexican town San Luis due south many miles from where I am staying and I wanted something closer, so fingers crossed there’s a paint shop in Los Algodones.

Next time, we visit Mexico…

Thanks for visiting!