Author: The Buchanans Rolling Down The Road

What can be said, about a crusty old curmudgeon, with no fixed address … not much I guess.

Joshua Tree National Park

January 31st 2020

Well it is a crisp Friday morning here in Quartzsite, 41 or 5 degrees at 7 o’clock, I just turned the boiler on to warm the coach. We are excited because we are heading to Joshua Tree today, we are picking up the Bob and Shari in Ehrenberg at 9:00 on our way by, Joshua Tree is a hour and a half west on I-10 over the state line in California. We are expecting the temperature to be 67 or 20 degrees by this afternoon, but could be in the fifties when we arrive, once we cross the state line there is an hour time difference, the gate we are entering opens at 8:30 so well before our arrival. Miss Laurie has her camera ready, I will try to get a shot or two with my phone. We are looking forward to the park and also a visit with Shari and Bob, we last seen them in late November in Phoenix.

Wow is about the best way to describe what we explored today, there where many different things to keep us interested, this is an area in California where two deserts meet so there are many areas very unique and different as we drove through the park we moved through multiple different sections of plant life, rock formations, elevations, and topography. We seen so much more than we expected! We had seen videos of the area done by Less Junk More Journey but it is kind of like the Grand Canyon, photos and videos just can’t capture the beauty of the area and just can’t do it justice. Standing at Keys lookout, seeing the Sultan Sea, overlooking Palm Springs, Indigo, and San Bernardino, in fact on a day when the California smog is less you can see the Mexican border some ninety plus miles away, beyond the Sultan sea. The cactus garden, the Joshua trees, the rock formations, all in different areas, almost as if planted by man.

We stopped for lunch at one of the many picnic spots throughout the park, we got up close to some of the rock formations, this area seemed alive with wild life, there were lots of acorns from some oak trees, which attracted squirrels and birds, the rock formations while looking smooth are very rough to the touch, and the signs of erosion are obvious, there were a variety of cactus as well as a few Joshua trees, it was a welcome stop, and a great lunch provided by the Bannon’s. There are a number of ridges through the park with Keys outlook being 5190 feet close to a mile high, there we snow covered peaks in the distance a few ridges over and there are areas of the park that do get the occasional snow fall, in fact the Joshua Tree like the cooler temperatures that are gained by the altitude. But apparently snow is one of the contributing factors of the trees being knocked over by the weight. The Joshua Tree life can be on the two hundred year range, and depends on a moth for pollution, Miss Laurie is quite concerned because the Ranger told us that the trees are not being regenerated as fast as they are falling from natural causes.

We basically just drove through the park, with a few stops for photos, it is a large park with multiple hiking trails, we just touched on a few of the spots, there are three entrances and we travelled from the South Gate to the North, approximately eighty miles, I can see revisiting Joshua Tree again, and I can see it being the source of a number of adventures.

We finish our road trip by driving through parts of Palm Springs, just to see how the other half of the world live, with beautiful palm lined roads, lots of shopping and restaurants, but what was most amazing was the change in temperature with 27 or 86 degrees in Palm Springs as compared to 18 or 68 at Joshua Tree.

A quick stop at Costco for some more Baileys, for our coffee and we are headed home, we stopped in Ehrenberg for a fish and chip dinner at the River Run bar before saying good night to the Bannon’s and heading off to the desert and Mr. Sam.

A

January 30th 2020

Fake News?

As we watch the evening news, there seems to be a plethora of scams, and there is no end to the people that just seem to hand over their hard earned money to scammers, that spin some of the wildest stories I have ever heard, like seriously if someone calls and tells you to move all you money to an off shore bank account there should be so many bells ringing and alarms going off, but it still happens. So if you want to give away your money just private message me.

We then seen an amazing Mexican tunnel dug 70’ under the ”wall” and it is a mile long, it has an elevator, ventilation, electricity, like seriously that’s some serious engineering, just imagine the amount of red tape and bull shyt that would be involved in digging a one mile long tunnel seventy feet deep here…just saying

The world is trying to recreate and analyze the horrific helicopter crash that killed nine, here is the reality the pilot just got disoriented in the fog and flew into a hill, it’s a tragedy but let’s let those affected morn in some peace.

Then there is the whole Chinese virus outbreak thing that has the world running for cover, we see lots of masks out here in the desert, but it’s all about protection from dust not a virus. Why does all this shyt come from China, thats why I always avoid all the packaged food that is prepared in China, i have always wonder why so much of the frozen seafood at the supermarket is packaged there, don’t believe me, just look next time it will be either China or Vietnam. This is now apparently worse than the sars out break about twenty years ago, it seems to me it started in China also, then everybody says don’t you want to travel the world, quick answer…NO!

Then of course is the whole impeachment thing, I’m not really sure what to make of it, but in true political fashion all the layers from the Clinton impeachment era that said lying about have sex was impeachable but lying about everything else is ok now…as I always have said I have no direct skin in this mess either way but like why can someone not stop this man from saying stupid things, until the citizens make their choice again in about nine months, if he is doing as great as his supporters believe than he will be re-elected of if he isn’t that he will be voted out and the country moves on to 46. Either way this has not been a trial by definition in any ones world, as any vote seems to be totally partisan, so why did we have this political show (trial) when the outcome was a for gone conclusion?

And of course there is the big game is this Sunday, the 49ers and the Chiefs is being played in Miami, I think we have seen most of the super bowl ads already, I’m just hoping for a good football game, and maybe some decent officiating this year, after last years failures… I know I may be expecting too much from the NFL, but I can hope can’t I. We also have the Phoenix Open golf tournament this week as well, always an entertaining tournament, with the crazy 16th hole, with huge crowds…great to watch but I wouldn’t want to be there in the crowds.