Fulltiming Road Runners

Still no resolution on our electrical issue.  The guy Thom needs to talk too at Zantrax has been gone.  Thom will try to call him again tomorrow.

Marv and Deb were going to leave here today and head for Yuma for a week, but the weather report a couple of days ago was saying rain on Sunday and they didn’t want to tow in the rain  so they will probably leave tomorrow.  They do plan on coming back here for a week, then meandering their way home to Utah.

Chuck ‘n Sue are still here, but will be leaving late this week.  We’re gonna miss them bunches!  Hopefully, they will be back next year.

That will leave Thom and I all alone again.  We don’t mind being just us, we enjoy each other’s company.  We need to start organizing and getting things ready to move to the storage shed or pack up to take to Cemetery Point with us.

Until yesterday afternoon, the weather has been perfect, temps in the low to mid 70’s and light breezes.  Yesterday the wind kicked up with the storm coming in and today it’s been raining all day and is supposed to continue into the night.  The high today is only supposed to get to 58F… pretty chilly compared to what we’ve been getting.

We’ve all heard of Slab City in California and have been curious to see what it’s like.  Last Tuesday Marv ‘n Deb, Chuck ‘n Sue, and Thom ‘n I took the whole day to drive over there and back.  It took 8 hours to drive there, look around a bit, stop and eat our sandwich picnic and drive back home.  I’ve got a lot of pics to share, but first a little background…

Slab City takes its name from the concrete slabs and pylons that remain from the abandoned World War II base Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap there.   It’s just outside the small town of Niland.  There are no signs giving directions to Slab City so we had to stop at a service station to ask directions.
Snowbirds and even a few year round residents have moved in and set up free camping.  There are NO amenities such as water, sewer/dump station, or electricity, not even a phone.

A little bit before you get to Slab City you see this:

Shortly after you pass “You’re Almost There” you’ll see a huge, very colorful “work of art”.   I have no idea how long the creator, Leonard Knight, has been working on this, but it has to be many years.

A flower hill next to Salvation Mountain.

Just a little beyond Salvation Mountain is the “entrance” to Slab City.

There were RV’s and campsites of all kinds, but when we were there, there was no sign of the newer big rigs people say are in there.  Of course, this was the beginning of March and those people may have left for the season.  We saw a lot of the camo netting being used for shelter.

Some people even turned one of the abandoned bunkers into a “home”.

It looks like some people have a whole bunch of time on their hands.

All of us agreed, this is NOT a place we’d like camp.  Where do these folks with permanant or semi permanant setups dump their rigs?  We’ve heard they dig holes and dump in them.  Many of the rigs out there certainly aren’t movable.  They also just dump their garbage and discards on the ground out there.  You wouldn’t believe the number of flies out there.

They do have their own church.

I took a whole lot more pics, but didn’t want to bore you too much.

Oon the way to Slab City we drove along the Salton Sea.  We pulled into one of the campgrounds to take a look.  There were lots of seagulls and pelicans.  I got a pretty good shot of the California Gull.  Believe me, the Salton Sea is NOT that blue.  The color you’re seeing is the reflection of the sky.  The water is actually a weak coffee brown.

I’ve got several pics of the wild flowers that are opening now, but I think I’ll wait for another day.  This blog is plenty long enough already.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.