(A Do Nothing Day and Catch up Post) Salvation Mountain, The Slabs, & The Salton Sea

March 4, 2018

 Today is going to be a totally "do nothing day".  Well except for driving over to the Queen of Peace Catholic Mission for 4 o'clock Mass this afternoon. That is it nothing else.


February 28, 2018

(The Catch up)

Tom has been wanting to get a close up view of the Salton Sea and we both would like to visit Salvation Mountain and "The Slabs". Today was that day and we headed out to do just that.

The Rose Bush.
Lots of buds no flowers.
Tom thinks leaving it out in the sun will encourage it to bloom.
I am thinking it is wondering, what the heck am I doing outside in this wind.

Lunch at a quaint diner in Niland, CA
Certainly interesting decor.

Some history on a marker in Niland where you turn to go to "The Slabs".

We have found the place called The Slabs.

Our first stop.

Looking around they seemed to have found a use for a lot
of the empty paint cans.
There has been a lot of paint used in this place so I am guessing the
ones we saw were just a very, very, very small fraction of them.

Tom walked up the "Yellow Brick Road".
I did not like the looks of it along the edge and opted not to.

It is all very colorful and there was/is a lot of work put into this place.
At one point someone came over a PA system and
 asked people to please stay on the yellow road.

Off on the right as you face the "mountain" are
some "rooms" you can walk through.

National Folk Art Site.

Looking up.

Not sure why

but we think

if 

it does not move anymore

they paint it.

Looking at all the graffiti and signs in the area I kept thinking
there are some pretty talented people living here.

Lots of different living sites, some very neat and clean like this one.

We really liked the little red car.

This looks like some sort of entertainment area, called the Range.
It is actually on the right of the above sign.

Just interesting.
Was off to the left in the above picture.

Some people have fenced in their living area.

We saw a lot of sites, like this, with garbage piled around them.

On some of the sites you could see the foundation slabs.

Lots of garbage.

There is even a library

and a church.

That was our visit. I was taking quite a few pictures but I started to feel like we were invading their privacy so I stopped and I only shared a few of what I did take.  Our impression is this is a place filled with people just quietly living their lives. Not really caring what anyone thinks about their lifestyle. In some ways you have to envy the mind set. Would we live like this? No. Do we judge their lifestyle? No.  (Well to be honest the garbage laying around does bother us other than that, no.) Would we go back? Probably not. Are we glad we went? Yes.

Leaving there we headed further north on 111 to get a closer look at the Sultan Sea.

The water was a beautiful dark blue and I think we lucked out because
there was not much of a smell, today.

It really is quite beautiful.

As we headed back south on 111 we saw a turn off for a boat launch
and County Park. Both of which are closed.

Again, it is quite beautiful and the water a wonderful blue.

Looked like a dredged out area. This had once all been under water.

The boat launch

Turning at the boat launch and looking towards the Salton Sea.

We did see some people living out in this area.
Looked like they had been there awhile.

On our way home, we have just turned onto Borrego Springs Road.
The sun making its slow descent towards the mountains and the end of the day.

We had stopped to take this picture of the Texas Dip when I took the one above.
Then we took the ride down and up our last for this time.

Dinner at Los Jilberto's
We both had the Chimichangas
 and they were quite good.

So ended our last day in Borrego Springs. Tomorrow we will hook the Jeep up to the back of the Stinger "B" and be on our way down the road and our next adventure. We have enjoyed our time here but we are ready to move on.

March 4, 2018 Update

So after Mass we took a ride down a back road that connects Quartzsite
and Plomosa Road. We had been on this road before and knew it was an
easy ride. It took us about 40 minutes and the Plomosa Mountains were
on our right for the entire ride. We had not planned on a ride so I only had
my phone no camera. The larger picture above is one of several washes the
road goes down into. Bottom left is what most of the road looks like.

We were a couple miles down the road when we saw this sign.
I looked at Tom and asked, so do you think they maintain it to this point?
A little Jeep riding on back roads humor...LOL

There were a lot of Saguaros off in the distance.
These three were close enough for my phone to capture.

Towards the end we are chasing our shadow.

Stopped to see if the purple stone was there and it was.
We have turned in here the last couple of times
we have parked out on Plomosa Road.

We are pretty sure we saw where Rick and Kathy, It's about time, are parked out there for the Rally they are attending on our way back to 95. We could see several rigs and one that looked very familiar.

By the time we pulled back in to our site at Dome Rock the sun  had
slipped behind the mountains. Though there still was some light on
the mountains to the east of us. 

In the end not totally a "do nothing day" but close enough.

"In the end, people will judge you anyway.

Don't live your life impressing others.

Live your life impressing yourself."

                                                            ~unknown

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