Borrego Springs---Continued

Okay, you will have to forgive me. I got our days of geocaching mixed up. Our first day of geocaching was spent getting some of the hides we missed our first time in the area. We headed south of town to get the caches near the sculptures that are all over the desert in Borrego Springs. If you ever visit, make a trip to the Chamber of Commerce in town to get a map of the sculptures. They are definitely worth finding.

 While staying in the desert, we did a lot of grilling, but one day there were some serious winds--enough the we and Larry & Connie pulled in all of our slides. For a 24 hour period there were winds of 25-35 miles per hour with gusts up to 65! We decided we didn't want to grill and eat grit so we drove into town to Pablito's. The drive in was a bit scary, at one point Larry had to slow way down as visibility went to nothing. We arrived safely and had a nice Mexican dinner at a restaurant located in the mall near the grocery store. The food was good and the margaritas were okay. The wind settled down some for our drive back to our rigs.

 Connie and Larry knew the location of the giant desert snake so the next morning we set off hiking to find it. It was pretty close to our camping spot--we just had to hike over the mountain to find it. This is a view of it from the top of the rocks near it.

 Did I mention it was a giant snake? To give you an idea of the size, here I am next to it.

 Also in the area was a palm tree.....

 ....and a flower.

 Someone had messed up the coyote howling at the moon and the travel trailer.

That evening, the winds died down enough for Connie to show us how to cook in the mud oven. First, Larry built a roaring fire in the heart of the oven. When the coal died down to embers, he brushed them and the ashes to the sides and back. Time to make pizza!

 Together we had all the fixings to make 4 small pizzas.

 Once a pizza went in the oven, it didn't take but a couple of minutes to cook.

 Three of the four pizzas were devoured that evening. Larry and Connie kept one for a future happy hour.

 On Monday, Bob's birthday, we all hiked to Palm Canyon at the state park. The wildflowers were beautiful and the weather was perfect.

 It is always interesting to see how the plants in the desert take hold in rocks and grow like they are in soil. This barrel cactus found its way into this cracked rock.

 The palms at the oasis were visible from a ways out.

 We had to cross the stream several times before we reached the palms.

 When we reached the oasis, it was nice to get out of the sun and rest a bit before heading back to the trail head. Just outside the shade of the palms, there was a cholla growing on the rock.

 I think Bob enjoyed his birthday hike and the nice weather. It sure can be windy in the desert!

 That night for dinner we went to Carmelita's, another Mexican restaurant in town. This time the dinner was good and so were the margaritas.

Tuesday we drove to Julian, a town famous for apple pies. The trip was two-fold, we wanted to visit Julian and we needed to help out a fellow Boomer. The Boomer, who was traveling alone, fell and broke her ankle while viewing the wildflowers. She was taken to a hospital in San Diego where she had surgery on her ankle. We picked up her car and took it back to her rig.  We knew we were going to be leaving Borrego soon so Larry and Connie took her keys to the Borrego fire station for safekeeping.

The day before we left Borrego, Larry and Connie took us to Jojoba Hills to drop off clothes for the Boomer. She has a friend who lives at the SKP park who was going to visit her in rehab and drop off the clothes.

We enjoyed our stay in Borrego, but it was getting hot and we needed to move on. Our choice was Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land just outside the south entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. The elevation may just keep us cooler.