This morning M took his drone out for a flight.  He’s getting quite good at flying it a good distance away without crashing:

After breakfast, we drove to the north shore of the Salton Sea to visit the Salton Sea State Visitor Center:

They say the water is safe.  The die-offs of millions of Tilapia is normal, the say.  I think I’ll stay out of it, thanks:

We continued around the lake to the east side where we parked the truck and hiked cross-country to the east in search of the caves in the aptly named Bat Cave Buttes:

There they are:

Looking back towards the Salton Sea:

We found a sizable colony of bats in this cave.  We couldn’t get a photo of them, but there is an audio recording of their chattering at the bottom of today’s post:

After returning to the truck, we drove into Indio where we filled our empty propane tank for a shockingly cheap $1.69 per gallon.  I was then dropped off a Don Gordo’s Laundromat while Trish and the kids did our grocery shopping.  It just happened that Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 1pm and 3pm, the washing machines are half off, so that worked out well for us.  After being picked up, we drove back to Salton City, stopping at the gas station to fill our 45 gallon water bag before heading back to the RV.

Trish made some more booties tonight, modeling them using B’s doll:

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Here’s the audio recording of the bats we found today in the cave:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In preparation to help Ron and Carol get the travel trailer in their yard unstuck, I had to get my hitch lock off so I could hitch up to the travel trailer.  Repeated applications of de-rusting agent finally allowed me to unlock and remove the hitch lock.  I took it apart, cleaned and lubricated the parts, and put it back together:

In the end, I decided to not risk getting my truck stuck by trying to brute-force the trailer out of the ruts the wheels were in, which were about a foot deep.  Ron hitched up his Jeep to the trailer so he could go straight back.  Then, we jacked up the RV until the wheels were above ground level.  We then filled in the ruts and placed leveling blocks under the tires so the tires wouldn’t sink back in to the sand:

After doing the same on the other side of the RV, we built a “road” of four blocks under and behind each wheel of the trailer and Jeep.  Ron would back up until he ran out of blocks, then he would stop and we would move the blocks from in front of the wheels to behind them, forming a new two-foot-long road.  After a half dozen repeats of this process, we managed to back out of the sandy part of the yard get the RV and Jeep back on to firm ground:

Carol gave me this cactus in thanks, but I settled for a photo of it since the last time we had a plant in the RV we spent a good bit of time returning the dirt to the pot after every time we moved the RV:

This afternoon, I went for a bike ride to the west up the grade towards Borrego Springs.  I guess Imperial County doesn’t place too high of a priority on road maintenance.  Riding this surface, which lasted about five miles, was really unpleasant:

Eventually the road improved as it would its way up towards the radio tower, which is near the high point between Salton City and Borrego Springs:

San Diego County must have more money for road maintenance:

Also at the county line is the eastern boundary of Anza Borrego State Park:

On the way back down, I stopped at a scenic overlook, looking back towards Salton City:

Good Shabbos from the Salton Sea!

Today we visited the Tyson Wells Gem and Mineral Show, one of several gem shows going on in Quartzsite right now.  The show consists of temporary tent buildings where hunks of minerals, fossils, and gems are sold, as well as cabochons, beads, and findings:

This building sold imports from Morocco:

This place was selling hoverboards, and I had a great time trying one out.  The owner was surprised that I was able to not hurt myself.  I suspect all those years of roller skating really helped:

The RV show doesn’t start until the 19th, but quite a few units have already been set up here, so we spent an hour or so touring units, thinking about what our “after the kids are out of the house” RV will look like:

“Retro” campers fetch a premium:

We returned to the RV in the afternoon and did homeschool after lunch.  I’ve picked a flat, unobstructed area to camp, so if winds are good, I hope to fly tomorrow:

After last night’s rain, we awoke to a surprisingly clear morning at the Railroad Pass Casino:

We drove south to visit a interesting geological area called Knob Hill.  We dropped off the RV on the dirt access road before it got too difficult to continue while towing:

We hitched back up and headed back to the highway:

Continuing south and east, we eventually crossed from Nevada into California:

After a while, we crossed into Arizona.  After a last-chance grocery stop in Parker, Arizona, we continued south to overnight at the RV center of the world, Quartzsite, Arizona.  We’ve been here several times before (see here).  Each winter, 300,000 RVs come to stay at the BLM’s La Posa long term visitor area (LTVA), where a $180 permit buys camping rights here from roughly September to April.  Around the LTVA, there are five “normal” BLM areas that allow free dispersed camping for up to two weeks:

In the past we’ve stayed at the Hi Jolly BLM area north of the LTVA and the Roadrunner BLM area south of the LTVA.  This time we decided to try the Scaddan Wash BLM area, which is East of the LTVA.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.