We awoke to a beautiful morning in Salton City on the Salton Sea.  Salton City is a town with 25,000 home lots on paved roads with power lines and a sewer system.  With the transformation of the Salton Sea into one of the worst environmental disasters in the American West, homes were abandoned partially built, and today only about 5% of lots contain homes.  See the links above for the history of Salton City and the Salton Sea.

This campground used to be operated by the Imperial Irrigation District, but was abandoned years ago.  Today, it’s a free dispersed camping location with no utilities or services:

Last night, we heard the mouse chewing through the spray foam that sealed a gap through which plumbing pipes run from the basement to the main level.  We put a trap there, figuring he would eventually chew through.  This morning, we found him thus.  I’ll be replacing the spray foam with steel wool:

After homeschool, I went for an afternoon flight, my 62nd since leaving training.  The Salton Sea is a well known PPG location because its thick, lift-rich air here at 125 feet below sea level, as well as safe flying all day long thanks to the Sea acting as a thermal sink which prevents the formation of thermals.  Without the protection of the Sea, flying here would be limited to the first three and last three hours of the day as it is everywhere else except the ocean shores:

The air was super smooth, which made for excellent flying!

This video contains today’s flight, as well as flights from this coming Tuesday and Wednesday:

Trish continues to crochet baby shoes.  I think she might be trying to tell me something: