Day 568: Another Day in Ogilby

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Ben

This morning I got in a flight, but it was sufficiently turbulent that after trying in vain to find an altitude with stable air, I came back and landed:

My parents had purchased this Gumby-esque phone holder for us a while back, and Trish found a use for him holding the radio while the I have the other one in the air:

After a full day of homeschool, M and B built a jump for their bikes:

My PPG buddy Greg called to let me know he had arrived at the Ogilby Campground adjacent to the dunes, about 4 miles from here, but winds were gusty so we decided not to fly. We had an amazing sunset:

Tomorrow morning I hope to fly over to meet Greg, and we will fly the dunes together.

Day 567: Flying, Biking, and Homeschool

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Ben

This morning the winds that we’ve had for the last four days have gone, so I went for a morning flight:

Flight #36 takeoff:

It was a bit bumpy, so I decided to just fly over the area and look at all of the tiny RVs below:

In homeschool today, M did an experiment involving igniting gases liberated by mixing hydrogen peroxide with water:

B built a project involving two ICs that plays a game. When light 4 lights, the two players each try to touch their wires together first. If the left player wins by touching the wires together first, light 3 turns off and light 2 turns on. If the right player wins, light 5 turns off and light 6 turns on. If either player touches their wires together before light 4 turns on (signaling “go”), the LED segment display indicates a foul with the letter “F”. Here, the right player has fouled, so F is indicated and the right players light 5 has transitioned to light 6 to indicate that the right player was the one that fouled:

This afternoon I rode north on Ogilby Road, it being the only paved road here. At mile 11 or so I passed the ruins of an old structure:

Tonight we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows. We burned the stump of one of the dead ocotillos we had harvested:

Day 566: Investigating Ogilby Campground

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Ben

I found out today that my PPG buddy Greg is coming out to the area for the weekend. Greg likes to camp near the dunes so he can drive around in his RZR. I offered to check out Ogilby campground, which is the dune field campground nearest to where we are camping. Perhaps calling it a “campground” is a bit generous, but at least there’s plenty of room to take off:

The dunes start about 100 yards beyond the campground:

Down here, all of the BLM land on the West side of Ogilby Road is in the BLM’s use fee area for the dunes. Once a vehicle is parked, it can be ticketed if it doesn’t have a $35 per week or $150 per year pass. For the first mile or so along the access road on the way to the campground, there are a few private inholdings. One of them has a mobile home on site, and there’s a sign welcoming folks to “Geezertown”. For a donation of one’s choosing, an RV can be parked here on the 160 acre private parcel, which avoids both the BLM fee and the two week camping limit on BLM land. The land owner, who lives in the mobile home, also operates a mobile RV sewage and fresh water service. He also fills propane canisters. Clever!

Today was very windy and also cool, with highs in the low 70s. Towards sunset the shadows lengthened:

I’m hoping that winds are calm tomorrow morning and I can get in a flight.

Day 565: School in the Desert

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Ben

Today was another windy day in the desert, but again we had great clouds:

B did a science experiment which found that a soap solution with plaster of paris in it bubbled less than one without plaster of paris:

Trish put together a work involving matching countries in Europe with their flags:

While B worked on Europe, M worked on one of his short stories in his writing class:

Day 564: Windy Day in the Desert

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Ben

Shabbos was nice here, the temperature was just a bit on the warm side of perfect. A BLM Ranger stopped by to make sure we knew about the 14 day camping limit rule. She said they do have a problem with people staying longer, which may explain why we see most of the RVs here parked on private land whose owner isn’t local and/or doesn’t care about squatters.

Last night was very windy, I got up at 3am to bring down the windsock lest it be torn apart.

Today continued to be windy, so sadly there was no flying today. The change in weather did bring interesting clouds: