Discovering Great Artists

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Trish

We arrived at our new “home” late this afternoon, and rather than trying to squeeze some homeschool work into the remaining daylight, we opted for some relaxing artwork. We recently ordered a really great book called Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga. The book introduces children to the great masters, some familiar like Picasso, van Gogh, and Michelangelo and others might be less familiar like Nevelson, Arp, and Hokusai. Each page is filled with hands-on projects that focus on one artist and one style of artistic expression. A brief biography and portrait of each artist is presented at the beginning of each project. This book is an excellent resource for children as young as three as well as older elementary children. The projects that represent each artist are easily imitated by all ages and abilities. This is a must-have resource for anyone who wants to explore art with children.

The artist we chose for today is Giotto (ZHEE-O-TO), the once chief master of cathedral building and public art in Florence, Italy. He lived from 1266 to 1337. In his day, paints were made from grinding minerals, clay, berries and even insect into fine powder and mixing the pigment with egg yolk. Apparently, the paint is very strong and long lasting. We can still enjoy Giotto’s paintings today which are over 700 years old.

We found some rocks around the campsite and used them to crush some artist pastel chalk for our egg paint. We have recently visited several Native American historic sites that feature the mano and matate used for grinding. It was fun to try our hands at this for our project.

We mixed in the egg yolk/water mixture to make a smooth paint. I have to say, grinding the chalk was messy fun!

Painting with this egg tempera was surprisingly pleasing! It went on the paper very smoothly, and could be layered a bit like watercolor.

(For all my students back home in New York, this would be a great project to use up all that extra sidewalk chalk left over from the summer!)

Stay tuned for more projects from this great book!

Day 175: Heading to Anza Borrego

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Ben

This morning we got up a little late. We bought a few supplies at Walmart, and by 10am when we left Walmart it was already approaching 80 degrees. We have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s January.

We drove Southeast towards the Salton Sea and Anza Borrego State Park. The park allows dispersed camping, so we found a spot at a site recommended by WheelingIt. There are about 50 RVs parked here over a very large area. We deployed the new windsock and awning shade:

Once we unhitched from the RV, I drove out to the highway and went for a bike ride:

Almost immediately, I ran into John, who was returning from a 120ish mile ride to the Palomar Observatory and back. He was moving along at a good pace, which told me he was a strong rider. The fact that he asked if I wanted to ride tomorrow morning only reinforces this perception. I told him I would see him in the morning.

Riding on alone, I headed East until I topped the local summit between here and the Salton Sea. Bats raced along beside me as I rode back in the quickly darkening dusk.

We plan to hang out here for at least a week. See the trip map for driving details.

Day 174: Ancient Roads and Modern Ruins

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Ben

This morning we headed back to Los Algodones for Tricia’s glasses. The Indian tribe’s parking lot was quite full by 10am when we arrived:

We headed through the gates. Once through the turnstile, there’s no returning without a passport. I checked my pocket one more time to make sure the passports were there before heading through:

We picked up Tricia’s glasses and they seem to fit well. We did hear another couple being told that their glasses weren’t ready, which made me wonder if perhaps the “they’ll be ready in 3 hours” promise is just something they say to make the sale.

One of the things I noticed about the street peddlers that came up to us and asked us to buy something is that all the peddlers of a given type had identical merchandise. For example, all the men selling jewelry had the exact same jewelry, all the women selling wallets had the exact same wallets, etc. I wonder if they are working for a company, or perhaps they just all get their wares from the same supplier.

Standing in line to leave, we could see that the security forces in Mexico want to have a visible presence here:

Today we managed to get through the line with only a 25 minute wait. Heading back to our rig, we headed North to I-8 and drove West to the Grays Wells Road exit. After a few miles, we reached the remnants of the old Plank Road. The segments here are all that remains of a 6.5 mile boardwalk-like “road” built over the dunes nearly 100 years ago to allow travel from Yuma to San Diego. A paved road would replace the plank road ten years later:

Farther along, the road disappears into the shifting, blowing sands:

We’re quite close to the border here. The steel wall goes on in both directions to the horizon:

Looking back towards the RV:

The dunes are about 5 miles wide where the interstate cuts through:

Next we headed West and North to Niland, CA, and from there we briefly drove into and out of the Slabs, where 150 or so squatters called “Slabbers” live all year round in RVs, other vehicles, or in modified structures left behind when the Army base once here was torn down. If you’ve ever wondered what life might be like after a Zombie Apocalypse, this is the place to visit:

Continuing North, we followed the Eastern shore of Salton Sea. Last time, we were on the West side. We stopped in at Bombay Beach, which was thriving resort town until the Salton Sea ecosystem collapsed and all the fish in the lake died as the lake salinity rose beyond that of the ocean:

Structures closest to the shore have deteriorated the quickest:

As on the West side, a horrible smell was in the air and the water was soupy with minerals:

We reached Palm Springs around sunset. The locals didn’t seem to notice or care about the sunset:

After doing some food shopping and picking up a package shipped here for us, we retired to the Walmart of Thousand Palms, just a couple of miles from Palm Springs. See the trip map for driving details.

Day 173: Visit to Mexico and Meeting MNFG

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Ben

This morning we scheduled dental checkups for the kids in Los Algodones, Mexico. Los Algodones is two miles South of the Q casino where we stayed last night. We drove down to the border, parked in a tribal parking lot on the US side for $12, and walked through the border crossing into Mexico. The signs said No Photography at the border, and I didn’t feel like finding out what the unspoken “or else” might be.

We were very excited to make the trip, as none of us had ever been to Mexico!

For American visitors, Los Algodones is a two-by-four block enclave of dental and vision clinics, with gift shops and barber shops mixed in for good measure. Trish and I were at least one generation shy of the average tourist age. The town feels perfectly safe, especially when you realize that you’re the most able-bodied target in town.

Our first stop was the dental clinic. We opted for Circle Dental, but there are literally dozens of clinics to choose from. All the other folks in the waiting room were there for dental implants and other serious work. Once the kids finished their cleanings ($30 each), we walked the town a bit:

All the pedestrians are within the passageways over the sidewalks, so it was actually much more crowded than it looks here:

There were hundreds of street vendors running around trying to sell everything from asparagus to wallets. This fellow was painting pots, plates, and saw blades using just spray paint. Bits of torn cardboard were used for masking shapes, and a wadded up plastic bag was used to apply paint with a texture for shrubs and trees. It was very impressive:

One block North of the shops is the border fence. The obelisk on the right is one of many markers erected in the 1890s to mark the modified US-Mexico border created by the Gadsden Purchase in 1856. Note that the fence was been built well within the US, as the obelisk is on the border:

Tricia’s glasses have been scratched up during this trip, so we stopped in one of the vision clinics:

For $70, Trish had an eye exam and ordered a pair of polycarbonate lenses in new frames. We were told to come back in three hours at 4:30PM to pick up her glasses.

We walked over to the exit line to return to the US. Folks who had been there before told us that it looked like a one hour wait:

I went back to what seems to be the only food store in town to get some food, but none of the foods are marked as certified Kosher. It’s like we’re in a foreign country:

After clearing customs we headed back to RV and had lunch. We called the vision clinic at 4:30PM and they told us to come back tomorrow at 10AM, so we left the parking lot at the border and headed North.

Throughout the day I had been e-mailing back and forth with Glenn Morrissette, the author of To Simplify, to see if we could meet in person. I’ve been reading Glenn’s blog for a couple years now, and have been following his gutting and refitting of his Vanagon for almost a year. Seeing that we was in Yuma, I sent an e-mail to him, and it turned out that he was overnighting at the Paradise Casino, so rather that return to the Q Casino we headed there instead. The RV lot at the Paradise was quite a bit less crowded:

Glenn and I got together around sunset, and he let the kids try out the van interior he crafted from scratch:

Glenn and I must have chatted for some time, as it was dark when I took this parting photograph:

To explain the blog title “meeting MNFG”, I once mentioned Glenn’s van work to the kids. They asked me if he was my friend, and I said that I had never met him. When they inquired about his doings later, they asked “what is your non-friend Glenn doing now”, so Glenn was thereafter referred to as “My Non-Friend Glenn” (MNFG). Our son pointed out that now that we’ve met, we should just call him Glenn. So be it.

See the trip map for our jaunt South of the border. After picking up Tricia’s glasses, we will head West and North to Palm Springs.

Day 172: Yuma Repositioning

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Ben

This morning was refreshingly cool after highs in the high 70s on Shabbos. Our front yard at Mittry Lake was as beautiful as ever:

I climbed up the slope across from our site to get a better view:

We are in the process of getting to Palm Springs by Tuesday, so we left our site on Mittry Lake and headed into Yuma. We did our dump-fill-shower-dump-fill at a local RV park, then headed into town where Trish did the food shopping while I did the laundry. We stopped at a local park for a late lunch / early dinner, then headed a few miles West, crossing into California and stopping at the Quechan Casino for overnight parking. We expected to find a half dozen or so rigs next to us, as we did when we were casino camping in Northern California, so imagine our surprise when we found hundreds of rigs in the lot! This is a photo of one of several rows in one of several parking areas:

Tomorrow we will continue West. For today’s drive, see the trip map.