It was a lot warmer at the coast, thats for sure, no snow!!
We headed to Encinitas and did some shopping and sat at a “terrasje”, a nice outdoor coffee spot, Encinitas is nice, it has some beautiful trees, and little streets ,lined by flowers and lots of succulents.
There is not a whole lot to tell, other then that we had a super time together, very enjoyable, and hope to do this again next winter.

Roel enjoying his “bakkie” coffee, sitting in the Encinitas sunshine!!

We all decided to travel back together the way we had driven, past Salton sea, and then follow route S22, towards Borrego Springs, then towards Encinitas,at the coast.
It had snowed all along the mountain route, cacti covered in snow!!! Must be a shock to their system!!!
We stopped here and there for snacks and lunch, and to take some photos, the scenery was just beautiful. Once we were at the coast, we decided to stay in Oceanside again, and spend New years eve together.

Ineke enjoying her snack!!!

Snowy route S22!!

Looking towards Thomas mountain range.

So, after this serious talk, we keep going towards Palm Springs,Palm Desert.
Our family/friends were already there,and had picked out an RV place, we joined them there, but the place would not allow us to stay, the WESTY was not allowed, not fancy enough among all those huge 5th wheelers and buses.
Needless to say we left, and took Roel and Ineke with us!!!
Back to Shadow Hills RV, where we love it, and they love us, Roel and Ineke were very happy to follow, and the price was a lot better too!!!
We hung out together, went shopping ,there isnt a whole lot to do in and around Palm Springs, but you can go up in the tram, up to the mountains, at the top is a fine restaurant, so thats what we did.
It snowed!!!!
Blasted, it was cold up there, but the tram ride was great, the cars turn all the time , so you get a full view from all sides.
It was almost fully dark when we got to the top, everything all white, a winter wonder land!!!!
We had a superb dinner, and sipped some fine wine, so good to be with folks you love, and enjoy being with.
The trip down was uneventful, it was raining down below, and we headed to our beds in the RV’s.

The view from the tram

Tram, coming up the mountain.

Looking down at Palm Springs

Anyone out there heard of chem trails?? These are the large, white lines across the sky, made by jets. oh yes you say, i know those, but they have always been there,right??? At least as long as the jets have been flying…….
If you look carefully, a normal, passenger jet ,leaves a trail of Contrails ,which disperse within a very short time, but the chemtrails stay in the sky, and slowly disperse to become whispy, white clouds, that mix together with the regular cloud cover,they can last as long as 48 hours.
Okay you say, what is in this stuff then??? They are made up of toxic chemicals, which are Aluminum Oxide,Barium,and Strontium.
No one should ever breathe in these chemicals, and believe me , they are out there every day, they are sprayed at a height of over 30.000 feet, to slowly mingle with the existing clouds.
So, just clouds then right??? Wrong!!!!
I am not going to write everything i found out, i asked all kinds of questions for instance,are there chem trials in Australia and New Zealand,the answers are scary. Go to your search engine and just type in “chemtrails”,and start reading, it will tell you all you need to know.
The stories are overwhelming, very, very scary!!
We are all part of this, we are all breathing this stuff in, it goes into the soil, yes, you buy, organic?? well, think again, the chemicals are in the soil at those farms too.
I watch the sky all the time, also because it is what sailors do, looking up, and the only time you wont see the chemtrails is when it is very cloudy, they are then above those clouds and mix with them.
A very scary thing that has been let known is that children’s videos are now made with the chemtrails painted in them, so our children are used to the white lines……
You can look up what these chemicals do to our bodies and brains, look at the diseases associated with them.
Look all this up on the internet, we are not suppose to question these things, not even know about them, type in chemtrails, Geo-Engineering, ask some questions, i am very concerned, how about you?????

Chemtrails

Just love these birds, i had no idea how many of them hang out at the Salton sea, black ones, white ones, the dried up edges of the sea are littered with feathers, which i collected with joy, but they ended up in some plastic bag and were lost, anyway, the sea is drying up, very fast, we could see that once upon a time, this area was very popular for vacationers, but there is really not much water left, and all along the beach area, which is now very wide , dead fish lie drying, lots of dead fish, i believe that this area will soon totally dry out, predictions are that California will run out of water , this year, so they say, the State totally relies on ground water, we were in several campsites where we were not allowed to fill the tank of the Westy.
The toilets were working but not the taps at the sinks, everything is so incredibly dry……
Like everyone else, i am very concerned about the environment, and yes, do i dare say it, global warming, i heard yesterday that this term is now outlawed in Florida, people are not allowed to mention it any more!!!
Well, what does that tell you…….
All around the Salton sea, the buildings are broken up, falling apart, some people are still living there, but anything to do with the Salton sea is gone.
I keep a close eye on things happening in relation to the environment, and after this post will tell you and show you another big concern, one very few people are still not aware off….

White pelicans!!!!!

Our family and friends, Roel and Ineke were on their way towards Palm Desert, and we planned to meet them there.
We headed to the Tamarisk Grove campground in the park.
The Anza Borrego park is the largest state park in California. It contains 500 miles of dirt roads, has 12 wilderness areas to explore, and miles and miles of hiking trails.
The park is named after the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. The spanish name Borrego means bighorn sheep.
Here the desert is truly wild, and very, very dry. Across our campsite were two hiking trails, the Yaqui well trail and the cactus loop trail.
We hiked the second one, it wound up the hill side, so we could overlook the area and the campsite down below.
One of the many strange plants growing here, is the Chuparosa, also called the hummingbird bush, when it blooms , it has long red flowers, the little hummingbirds just love them, both the Anna’s and the smaller Costa’s hummingbird live here year round.
This park is known for flash floods, some years though, it receives less then two inches of rain !!!
I tried to find some evidence of coyotes as a large pack of them howled most of the night, close to us.
It truly is a magical place, this desert, and i would really like to go back sometime, when the cacti bloom.

Cactus loop trail.

Bert among the cacti

The road down below, and the campsite, nestled among the Tamarisk trees.