Glamping Days

Saw an orthopedic guy today about my painful knee; I'll need a new knee, but he didn't balk at my putting it off until after my trip to Alaska this summer.  Love seeing flowers in in January.    My campsite here in Tucson is at the Pima County Fairgrounds. It's just a big parking lot with full hookups, but it also has showers, a laundry, & it's quiet - everything I need & nothing I don't need. The most interesting thing here at the fairgrounds are these 2 entrances to a building. (I said "the most interesting", not actually interesting.)   And the sunset this evening was pretty nice & lasted a long time. 

As mentioned yesterday, I just drove to Tucson today, so no new pics. Here are the last of my pics from the Anza Borrego area.  Crops are grown around Borrego Springs (pink grape fruit in the first pic) & especially in the Imperial Valley (date palms in the 3rd pic).  Green splashes often indicate where humans are living in the lower wetter areas.  This natural tamarisk grove is a sure sign of a spring.  This fella was hanging out on the edge of an irrigation ditch in the Imperial Valley.  In spite of scattered clouds & even a few widely scattered showers over the last few days, this caught me completely by surprise - not what I was expecting in the desert.  

This park is huge, nearly the size of the state of Rhode Island, so there is a fairly wide variety of landscapes, however most of them are largely shades of brown.     There's also a wide variety of plants. Here are ocotillo & cholla on the left, with barrel cactus (reddish) & agave on the right.   These are some I'll have to learn to identify on my next visit.    I read someplace that prickley pear cactus grow in all 50 states. Yucca seem to be almost as widely distributed, as we had a couple in our yard near Philadelphia when I was a kid.  The pics above are from my touring over the last several days. No touring today as I've developed a painful issue in my knee. So, after doing laundry, running a few errands, taking a shower, & hitching up, I drove to Quartzsite. Tomorrow, I'll go on to Tucson where I have a doctor's appointment on Friday.  

The landscapes in this area are beautiful, but people have added some interesting things as well. Today, I drove a big loop through & around the southern parts of Anza Borrego. In the town of Westmorland is this store run by Syrians; at least they had Syrian flags for sale. The date shake is fantastic. At the end of my loop, I found the last of the metal sculptures (I think).  These two are most impressive. 

Today was a study in contrasts. I drove a big loop east from Borrego Springs to the town of Salton Sea, then south a ways, then west on Hwy 78, then north back to Borrego Springs, a bit under 100 miles total.  Along the first leg is the badlands section of Anza Borrego State Park, & I took a detour to Font's Point, a high point in the middle of the badlands. The 4 mile drive in to the point is through a wash, & there were signs warning of soft sand; hmmmmm, should I do this (nobody in sight & no cell service)? Yep. It was funny to actually be thankful for the sections of washboard as that's a sure sign of a solid surface. Here's a pic of the edge of the wash.                                          When I got to the parking lot near the top, & turned around...wow, so glad I came!  The walk up to the top revealed an even more dramatic scene. This series...