Tag Archives: Desert

A Memorable Trip Across The Desert~ Part 1

23 Apr

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

 

 

Our last day in San Diego was December 30, 1957. DiVoran and I were in our shorts and tee shirts loading a 4’x 6’ trailer and our 1950 Mercury Sedan with everything we owned. As usual, I had waited until the last minute to finish the last of the packing and we were working up a sweat trying to get on the road before dark. A thick fog rolled in around 5:00 PM, which made for eerie working conditions. As it turned out, it was almost midnight before we left San Diego, headed for “Route 66” and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The U.S. Navy had given me ten days leave before I was to ship out for Japan, and I was taking DiVoran to live with her parents, and attend beauty school while I was gone.1                                               

The first few hours passed without a hitch, but as we got into the Arizona Mountains, the outside temperature became frigid and the temperature gage in the car crept over toward the “Cold” peg. Evidently, the previous owner of our Mercury had removed the thermostats from the cooling system, and I didn’t know it. Guess what?   No heater. We started covering up with everything we could lay our hands on, but were still freezing cold. As we entered the desert, on the eastern side of the mountains, I noticed the temperature gage had started moving off the “Cold” peg, and was slowly climbing toward “Normal”. That was not a good indication. That’s when I started looking for one of the many “Trading Post/Filling Stations” that were spaced at intervals along Route 66 back in those days.

2

                                               

Lucky for us, we came upon a “Filling Station” just before the needle reached the “Hot” peg. We stopped to see what the problem was, but the station was closed. We were on our own. Here we were out in the middle of the desert; it was pitch dark, and we hadn’t seen a car on the road (going either way) for miles, and now, no mechanic to help diagnose the problem. Did I mention it was freezing cold?   Well, once I lifted the hood, it didn’t take long to figure

out what was wrong. One of the two water pumps had sprung a leak. What could we do?

The station had a water hose that we used to fill the radiator, and we always carried two full “emergency” water bags slung over the front bumper.

3

                                               

 

—–To Be Continued—–

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

The Robin Diaries- Part 7

4 Aug

Xeriscape

Patricia Franklin

 

This is the 13th day since the babies were born. We have been gone most of the weekend, enjoying some xeriscape yard tours around town and in Pueblo West. There are some beautiful xeriscape flowers and plants that I have never seen before. A few small plants really interest me…the butterfly weed(bright orange and almost like a wallflower),

An entire Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) ...

An entire Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) plant from the ground to the flower. It shows the characteristic blooming flowers, hairy stem, and is within 1 to 2 feet tall. Photo taken in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Photo was a handheld shot. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

varieties of creeping thyme, which we have also planted in our flagstone walk, pine leaf penstemon, wine-cup, ninebark, sea holly, gazania (like a daisy in various bright colors), candytuft and my favorite, desert willow. That’s a willow with pink flowers that look like orchids. It loves the dry desert. It looks as if the flower does not belong to the willow tree at all. Gorgeous! Then there are several plants with wonderful scents, honeysuckle, chocolate flower, ornamental oregano, agastache (various scents, even lemon, mint and licorice), hummingbird mint, lemon thyme (a ground cover similar to what we planted), and various types of lavender.

I cold go on and on. I have fallen in love with all these beautiful plants that can grow easily and beautifully on our dry plains here. It was a great get-away for a couple of days.

The robins have been so busy feeding the babies. It takes two of them all day long, especially since the miller season is gone and they have to search for food. We decided to give them a treat yesterday and brought them back a few night crawler earthworms. We did not see the robins when we went out there, but put a few worms in the raspberry patch, then the rest in our garden. We were not gone thirty seconds when the mother and father came out to gather them up. I could not believe how fast they could spot the worms and have them back to the nest. Those little birds got their tummies filled in no time and mom and dad got to rest in a nice long evening break.

The babies are getting lively, flapping their wings and trying to stand up the tallest to get the first mouthful of food. I hope they do not fall out of the nest before they are ready to fly. They are three different sizes, one is quite a bit smaller than the other two, but they are all very lively. They are quiet. I thought I would hear them tweeting, but they do not make a sound. I guess it is safer for them that way. They recognize mom and dad’s warning call, and will scrunch way down in the nest when they hear it. They are all used to us by now, and don’t seem to care if we are out there though I’m thinking at least one of them will be gone soon, as my research said it takes ten to fourteen days for them to fly. It has already been thirteen, but I don’t think they are quite ready.

I think this is a critical time for the babies, so I am going to keep a closer eye on them for a couple of days. That cat knows when we are gone, and would be over here in a flash if he knew they were there. I will now go out front, water my flowers and make sure the cat knows I’m around.

 

Related articles

Tags: , ,

Death Valley Run

23 May

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

The first year we lived in Los Angeles my wife and I were  living on a tight budget and I was riding my 1955 Harley Davidson motorcycle most of the time.  I was going to college full-time and working part-time while my wife was working full-time as a hairstylist at a fancy salon. By the time I graduated, she had earned her PHT (Putting Hubby Thru) degree. I made some friends in the local motorcycle club, and one weekend they invited us to go on the annual Death Valley Run .   It was summer and hot in LA, so we figured it would be super hot on the desert.  Early that Saturday morning after borrowing a buddy seat, we rolled what few things we thought we would need in an old army blanket, and set off to meet our group at the starting place.

It was a spectacular sight. The line of motorcycles went on for miles.  I had never seen so many in my life. Over 1500 motorcycles of every possible description and 2500 people were all going to the same place on the same two-lane road.  We rode in groups stopping only at the checkpoints for lunch or gas.

We arrived at the Furnace Creek Ranch area (elevation 79’ below sea level) to find everything organized for us riders to have a BBQ meal and a night’s entertainment. Unfortunately, we had spent our money on gas and lunch and couldn’t afford the BBQ. Also, we hadn’t known to bring camping gear. We went into the camp store and bought a can of chicken ala king, asked the clerk to open it for us, and went off to eat it with a stick we found lying on the desert.

When we went back to the big campfire, we joined in the entertainment. They had a “Most Beautiful Leg Contest” (for men only), and my wife talked me into entering because she said I had good-looking legs.  Well, guess what?  The object of the contest really was who had the ugliest legs.  I didn’t win.

As the sun went down it started to cool off,  by 10:00 pm it was downright cold.  Most everyone slept in tents or on the ground but we only had  one blanket and no air mattress under us.  That was a rough night.  We tossed and turned trying to stay warm, all the while shifting from one position to another to find some softer rocks to lie on.

The next morning as we headed back toward L.A. the group was much smaller and spread out.  After an hour or so, our buddy seat was really bothering us, so I decided to change positions and let my wife drive for a while.  We were cruising along on this gently curving two-lane road trying to keep up with our small group.  Everything went well for about 20 minutes, until we topped a rise and the road curved sharply off to the left.  As we neared the curve, the motorcycle kept going straight.  The curve was getting closer by the second.  I reached up to take my wife’s hands off the grips, but she was frozen with fear.  I threw all my weight forward and to the left as I tried to twist the throttle closed under her hand.  It was close!  It was very close!  We almost went off the road.   If we had, at that speed, we would have probably flown a hundred feet in the air before hitting the ground.  I don’t want to think about what we would have looked like after such a fall.

After we were stopped and got our breath back, I asked my wife what happened.  She said, “I don’t know.  Every time we came to a curve I just thought to myself, turn, and we turned.”  Then it hit me.  I had been sitting there on the back unconsciously leaning whenever we came to a gentle curve, and my position and extra weight had taken us around the curves.  When we came to that not-so-gentle curve, my position and extra weight weren’t enough to overcome our speed and we were almost toast.  There is no question in my mind that Someone up there was watching over us that day.

Needless to say, I drove the rest of the way home, and my wife decided she didn’t want to drive my motorcycle any more after that.

Tags: , , , ,