Remembrance Day today - Lest We Forget. Wouldn't it be nice if we could live in a world without war and be charged with the task of only remembering those that have already fallen instead of those that have yet to fall. We can only hope.
I looked up Valley of Fire State Park and this is what I found. Valley of Fire, is Nevada's oldest state park. It was dedicated in 1935. The rough floor and jagged walls of the park contain formations of eroded sandstone and sand dunes more than 150 million years old. These features are the Park's attraction, and often appear to be on fire when reflecting the sun's rays. Not only is the Park a favorite place for campers, hikers and bikers, Hollywood has filmed numerous movies here. Scenes from Transformers, Total Recall and Star Trek Generations have been filmed here. And - for all you "trekkie" fans, it was here that Captain Kirk fell to his death. You just have to love google!!
One can certainly tell that we are now at a much lower elevation. The weather is much warmer and we didn't have to use the heaters at all last night. I think we must be sitting somewhere in the 2000 foot range ( a lot like home). The sun is shining through the big front windows and it is certainly warm. With the bus road ready, we rolled into the nearest gas station to fuel up and make the drive through Las Vegas, hit the corner of California and settle for the night near Parker Az. The drive through California took us on the Joshua Tree Highway. Here we travelled through the Wee Thump Joshua Tree Wilderness Area. This is an area of 6,050 acres established to protect a forest of dense, old growth Joshua trees. Now, Joshua trees are from the genus Yucca and got their name from Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid 19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer. They are "fast growers" for the desert. New seedlings may grow at an average of 3" a year for their first ten years then only grow 1 1/2" in the following years. If it survives the rigors of the desert, it can live for hundreds of years with some surviving up to a 1000 years. The tallest trees can reach 15 meters tall. As with most desert plants, it is "armed". The leaves are bayonet - shaped, tapering to a sharp point and the leaf margins are serrated. Now isn't that a surprise!! Everything, it seems is "armed" down here in the desert. Everything shouts "leave me alone - or else"!!
We quickly found the road we wanted and headed to the boondocking area. We weren't 5 miles down that road when we heard the strangest of noises, John looks in the mirror and says "oh my goodness honey, I think the hitch just broke" (and if you believe that statement, I have the proverbial ocean front property here in Arizona!!). Out to investigate and sure enough, the trailer was holding on by a very small piece of metal that had yet to separate from the bus. We pulled off the road onto a trail and traveled "off road" for a few hundred feet. Now let me tell you, this bus is not really meant to do any sort of significant off roading. We did manage to get the bus situated for the night. We had unhooked the trailer and got the jeep out thinking we could move the trailer much easier with the jeep. The jeep did well until the trailer got stuck and then the jeep decided not to start anymore so we ended up leaving the two vehicles where they were for the night and deal with them in the morning. "Honey, is this the adventure, you were talking about?"
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