Navajo Lake State Park, New Mexico – Day 1

We arrived here the day before yesterday.

We are here for two reasons. The first being that it is only about 35 miles from Farmington, New Mexico and this is from where Mary will take the Albuquerque Airport Shuttle to catch a flight back home next Tuesday. The second reason is that we can have an electrical connection here for only $4 a day to run our air conditioner to help deal with the 90 degree temperatures.

Here’s a photo of the two-mile very washboardy road we had to take to get here…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Our campsite…

The view from our dinette window…

This state park has two campgrounds…Pine on the lake shore and Cottonwood along the river shore.. we’re in Cottonwood.

While here Mary will be digging out all of the stuff she wants to take home and start her packing process. I’m trying to rest and recuperate from our recent accident 20 days ago. I’m still wrapping my chest with an elastic bandage. I took the last of my codine-based pain medication this morning.

We expect to leave here Monday morning, go to Farmington to do laundry and get Mary on her shuttle Tuesday morning.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Pilot Knob, California

Waaay down in the southeast corner of the State of California, the land is flat except for a rise of land called Pilot Knob. This is what it looks like on Interstate Highway 8 heading east approaching Yuma, Arizona…

As always you may click upon a photo to see and enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

The campground I’m heading for is located at the horizon at the very far right in the above photo…about one mile from the highway. Why is it called Pilot Knob? I’m glad you asked! You can find out all about Pilot Knob by clicking this link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_Knob_%28Imperial_County,_California%29

I’m headed for this 14 day limit BLM campground. It’s called a campground…but there are no amenities here. But it’s convenient and free…so the price is right!

I parked next to my friend Leo Perth from Slab City. He was in the Yuma, Arizona area to take care of some business for a couple of days. He headed back to Slab City yesterday afternoon…

This is only the second time I have ever parked at this location…the other time was when I had just started full-time RVing back in January, 1996. I remember that time vividly because a violent wind of about 60 miles an hour created an awesome dust storm…my first experience with that kind of activity. The sand blasted the side of my then travel trailer and I thought it was going to blast the decals off! I remember looking out of the window expecting Lawrence of Arabia to come riding by! Fortunately…no sand storm this time.

Here’s a panorama looking due West…

Here’s another panorama looking due East with Pilot Knob in the background…

Finally here’s a fun perspective photo…

I spent only one night here as this morning at 9:00 AM I’ll be entering a nearby RV park for a four night stay. I’ll meet Mary at the Yuma, Arizona Airport about 12 miles distant this afternoon.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Back Into The Harsh Mid-Day Sun…

Yesterday Mary and I once again took our new Sony DSC HX5V Digital Cameras on another hour-long test photo shoot in our campground. The day before yesterday we set the cameras on Intelligent Auto Adjustment and yesterday we set them to the Program mode. This setting takes three photos of one shot…one slightly overexposed…one at normal and a third slightly underexposed. You would use this setting when in an unusual location where you wanted to be sure you came away with at least one good photo. Some of the photos received minor cropping…other than that…they are just as the camera took them…

All in all…I’m most pleased with my new Sony DSC HX5v Digital Camera.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://lulu.com/panamaorbust