Palm Desert To Acton, California

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

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Yesterday I drove the motorhome 138 miles from Palm Desert to Acton, California.

 

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…

 

 

 

I had an uneventful drive across the high desert…

 

 

 

 

Then arrived at Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon RV Resort…

 

 

 

 

My parking spot…

 

 

 

 

And the usual dinette window photo…

This was just an overnight stop. I’ll depart later this morning.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 

Recently I’ve been running blogs about my 2004 Central America trip. While here I’m intending to continue those postings while also alternating with other past blogs.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 79 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 81 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

I Really Love…

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

---

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort…about 20 miles east of Palm Springs, California.

 

I first posted this info in December, 2014…

 

I really love being in the Southwest during the Winter season.

 

First reason is the weather. While most of the nation is shivering…most days here from about 10 AM to 4 PM, I can be in shorts and tee-shirt.

 

Second reason is the spectacular scenery. A lot of folks consider the desert as barren. For those who know how and where to look, it’s quite spectacular!

 

Third reason is the spectacular sunrises and sunsets! I’ve seen many over the years. Here is last night’s sunset…

 

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…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently I’ve been running blogs about my 2004 Central America trip. While here I’m intending to continue those postings while also alternating with other past blogs.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 92 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 90 degrees. To danged hot!

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

CARAVANSERAI, SILK ROAD, WHIRLING DERVISHES

We enter Sultanhani Caravanserai through this beautiful carved marble entrance which faces East. This caravanserai was built in 1229. After a fire, it was restored and extended in 1278 and became the biggest  and best Caravanserai in Turkey.

Traveling the Silk Road, parts of it now preserved  in Turkey,  because of its historical importance, Usla knew I was excited about “…walking in the steps of Marco Polo.”  He’d point to a caravanserai from a distance. “There’s one!” I could never spot them because I was trying to see a huge desert area surrounded by trees, a source of water and many bedouin tents set up to show what it must have been like to travel across huge stretches of hot sand, and take refuge with camels laden with goods in a safe spot for the night. Instead we entered a huge courtyard, with winter rooms on the left and summer rooms on the right.

To the right of the entrance, are summer kiosks where the merchant put forth his goods. The arches to the right of the kiosks is a Turkish bath.  First, servants would come and unload the merchandise while the travelers bathed. The horses or camels were taken to a stable in the back of the building. To the immediate left of the entrance is a stairway leading to the top of the wall where guards patrolled. And huge rooms where the servants and travelers slept and had their meals and displayed their goods during winter months.

This painting shows what it was like, guards on the rim, travelers seeking refuge, not only merchants. The guards could signal with smoke signals from one caravanserai to another in the distance to know who was coming so they didn’t let in robbers who would lay in wait for a caravan and try to relieve them of their goods.

In the center is a small Mosque.

You entered the Mosque by this set of stairs, identical to the stairway leading up to the top of the walls.

The stables, a dark and foreboding place, lit by torch light and now electrified for tourists.

The rooms are now quite barren. Black smoked walls identify the kitchen area.

The cold marble does not exactly suggest comfort station to me. I think I’d prefer a tent.  I didn’t see the W.C.  But, according to others it is now a modern toilet unlike what it must have been with stone seats and a runnel. In my mind, I see Marco Polo, in awe of his surroundings as he traveled to China, and all over Asia, an epic 24 year journey, and back to Italy with Noodles, rugs, silks, porcelain, pearls, jade, jewels but most of all, a detailed history of the marvels of the world he visited.

We returned for dinner at our new hotel in Cappadocia, the Kapadokya Lykia Lodge. I swore I wasn’t going to picture another buffet, they are all so splendid, but this one outdid  the others. This is one wing of the salad bar. Behind you can see a long dessert bar. Thirty three different desserts and Owen managed seven of them before his dinner.

We enjoyed multiple choices from huge chafing dishes, or a vegetarian bar, and a breakfast bar, omelets made to order, etc. available all hours. Overwhelming choices.  But, enough.

Our evening optional tour brought us to another, smaller caravanserai to see the whirling dervishes. To the left is  gift shop. The place had beautiful paintings of caravanas.

You can see how much smaller this courtyard is from the big one we saw. It has a fountain in the middle.

Inside a staging area surrounded on three sides by seating. The musicians enter first, you see them at the back of the room. The dervishes are dressed in black like the guide. They allow no pictures during their ritual. After the ritual, they perform for a few minutes for the camera. No words are spoken. No announcements made. This is how they start, heads bowed, arms crossed.

 

They begin circling with eyes open.

They begin circling with their eyes closed.

They whirl with arms in an upright position, never letting them down for about 13 minutes. They return to rest position for five minutes and then begin again in a trance like state for another 13 minutes. Then they return to rest state.

Then they silently file out of the staging area the same way they entered. No words are spoken, no eye contact made. They do not discuss their ritual and what it means to them. Norman saw a Dervish Ritual in Iran and said they came out with swords clashing and whirling. It was a “show”. This ritual is said to be the real thing, very pure form, nothing flashy. I was astounded that anyone can keep their arms in the air, and whirl dizzily with eyes closed for 13 minutes, without falling over or resting their arms. A truly amazing feat. Very subdued, but amazing. I can’t hold my arms up in the air for two minutes. I was totally impressed.

 

 

ART LESSON

I love art and have always been a wanna-be artist. Pam at one time taught art and offered to give me two lessons. She said, pick a picture you like and I’ll teach you. I’m always attracted to paintings of people, so she suggested I choose from one of the homeless people pictures I took. I have a homeless brother and I tend to do that wherever I am.

I took two the day we were downtown Palms Springs, but, they make me sad. We considered could I turn my interest into a political statement by painting homeless people? No, the pictures make the statement. I want to paint something happy and beautiful.

I like my bird picture I took.

I thought the saxophonist made for a fairly simple people painting.

Among people photos, this is the one I liked best, the woman taking a picture of her friend modeling a hat.

Hedging the bet, I chose a simple desert scene as probably an easier place to start.

The night before my lesson she said think of the tree of life, your life. And see if you can look around and find 20 different shades of green.  I thought maybe I could do some palm trees and mountains. When in the desert paint desert pictures, that  kind of mentality that I’ve heard from various artists over the years.

She loaned me a book on color charts.

In my long ago past,  (early 60’s) I tried painting with oils and it was enjoyable, but not very successful. Recently, I tried a papier mache’ sculpture and couldn’t understand how to use acrylic paints and gave up and put the thing in a box.

After talking it over, she decided I should paint on a student canvas a person, not a tree, not a desert scene. We chose a picture of her’s of a little boy. He has a long way to go, but the palette board for acrylics is very different. The brushes, too. I learned gobs and came away energized. I’ll try and finish this painting today, or at least get it in better proportion. Not only did I get a lesson, but lunch.

Pam made this killer soup with mushrooms, peppers, chicken breast and fennel sausage with a small amount of noodles. Delish.

On a different note: In the morning,  Jim and I walked the park, looking to find my bike, both of us knowing that this is a park full of mature people, unlikely that we would find our bike lurking under someone’s canopy. It was our morning exercise anyway, and we learned from talking to people we met that bike theft is very common in this park, especially men’s bikes, which mine was. It seems, the thieves jump the fence, choose an unguarded bike, and ride out through the gate. The next weekend it will be for sale at a flea market. We went to find a White Sheet, (sales paper) but it didn’t list flea markets. We might try a regular newspaper today. But, I’ve mentally given up the idea that I might find that bike. There must be 300 in our park alone. And, another 70 parks like ours. It is probably a very lucrative business.

A DESERT OVERLOOK.

Jim drove us to a canyon overlook with miles and miles of desert at a place he holds dear. He spent time here with the WINS, a singles group that would gather the wagons, so to speak, and light a huge bonfire and enjoy the beautiful skies, the peace the quiet and serenity that you find in special places.

He and others from the group would 4-wheel among the hillocks on the shallow canyon floor and to me it is just a desecration of nature. I don’t appreciate the tracks or dust of such a sport, so while he looked fondly, I walked the canyon rim looking for pretty rocks and taking pictures.

What is nice about places like this, right off the California highway S 22, is there are multiple spots anyone can pull over to enjoy the views. Each canyon will be different. The Salton Sea is visible in the background, but barely since it was slightly hazy on this day.

The light doesn’t do its magic as the sun moves across the crags and fissures as it does in the Grand Canyon, but these small, canyons have an appeal of their own. It surprised me that we didn’t see a lizard, a bird or anything alive. I’m sure they exist, but not to any excess.

Had we had time, I think hiking the canyons would be interesting. The pictures are better in a full screen slide-show. I took 39 of them, if you’d like to see them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/201424TheOverlook

I like that our lifestyle allows us to seek out places like this and enjoy  dinner with a view. As night clamped down, the haze prevented any stars from showing. I got up twice during the night to see if it cleared, but only a sliver of a moon peeked through a gray haze.

Before light the next morning, some bright stars were out along with a heavy wind. I set my camera for night scene, but it just isn’t good enough to capture a star.

The Overlook…

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the 65 miles from Slab City to The Overlook about 8 miles west of Salton City, California. We’ll move on later this morning.

In yesterday’s blog entry, I noted that my friend Leo was missing from where I expected to find him. Later yesterday morning I talked to him on the phone and he is okay. He decided to leave early to return to his home in Salem, Oregon.

Yesterday was a sunny day at 66 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 67 degrees.

The below Google Earth image identifies our relative locations near the Salton Sea in southeastern California. We spent Monday night at Slab City indicated by the S. Last night at The Overlook indicated by the O. Tonight we will be at Thousand Trails RV Resort in Palm Desert indicated by the X…

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…

You can read all about the Salton Sea by clicking this link… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_sea

From Salton City on the western shore of the Salton Sea you head west on State Route S22 for about 8 miles…

I’ve camped at The Overlook a number of times. It’s been about 7 years since I’ve been here. Here are some of the photos that I took…

Finally the usual dinette window photo…

With our increased elevation I was able to get some photos on the morning sunrise…

The Overlook is a neat place. Besides the beautiful scenery, the quietness is almost deafening and the night-time sky is spectacular.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 500 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2014