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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Parked For Four Days

321 miles.  Another longish day's drive, but the end is the reward.  Tonight we're at Edwards Air Force Base FamCamp.  Out in the California high desert, where the Air Force tests new planes and the space shuttles used to land when Cape Canaveral weather was bad.  If you ever saw the movie "The Right Stuff",  much of the story took place here.

We're looking forward to some rest, some fun and some money saving food shopping here on the base.

We pulled in to the campground and we were met by the host.  He told us that the price was $15 a night.  Then he saw that we were Coast Guard so he upped the price to $25.  He said he was retired Air Force and was trying to keep the "riff-raff" out of the base.  I told him that he should be paying me because we added class to the base.  It's always fun to trade jokes and poke fun at other services. :c)

Driving down I-5 and across  Route 58, we saw many signs put up by farmers protesting a decision by the EPA concerning a potential endangered species of fish that could be harmed by the irrigation waters feeding the farms.  So the solution the EPA came up with was to turn off the irrigation waters to the farmland.  This ended up having farms shut down or having to reduce the size of their crops due to no water.  It has cost the area over 40,000 jobs lost.  I don't know what to think, I'm not informed enough of all the issues to have an opinion, but it was sad to see mile after mile of farmland laying unused, and many pieces of farm equipment laid up.

We fueled up at Flying J and were pleasantly surprised in how little fuel we needed to top off the Journey's tank.  The previous drive where we got 8.8 mpg sure helped the wallet feel better.  Today, driving over some very big mountains did reduce our overall mpg, but that's the way things happen on the road.

The mountains had hundreds of windmills turning, generating electricity.  There were 3 sizes, small, medium and large ones spinning away.  Glad to see the renewable energy at work.  Not happy to feel the headwind they generated...

Once again, we have a very weak Internet signal, so no pictures tonight.  We are even having a hard time getting on line, so if we miss a few days posting, we're okay and have not driven the Journey off a cliff somewhere.

 If we can find a free WiFi location, we'll have some pictures next time around.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

12 comments:

  1. Longish day??? Hopefully someday that will be a super long day for you.

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  2. I'm with Sandie on that one. It would probably have been a two day trip for me. :)

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  3. You guys don't have an Android or IPhone that you could tether to your computers for internet service?

    It works really well. . .as well as an aircard!

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  4. I was going to ask the same sort of thing, who is your internet provider? I want to be prepared when I get out there to your neck of the woods.

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  5. Check with the Camp Host, he should beable to tell you where the wifi hotspot are on base. Useually the library and BX Food Court are good spots.

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  6. Glad to hear you are taking a little rest. We worry that you may be overdoing your retirement;o)) You want to be at your best when you meet your blogger friends!!

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  7. Well, 321 miles sounds like a good day's drive. Now it's time to rest up and enjoy yourself a bit. That's what retirement is all about.

    We saw the same signs as we drove through California. They were posted by dried out fields where crops used to be.

    Enjoy your rest.

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  8. Hey! Ron was in the Air Force. Unfortunately, only for four years, so no FamCamps for us. You're only a hop, skip and jump away now.

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  9. we've done days like that...sometimes you just wanna 'get' there...now be sure to REST!!!!!

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  10. enjoy the four days of rest!!..remember you are retired..no rush to get anywhere!!

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  11. Though this trip was for a long time. Really you guys has enjoyed lot. Thanks for posting beautiful moments at the time of trip.
    Electric Powered Pocket Bikes

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