Wednesday, October 27, 2010

At 6:30 A.M. the cell phone rang.  It was our son, Eric, calling (9:30 A.M. Atlanta time) to say that Connie’s Face Book account has been compromised.  Someone hacked into it, and they went into Connie’s chat room and said that we had been robbed in London and needed money immediately. DO NOT CHAT WITH HER UNTIL SHE GIVES YOU THE OK! Just so you know, we are in California and if we have been robbed, it was at the gas pump.  Needless to say that got Connie’s day off to a fast start.  She went from sound asleep to bright-eyed and on the laptop.  She’s working to resolve the problem and wanted to tell all her “friends” that she might not be on FB for a while, but she will be back.  Wow! Can you imagine not being on FB? 

We visited Joshua Tree National Park later in the morning.  This park is 794,000 acres of desert.  Half of this is the Mojave Desert, above 3,000 ft. and half is the Colorado Desert, below 3,000 ft.  The park is ‘as advertised,’ covered with Joshua trees, it also has many flora and fauna unique to the high-plains desert.  The park was declared a national monument in 1936 by FDR and in Clinton’s presidency, 1994, it was renamed a national park.  One of the interesting features of the park is that from Keys View (5,185 ft.) you can see the San Andreas Fault.  You can also see Palm Springs (150 ft. elevation) and I 10.

Connie is standing beside the park’s namesake, a Joshua tree.  The visitor center that we went to was in the town of Joshua Tree.  It was in the same building as a donut and coffee shop - that was a first.  Usually the visitor centers are very impressive but not this one.

Below is the general topography of the park.  Notice the Yucca plants in the foreground.

The photo on the left is signed as the Mojave Desert.  To the right is the vista from Keys View. 

Today was an easy day.  We visited the park and were back to the MH by mid-afternoon.  I think we’re going to be heading directly to South Texas and get settled in at Victoria Palms.  Let winter begin!