YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU WILL SEE IN THE DESERT

By now you know we arrived safely in Modesto.  It was another long day on the road, but the weather was good and we didn’t have much traffic until we hit Bakersfield and the cities north. 

California Fruit & Vegetable Inspection Station

Once we crossed the Colorado River, we had to make a mandatory stop at the Inspection Station.  All vehicles entering the state must stop and be inspected for any food coming into California.  California has some very strict laws regarding the entry of fruits, vegetables and certain products into the state.  The reason for this, California grows about 70-80% of the fruits and vegetables in the United States.  In order to ensure that the plants are not attacked by bugs and diseases, they must control what produce comes into the state.  We had an apple and an orange in the car.  The inspector took a look at them and said they had been purchased in Washington State and we could keep them.  Washington State has some of the same regulations regarding food entry as does California. 

Joshua Tree

The landscape of California is very diverse – from the Mojave Desert which we crossed coming into California; to oceans and beaches in the west of the state; to forests, mountains and valleys spread throughout.   The Mojave Desert which welcomed us to the state is home to many different plants, trees, and cacti.  Did you know there over 2,000 of kinds of cacti, maybe as many as 6,000 kinds, that come in all different shapes and sizes?  One of the most famous trees in the Mojave Desert, and found mainly in this desert, is the Joshua Tree.  You can see the Joshua Tree and some of these unique plants in the pictures. 

    Cactus in

    the Desert









I know it’s before your time, but have you ever heard of the TV show “Wagon Train?”  Ask your grandparents or your teachers if they have heard of it.  Ask them if they remember the company that sponsored the TV show and their commercials.  The sponsor was 20 Mule Team Borax (a laundry product) and the commercials included the Twenty Mule Team.  Boron, CA is the home of the world’s largest borax mine.  The mule teams were used to move the mined borax out of the valley to the closest railroad.  Today this soap product is made by Dial Corporation.  Have you ever used Dial soap? 

20 Mule Team



Solar Power Farm - Much, much larger than it looks



As seen in previous posts, the desert is home to a variety of energy sources and projects.  The Mojave Desert is home to several huge thermal energy power plants.  The plant in the picture is located near Barstow, CA.  While I cannot confirm the name of this facility, I believe it to be the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, the world’s largest solar-thermal power plant project currently under construction.  Besides thermal energy projects, again we find the wind turbines all across the mountains.  You have a sense of the size of these wind turbines at the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm, located near Edwards Air Force Base, because the road passes right near them.   Previously, the turbines looked small because the road we traveled was so far away from them.    



Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm







Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm







Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), located in the desert, is part of country’s military.  As part of the US Air Force Materiel Command, Edwards provides direct support to military operations by developing and transitioning new technology; testing and evaluating new equipment with a major focus on aircraft and weapons systems, and for sustaining all the Air Force systems.   While primarily an air force base, it plays host to other U.S. military services that support or partner on air force projects.   Of major interest is the fact that the base was an alternate landing site for the space shuttles; Columbia, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor all made landings here.  The base is situated on dry lake beds, a lake that has no water in it during the dry seasons.  Per Wikipedia, Edwards has two dry lakes, Rogers and Rosamond, and these have served as emergency and scheduled landing sites for many aerospace projects including the space shuttles.



Planes on the Tarmac at Edwards Air Force Base

I seem to be having technical difficulties today.  Nothing seems to be posting correctly.  There is so much to tell you about California, or maybe I’m just getting better at posting, that I’m going to break this into two posts.  So I will leave you today wandering around the Tehachapi Pass and pick you up tomorrow where we will finish the California leg of our journey when we pull into Modesto.