A Trail in Two Deserts

"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady." Did you ever wonder what happened after London Bridge fell down? This particular bridge was built in 1831 and probably is not the most famous of London's Bridges but it came from London and spanned The Thames River. By 1962 it was no longer strong enough for modern traffic and was dismantled by 1967. A US land developer thought that London Bridge was just what his project needed so the pieces were catalogued and some of it was shipped to Arizona where it was rebuilt in Lake Havasu City. Lake Havasu is created by impounding water from the Colorado River and makes a beautiful oasis in Aridzona. London Bridge makes a great tourist attraction. We visited this lovely place last winter for a balloon festival, a great setting for such an activity and we hope to come again for this year's festivities.

We were on the road at 6:30 AM, awoke to a morning temperature of about 78 F. We haven't it that cool in quite some time. We had a nice drive along the river to Lake Havasu and shortly thereafter we crossed the border into California. We paid $3.40 per gallon for gas just before crossing the border and dread buying gas in CA because we expect prices much closer to $4.00.

Most of the day today and yesterday was spent crossing endless miles of desert without much inhabitation. We started in the Sonoran Desert and today we were in the Mojave Desert. Two deserts and yet each is unique.

"A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than 10 in per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation."

Some information on the Sonoran Desert can be found at http://www.art-design.umich.edu/ecoexplorers/sonorandesert/home.aboutsonoran.html. If you happen to see a tall, multi-armed cactus called a Saguaro, you are in the Sonoran Desert!

Here are some facts about the Mojave Desert: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Mojave_Desert.aspxe . If someone says look at the Joshua Tree, you are in the Mojave, the only place they exist. The Mojave is also noted for Edwards Air Force Base where many of our Astronauts got their early training. Mojave Airport is famed for being the storage ground for many, idle commercial transport aircraft. Many of them are referred to as "white tails", they came off the line without a buyer and were placed into storage until they could be sold. What better place than a dry desert area where they can be parked outside with a minimum of maintenance!

Before we reached Mojave we passed Boron, CA, the site of the world's largest open pit borax mine. This mine produces about half of the world's supply of borates. Borax originally was found in Death Valley and some of us can remember 20 mule team wagon trains used to haul the ore. Later, larger and richer deposits were found here in Boron.

We turned north from Mojave and headed up the Tehachapi Valley. Route 58 winds through a beautiful canyon and climbs up and out of the Mojave. Tehachapi is renowned for the winds that blow constantly and this area has five thousand wind turbines located on the ridges above the road. Most were spinning briskly as we climbed our way out of the desert and down into The Central Valley of California . There are approximately 15000 wind turbines in California and together they generate just 1% of the State's electrical power needs! While on the subject of wind, we encountered a rogue gust that caused our coach to veer sharply in spite of a firm hand on the wheel and a fast reaction to the wind. It was the worst we have ever encountered. Fortunately we were all alone on the road at the time. We were tempted to get off the highway if we had any further evidence of such activity! One gust was enough!

The pictures I found on the net.