3 January 10 - 10 January 10

One thing I saw in CA I forgot to mention – cameras on stop lights. They have found this new revenue stream that doesn't cost much. The ticket is mailed to you with a bill for $590. One town issued over 25,000 tickets in one month. No new taxes in that town.

Sunday afternoon in Tulare was spent looking at things growing. In one 4.5 mile stretch we saw over fourteen dairies each with over a 1000 cows milked at each one. Can you imagine the cheese they make. Kraft has a cheddar cheese plant in town along with another small coop producer.

It was a short trip from Tulare to Indio CA, but the first 80 miles had fog with visibility of less than a quarter mile most of the time. Anybody that has driven in CA tulle fog would understand what I'm talking about. Once we arrived at the peak of the mountains the sun was shining and the pace picked up. It was a five hour trip made longer by the fog. We will only be in Indio two nights before we go to Mesa AZ.

We did get down to Salton Sea and saw what grows in the desert if you give it enough water. The sea looked like it was dead. Dead fish on the beach and the beach was a really small shell – no sand. The day we left we saw what we thought was a Roadrunner – we couldn't find Wiley to ask him for sure. No pictures.

Arrived in Mesa where we are in a gated community – only old folks. Do you like your neighbors – we have them way to close. I had a garden bigger than what we have for motor home and car. The trip was desert – can you say Mojave. I told Pastor I saw the piece of property he needed – 210 acres DIRT CHEAP.

On our first day here it was replenish time. Look out Walmart. The we mode a trip about 60 – 70 miles from town that was supposed to have a number of birds. What a disappointment but as you will see in the pictures it was also a delight to watch Grey Foxes around the picnic table. We visited old Indian ruins that had some interesting history. Pre WWII the water table in that area of the desert was at 15' while mass production farming has lowered it to over 150'. What are we doing to God's land?

Pictures are:
Dairy in Tulare
Shells that are beach
Broccoli
Grey Fox
Mesa sunset