Touring around our winter headquarters at Coachella Valley

Thursday, November 19, 2015

The view from our window where we live for the winter.

Some of the birds here for the winter, white pelicans, cormorants, Greebs, lots more.

We have learned that the entire Coachella Valley was once an inland sea, a northwest arm of the Gulf of California. Later, fed by the Colorado River, it was repeatedly flooded, creating a huge inland, fresh-water, lake. Shells from saltwater and fresh-water creatures are easily found around the valley and the ancient shoreline watermarks (bathtub rings) can be readily seen on the mountainsides. (Fact is stranger than fiction and Mother Nature makes strange facts!)

Today, we see the valley as a Colorado-Desert garden-spot, thanks to the irrigation from wells and the Colorado River. In the early days of California State, the place was   the dreaded Salton Sink, nemesis of many an early overland traveler. The valley slopes down to the Mexican border, creating the largest below-sea-level area in our country. Thanks to irrigation, the early developers renamed the Salton Sink to the Coachella Valley and the Imperial Valley, attracting settlers from all quarters. Today, we are amazed that this Salton Sink has become the playground of the “rich and famous” AND one of the most productive agricultural valleys in southern California.

From our site, we can see the valley from Indian Wells, Desert Hot Springs, La Quinta, Indio, Coachella, Thermal, and down to the Salton Sea. At night, the unexpected sea of lights, viewed from our site, is awesome. Curiously, regardless of the valley of lights, we can still enjoy some exceptional star-gazing in the cool, clear night air.

We wish all of our beloved family and friends a very blessed and enjoyable Thanksgiving 2015! As we spend our winter at gorgeous La Quinta, California, we persistently have affectionate thoughts of our cherished family and friends, in our hearts and minds, so please keep US in your hearts and minds too? We are fortunate to have your love and support in our “retirement adventures” and we are enjoying every minute of it. Of course, we absolutely delight in having visitors, so don’t miss a chance to visit us at Riverside County- Lake Cahuilla Regional Park, at La Quinta, in the great Coachella Valley.

Hugs to all!

Bob and Terry

Things to do list:

Empire Polo Club Polo Sunday 1-3/4-3 noon and 2pm $10

El Dorado Polo Club Sundays 1-10/4-3 $10

We never cease learning, with our latest geography lesson being that; the Coachella and Imperial Valley both lie in the Colorado Desert, a sub-division of the Sonoran Desert. We have travelled all over the Mohave Desert but never realized that its southern boundary is just north of the Coachella Valley and includes the Joshua Tree National Park. There’s a striking difference between the Mohave and Sonoran Deserts, concerning geography, flora, fauna, climate, minerals, and accessibility.

In the Spring of 1942, the 162-thousand-square-mile Desert Training Center, just east of Indio, was opened, under the command of General Patton, for training US (Armored Tank) soldiers to serve in North Africa. (I think that the DTC was situated, straddling both deserts.) It closed in 1944, having successfully completed its mission. Americans from the entire country trained here. (Do you know of anyone who trained here?) Another interesting fact is that; Calcite crystals, for the WW II, Norden bombsite, were mined at Anza Borrego Desert, another section of the Sonoran.

Friday, November 27, 2015

We took an overnight trip down the valley to the Salton Sea and the Imperial Valley. We passed by the Salton Sea on the west side (CA 86) and drove on down to El Centro, just north of the Mexico border. There’s an obvious presence of the US Border Patrol in this area. The Border Patrol uses the pistol range at Lake Cahuilla and they practice shooting more that the Sheriff’s Department So far, we haven’t heard of the US Border Patrol being involved in any questionable shootings.

This leg of our trip was a busy route with numerous winter “snowbird” residents around the lake towns, and loads of off-road vehicle riders, scrambling about the sand dunes and washes around the lake. We were surprised to see women and seniors riding the ATVs around the area. The riders roar about the dunes and washes and also ride into the towns to grab a burger and refreshments. Quite a site and a huge activity for visitors here. The scenery and sunset were nice and we were glad to get dinner and a comfortable motel, on a cool night in El Centro. Just like the Coachella Valley, Salton Sea and Imperial Valley are contained (surrounded) by mountains that abruptly rise around the valley floor. This makes for a late sunrise and early sunset.

View from shore at Salton Sea.  Lots of white and brown pelicans and many more birds.

Instead of sand the shore is all shells mainly barnacles!  No sand!

Today, we drove up the Imperial Valley and Imperial County, then along the east side of Salton Sea (CA 111). This, my first visit to the Imperial Valley brought back memories of my Uncle Joe’s 1950’s description of the valley, a desert-garden watered by the Colorado River. Also, I remember those colorful produce labels that came on some Imperial Valley products and how, as a child, those pictures told me a story about the wonderful farm-life in the Imperial Valley. Lovely scenery, happy ethnic people and neat rows of green produce extending to the purple mountains. Now, I know that the Imperial Valley is a lot like the Mississippi Delta and other large agricultural areas. Mainly, weathered farms with every piece of equipment, ever owned, (old and new/junk and state-of-the-art) sitting out around the farmsteads, on multi-million dollar farms.

Other curious observations in the Imperial Valley were;

-Referencing the California Dept of Ag before traveling to Imperial Valley, we discovered that cattle are the number one revenue in the valley. With thousands of acres in produce this seemed strange. Strangely, Beef cattle IS the number one crop in the valley. You see a lot of alfalfa and grass hay(corn comes by rail) produced but the cattle are inconspicuously concentrated into feed lots. We saw Superior Cattle Feeders at Calipatria, with a lot capacity of 80,000 head, specializing in cheap Holstein steers (dairy farm rejects) under 20-months old. They feed them out and slaughter them down the road at their Brawley plant, producing high revenue (lower quality) beef products. They export lots of beef to Japan so I guess the Japanese can take tough, not-prime beef and make it tasty.

-In conjunction with the huge feed lots, Citrate Manure Power Plant processes and burns feed-lot cow manure, making electricity. They also sell the ash byproduct to asphalt manufacturers and geothermal well drillers. We were surprised that cattle was number one in Imperial Valley but thanks to a low-visibility, integrated operation, we now see why.

-Speaking of electricity, there are numerous geothermal facilities, producing electricity in the Imperial Valley, along the San Andreas Fault. Using deep injection and production wells, they feed steam-turbine generation facilities. Ironically, ash from the Cow Manure Power Plants is used to corral toxic waste-spills from the geothermal production wells.

-We also observed a mountain of unrefined sugar, waiting to be refined at the Speckles beet Sugar plant in Brawley. Sugar beets are grown and processed in the valley into refined sugar. They plant in Sept. harvest in April and produce 40/tons beets per acre, yielding 14,000 pounds of sugar. Lots of the byproducts go to cattle feed for those huge feedlots.

- Produce crops rank next behind cattle.

It is fun making all the connections between these technological and high-tech operations. It always comes down to maximizing revenue by marketing every possible material, prime or byproduct, and sometimes creating markets through cooperation with your neighbors.

We did enjoy seeing the Imperial Valley and appreciate all the wonderful contributions that they make to the dinner table. Regardless of the roughness, smell, and dust of the ag operations, we are glad that we visited the Imperial Valley.

Along the eastern shore of Salton Sea we thoroughly enjoyed the birds, shoreline, mountain views, and a picnic under the shade of a beach ramada. The beach sand was composed of Barnacle shells. We were surprised to learn that barnacles thrive in the Salton Sea and account for the shoreline material that resembles very coarse sand. Later, we strolled through their Native Plant Garden and identified the local desert plants. We also saw some fine specimens of California’s native Fan Palm. When left untrimmed, the Fan Palms, become large, shady habitat for all sorts of birds and animals.

The unparalleled 360-degree views of the Santa Rosa, Oracopia, and Chocolate Mountains make every morning sunrise and evening sunset an amazing event. Salton Sea, 332 feet below sea level, is a dead-sea, with increasing salt content but its name comes from the Salton Sink. Hopefully, with its critical importance to migratory birds on the Pacific flyway, the Salton Sea can be saved. We’re glad we visited Salton Sea AND the Imperial Valley.