Day 23 - Tuesday, Sept 25 - San Diego to Lordsburg, NM
Starting mileage: 4751 Starting time: 9:00 am
Ending mileage: 5305 Ending time: 6:30 pm
Travel mileage: 554 Travel time: 8:30 hours (lost an hour due to time change)
On the road again! We had a great visit with Amy and Anna over the last 6 days. Did some fun things and had lots of great food.
After passing over the Tecate Divide about halfway across California, it became much hotter and dryer the rest of the way across California, Arizona and into New Mexico. The temperature ranged from 90 to 102 degrees when we stopped for lunch in Gila Bend, AZ.
In eastern CA there are a number of large wind farms and a large PV solar installation. We noticed that there was a lot of dust/sand on the solar collectors and wondered how much that affected efficiency and if there was a process to clean them off. Near Gila Bend we saw the Solana solar power plant that uses parabolic reflectors to heat a liquid salt that is stored in huge tanks that can later be used to create steam to run an electric turbine - very interesting.
It is quite amazing to be going across the desert and all of a sudden come across deep green fields of hay and other produce that is being grown with irrigation. In a number of places we saw the irrigation water being sprayed up in the air to water fields. It seemed incongruous when we were passing through sand dunes just before Yuma, AZ to see the All American Canal with beautiful blue water alongside the sand. We passed some cattle feed lots that must have had thousands of cattle that must have been using the locally-produced hay as feed.
In a number of places in the west, there are these strange piles or small hills of huge smoothly worn boulders. There are many in Joshua Tree National Park and we passed through some at a rest area where we switched drivers. One description we read explained that they are worn down underground by water that is passing down and as the surface is eroded, they are exposed. It is hard to imagine how this can occur.
Much of our travel was through flat desert valleys/plains but there are always mountains not far away to the side and in front.
We are staying in Lordsburg, NM, a small town about 20 miles from the Arizona border.
Ending mileage: 5305 Ending time: 6:30 pm
Travel mileage: 554 Travel time: 8:30 hours (lost an hour due to time change)
On the road again! We had a great visit with Amy and Anna over the last 6 days. Did some fun things and had lots of great food.
After passing over the Tecate Divide about halfway across California, it became much hotter and dryer the rest of the way across California, Arizona and into New Mexico. The temperature ranged from 90 to 102 degrees when we stopped for lunch in Gila Bend, AZ.
In eastern CA there are a number of large wind farms and a large PV solar installation. We noticed that there was a lot of dust/sand on the solar collectors and wondered how much that affected efficiency and if there was a process to clean them off. Near Gila Bend we saw the Solana solar power plant that uses parabolic reflectors to heat a liquid salt that is stored in huge tanks that can later be used to create steam to run an electric turbine - very interesting.
It is quite amazing to be going across the desert and all of a sudden come across deep green fields of hay and other produce that is being grown with irrigation. In a number of places we saw the irrigation water being sprayed up in the air to water fields. It seemed incongruous when we were passing through sand dunes just before Yuma, AZ to see the All American Canal with beautiful blue water alongside the sand. We passed some cattle feed lots that must have had thousands of cattle that must have been using the locally-produced hay as feed.
In a number of places in the west, there are these strange piles or small hills of huge smoothly worn boulders. There are many in Joshua Tree National Park and we passed through some at a rest area where we switched drivers. One description we read explained that they are worn down underground by water that is passing down and as the surface is eroded, they are exposed. It is hard to imagine how this can occur.
Much of our travel was through flat desert valleys/plains but there are always mountains not far away to the side and in front.
We are staying in Lordsburg, NM, a small town about 20 miles from the Arizona border.
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| Day 23 map |
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| Saying goodbye to the 4-footed girls - Bella and Farrah |
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| Irrigation canal through the desert |
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| Strange jumble of smooth boulders |
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