UPSTREAM

Upstream from our campsite.

BIRD SANCUARY

This dove, seeking shelter from the storm, roosted outside our bedroom window, under an awning.

MAIN ST.

Ussualy a dusty road going by our campsite, now a paved river.

WHAT'S DOWN WIF THE BREHMS, 6 FEB, 2011

SUPERBOWL PARTY AT OUR RIG

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY at the SILLY SALTON SEA

We bring tidings from downtown Salton City, Garden swamp of the desert. Today is a hotty, temps is about 84 degrees at 2:30 pm, Super Bowl Day. The week has been a weather cycle of all 4 seasons in a single week. From freezing and high winds to hot with pleasant breezes. This has been an exciting week. Diane's birthday, she turned 49 again and our friends here all treated her well. This is also the big "Fly In Week", with ultra-lights and paraplanes taking off, landing, and doing touch and go's. Lots of color up there. Sunsets and sunrises continue to be spectacular, and today, the whole group is coming over to our rig to eat, drink, and watch the Packers and the Steelers. Hope you are all enjoying the later days of winter (we can still see snow in the mountains from our rig). Hope your team wins the game and you continue to live every minute of your life..We should be back in San Diego in a couple of weeks. Love, Rocky & Flora.............

DON'T TAKE ANY WOODEN PELICANS

PREVIOUSELY OWNED PARAPLANES FOR SALE

Own your own flying machine. $16,000-$20,000.

SALTON SEA AIRFORCE

Half a dozen paraplanes lined up for take-off.

PARAPLANE POWEPLANT

All of the engines I saw were "ROTAX" brand. They come in 2 and 4 cycle, water or air cooled with twin carburation. 2 cycle engines require complete top end rebuild every 500 hours, but appear to be very dependable.

PARAPLANE

You are looking at the sound end of a northbound paraplane. These things are pretty high tech for a toy. 30 MPH, 41/2 hous of flight time, on grounf variable pitch props, and a parawing that inflates when the prop spins.

ROSSIE

Ross is the family dog, he is an "Aussioty", half Australian cattle dog and half California Coyote. We have had him since he was a pup. He will be 19 years old in June. Still a happy camper...

"SATCHMO"

The family cat, Satchmo, 20+ pounds of mischief. He thinks the bathroom sink is his nest.

"OLD GLORY"

The Flag always flies when we are camped.

WHAT'S DOWN AS OF 23, JAN. 2011

GREETINGS FROM THE LIZARDS AT QUARTZITE

Hope everybody out there in the real world is having a wonderful time. It's been a pretty good week for us, we saw lawn furniture, barbecues, and Hawaiian shirts on sale at Costco, so we know Spring is on the way. Had a great week with our friends at Johnson's Landing, even had a couple of decent golf games. On Friday, we took off for Quartzite for the annual RV and Rockhound fiesta. Quartzite goes from a quiet little village to a tent covered metropolis overnight. Kind of a mixture of a huge RV rally, Oktoberfest, rock concert and dry camp at the same place and time.

We took delivery of our new/used Jeep Grand Cherokee in Ehrenberg, AZ. Diane enlisted forceful help in motivating me to invest in a more reliable tow/off road vehicle. So, here we are.

Tomorrow, we head back to Salton City to rejoin the gang there for a few weeks, then off to Pio Pico again. Hope you are all doing well, and recovered from the Holidays. Till next update..........

Love, Harry & Nancy.

FULL MOON IN THE DESERT

Before leaving Salton Sea, we were blessed with a

magnificent full moon over the Sea, Indio & Palm Springs. Moon shadows in the desert can be somewhat spooky.

BOX CANYON SHORTCUT

On our trip from Salton Sea to Quartzite, we took

a strawberry shortcut through the "Bad Lands".

Sure glad we did. Weaving in and out of these

barren mud hills was very scenic, and although

it lasted for about 80 miles, we only saw two

other vehicles on the whole trip.

MORE BOX CANYON TRAIL

Exciting trip, 80 miles in a 40 foot motorhome. Lord Love a Duck!

DOWNTOWN CHAOSITE (QUARTSITE)

Nutz! Yea, this place gets nutz the last couple of

weeks of January every year. Kind of like Sturgis

is for the bikers, Quartsite is to the RVers. The

desert is wall to wall RVs, many time clumped according to brand or type. There is a huge tent,

similar in size to the Oktoberfest tents in Munich. It is filled with hundreds of vendors peddling every conceivable gadget for your RV.

HAPPY HOUR IN QUARSITE

Some things are just inescapable! Seems like no matter where we are, as the sun settles in the West, Happy Hour appears out of nowhere accompanied by lots of good friends. It happened again here.

FIRE IN THE DESERT SKY

Sometimes the weather, the sun, the wind and the

clouds form the perfect natural mural in the desert.

We were blessed with just such an occasion last

night.

Our new old Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland

Diane finally convinced me that we should invest in a more reliable tow car. The good old Blazer will be retired to the playground, and the Jeep will be our new tow and touring vehicle.

Saguaro at Sunset

The desert just never fails to provide a beautiful picture, especially at sunrise and sunset.

SALTON SEA CHRONICLES, 2011

HERE'S WHAT'S DOWN WITH THE BREHMS AS OF 1/8/11

Greetings, salutations, and happy new year from the West Shore RV Resort, at Johnson's Landing, Salton City CA. We left Pio Pico on 1/6/11 to join our friends at Salton Sea, that we meet up every January. Really nice folks! Beside the fun of the company of these dozen or so friends, we also love the desert scenery, the desert golf, the off-roading, and the occasional trips to civilization. Indio, Westmoreland, Palm Springs and El Centro are just a short hop away. Next week we will attend the FMCA Rally in Indio and a couple of weeks later, we will join the mad assemblage of RVers at Quartzite, AZ. then back here to Johnson's Landing. If you are out in the desert in Jan. or the first half of Feb., please stop in for a visit. We'd love to entertain you.

We wish you a healthy, happy, and stimulating 2011. We count you among our blessings.

Love and God Bless....................Willy & Lobo.................

SALT, SEA, AND MOUNTAINS

Looking from the West Shore to the East shore. The chloride
content of the water and the deposits on the shores soak into
almost everything, and gives the appearance of pillars of salt.
Old pilings sticking out of the water look like shafts of salt.

THE SALTON WATER BIRDS

Are they water fowl, or Water foul? In spite of the polluted seawater, the birds remain
abundant. This picture is shot from the Northwest toward the Southeast.

PREHISTORIC LAUNCHING RAMP

Thirty years ago, Salton Sea, and Salton City specifically, was a planned resort. There were
housing developments, a real estate boom, hotels, even a yacht club. Fishing, water skiing,
and recreational boating. Today, after years of polluting the sea with chemical runoff from
the adjacent agricultural farms, it is pretty much the "Dead Sea". Just a bunch of hard core
desert rats remain in the areas.

GOLF COURSE PROS

Within walking distance of our camp, is a nice little
9 hole desert golf course. The "T"s and greens are
grass, everything else is desert landscape. Green fees
are very cheap. Payment is on the honor system. Clubs
and carts can be borrowed from the unmanned clubhouse.
Posing here for the presentation of their Green Blazers,
Glen, Roger, and Bill.

THE "GANG"

What a fun bunch of folks. From left to right, Radar, Jim, Grace, Diane, Maxine, Glen, Sandy
Roger, and Marge.

EXQUISITE REORT CAMPING

Here lies the very exclusive real estate staked out by our little party so far, (more coming)
From the left, Bill and Nadine, Jim and Maxine, Glen and Grace, Roger and Sandy & Ray and
Diane. Across the trail is Bill, and Don and Marge.

SUNSET AT THE "SEA"

We forgot just how beautiful the days end out
here in the desert. This was a little before 5:00 pm.