Monument to Julian

24th JUNE

A drive today across variety of desert landscapes mostly inhospitable and with an occasional shack or two purporting to be a settlement and every now and then, once, a town existing for no apparent reason in the middle of nowhere. The roads 163 to 160 to 89 after Tuba city finally crossed our outward path at the junction of the 160 with the 89 which we had followed up north. The next 16miles south bought us back to Cameron Trading Post where we spent further time browsing and less money than our last visit. Still blisteringly hot here.

A good time to talk deserts and the like. The desert t areas which I have been describing as vast are indeed large covering part of California and stretching into four other states eastwards. This area amounts to approximately 500,000 square miles that is double the size of England, Scotland and Wales. An area 90% unoccupied and probably 90% of that totally uninhabitable. Leaving say a possible 10% that could be reclaimed with Massive irrigation schemes and long term strategies. Not exactly the most populous are of the USA and I suppose not the area to draw main conclusions about America, but one does!

Anyway, Cameron back to Flagstaff an uphill drive of 50 odd miles to cooler climes at I think round 6000ft. We like Flagstaff having found the Centre of the old town, about 4 blocks square on our last visit and having driven a lot recently we stayed two nights at the Fort Tuthill forestry site where we had previously camped. A Basic site but quiet.

Flagstaff library had some 30 computers, free use, plus plug in positions for individual lap top connections and free WI FI, not bad for a local library. The library was modern large and of a standard far exceeding any British library I have been in, wandering around the sections showed a huge variety and depth of books on any subject you could choose.

Out of context again and back to fires, The Rockie fire has closed the Rockie park to all and just south the Colorado Springs Fires have caused catastrophe with Lat Monday 32,000 people evacuated and 180 properties destroyed and the fire 0% contained, I will check up at our next Internet connection what the current situation holds.

JUNE 26th Flagstaff onwards

Taking the 89A known as the alternative 89 we waltzed gaily down or up and down a road which said prohibited anything over 40ft, we're well under that. A lovely road with major hills and turns and again incredible variety of scenery, from leafy gorges, called canyons, to desert mountain and of course back down again. Few towns of note but Sedona, centre of mysticism for some reason, looked awful others averagely bad. The road up and through Jerome almost beggars description I have never seen let alone driven anything like it.

Jerome, an old uranium mining town is built on the side of a mountain and it is said to have 250 miles of mine shafts and tunnels winding away beneath it. The town or parts of it apparently moves downhill at about 5 inches per year, the old court house there but now closed is 250" from where it was first built. There are theodolite markers and marks everywhere.

The road hairpins through the narrowest of streets with houses overhanging from the front and the same houses overhanging from the back as you turn a hairpin but now the site 4 or 5 storeys high and look as if they are about to collapse, some have. There are about six hairpin streets of this, it must all collapse and close one day. The road continues it's mountainous way to a town called Prescott described as a little Victorian gem in the guide book, total rubbish, it was a sprawling urban mess, fair enough we did not find the one street old centre but the place was large.

Spent the night at a forest site called White Spar.

27th JUNE It's back to California.

It's down the 89 and then the 71 and 60 to Brenda where we join the interstate 10. Again an interesting journey fro Prescott, still in the high mountains, but we were having a shorter run today and stopping at Blythe. Not a mistake but a contact with reality in this area of the world. Exited the van at a nice looking camp site called Mayflower Park at 2.30pm to find , horror of horror's the temperature was 109F about 43C, all we could do was sit in the aircon van. The aircon did not like the heat and froze and melted,water,everywhere and we found we had to set the system at no lower than the 20 degrees below the ambient temperature to avoid freeze ups. So air con to 90F!!! It was on all night. Death Valley was only 95Fon that day. Phoenix about 100 miles due east was 112 and regularly records the highest usa temperature of between 110 and 120 for the whole summer. Why live there. Palm Springs is no better and all that is is a hideously expensive resort for celebs and wannabees celebs and rich retired idiot. All you have is air conditioned with no outside life at all. Great houses lovely unusable balconies and manicured grounds which you fry if you walk in.

One afternoon and night was enough as we girded up our loins and fled westwards towards rthe coast where average summer temperature is 75F.

Blythe and area is well irrigated and agricultural as it has our old favourite the Colorado river running through it. The road no 78 followed the canals and irrigation channels for miles with curious right angled bends with stop signs every five or six miles where the irrigation channels turned. On and on we went through a variety of guess what desert scenery, some scrub some bush and even one area of pure sand dune, proper Sahara type desert!

Along the way we started to notice curious rv sites closed, open October to May. These sites sometimes three or four in one mile sometimes on their own were in the middle of the desert with nothing in either direction for 30 to 50 miles literally in the middle of nowhere. Self contained with 300 pitches or more each, big radio/tv mast and on general store, closed, no shade and that was it. The sites cater for the Snowbirds that is those retired people who live in there vans year round and travel and are down south for the northern winter months. To make it pay you have to stay at least one month preferably the the whole time to get the cheaper rates. I suppose it is a community of sorts but it puts a different slant on the "romanticism of the Full Timers" stuck out in the desert for six months.

Not following the above theme at all but thinking rvs caravans etc I I have been struck by the number of people living in caravans, or trailers as they are called over here. I know this whole area is different from the east coast but I would estimate that every town we came to had about 25% of the population living in this kind of accommodation, maybe an exaggeration but a huge proportion nevertheless. We have heard the expression "trailer trash" unfair perhaps but a telling one nevertheless. Many loans were made on such "dwellings" and these formed a substantial part of the banking crisis as they were totally unsecured and if called in worthless. That aside the standard of living in these area is poor and can in someway be likened to travellers in the UK. That is a huge number of people.

We finally arrived at a cool mountain area 4500ft and a little town called Julian centre of all things apple where it is difficult to find a savoury snack without apple lurking around somewhere or somehow. We have found the best site yet for layout etc with no dust huge amounts of trees, no pines great shade a site which would grace Europe!!!. The site is actually 98% holiday vans owned by separate individuals who come and use them whenever they want to, the usual holiday home site arrangement. No one lives in vans permanently and it is all very smart and well kept, the only site of it's type we have come across.

Hear in the USA they do not have static caravans like we do so all vans are a variety of caravans,trailers, or 5th wheelers that is those curious,to us, vans pulled by utes with a front overhang over the ute base, utes =utility vehicle a open van back with a driving cab in the front. The caravans are big and long with side slide outs and the 5th wheelers are huge all with slideouts at each side so there is a good variety of shapes around.