Today was another travel day. We left the absolute butthole and cultural wasteland of Barstow and hopped on I-15 to continue our westward trek to the coast. The road from Barffo, at about 2000′ elevation, starts a long, slow climb to the 4200’+ Tejon Pass above Riverside and San Bernardino. From that point we began the 6% drop into metro area east of the San Gabriel Valley. Strangely, descending from the pass we must have gone by an idiot stockpile because for the rest of our drive we were accompanied by wild-eyed swervers and lane changers, hotrodders changing into our lane before clearing our vehicle, high-speed freeway racers, screaming crotch rocket riders doing no less than 100 mph between cars in the well-designated but crowded traffic lanes and bored truckers with gutless tractors unable to climb even the slightest inclines.
We took I-215 around the Riverside metro area and the number of lunatics subsided somewhat. We eventually pulled off I-215 in Menifee and into the Wilderness Lakes Thousand Trails where we will take a break from travel for a week or so. Since we are members, we get to stay free. Strangely, there is no wilderness nor lakes within or near Wilderness Lakes RV Park. We have full hookups, good satellite TV reception, a great spot and much cooler temperatures than the desert inferno where we have spent the last 2 weeks. We even got a space at the end of a row which is quite large and, so far, very quiet. There is an unexpected bonus – due to the location of our RV space and its proximity to a large pasture area, there are lots of birds here. We already spotted a Cassin’s kingbird, a couple black phoebes, a ruby-throated hummingbird and some yellow warblers fooling around in the shrubbery near our trailer. And in the canal-sized trenches with highly suspicious-looking water in them within the RV park, we noted a flock of Canadian geese, a bunch of ducks, numerous coots and a two black crowned night herons. I had no idea when I was younger that I would take such an interest in birds in my dotage.
There’s a few bird photos. Click the asterisk *