We drove north to Calico Ghost Town near Barstow. As we were driving by all the windmills just outside Palm Springs there was absolutely no wind, and almost all the windmills were motionless. But as the day progressed the wind picked up until it was hard to keep the motorhome on the road, and we had to slow away down. When we finally got camped, we went for a walk through the ghost town, but almost got blown off our feet, and the dust was swirling around us. The ghost town was a going concern in the late 1800s, with mostly silver mining. It had a population of over 1000 at that time. Here are a couple of pictures:
The campground was right beside the town. But in the evening, it was so windy and cold that we just had to spend the time indoors.
1 December, Thursday
The wind howled all night and kept rocking the motorhome. It reminded me of our boating days, when the boat would rock in the waves at night. We got away and drove west through Bakersfield and up to Colonel Allensworth State Historical Park. We had to drive really slow because of the wind. It was not only strong, but gusty as well, so it made for difficult steering. When we got to the park, it was closed! California figures if they close a bunch of parks they will save money, so I guess we should have checked first. So we continued up a bit north and a bit east and came to Tule Campground on Lake Success. This turned out to be a great park - another Army Corps of Engineers production. The lake was really low, so I asked about that, and it turns out all the lakes in California are low at this time of year because they are all used for irrigation, and the farmers have pumped out all the water during the summer. They will fill up during the winter and spring for next year.
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