Spring Flowers

While the Northeast has been dealing with a spring blizzard, we have been enjoying the sudden arrival of summer-like weather.

Southern California is blooming!  The hill sides along the roads are covered with dense patches of wildflowers.

On Tuesday we drove our Jeep over to Borrego Springs to see the desert bloom.  We had heard that over the weekend there had been bumper to bumper traffic around the small town. We were happy we had the luxury of visiting on a weekday. There was some traffic, but it was not bothersome. Everyone seemed to be mellowed by the beauty of the blooming fields of wildflowers.

I guess we have gotten out of practice for taking pictures. As far as I could tell, all my pictures of the field were out of focus.

There were many kinds of flowers blooming.

These were scattered in among the yellow.

Speaking of flowers, the hillsides around Jojoba Hills are lush with blooms as well.

The flowers are wild flowers, but I think they were seeded.

This is a close-up of the hill in the previous image. Wonderful!

It's hard to believe we have been here for almost five months. I have started to write posts from time to time, but they just never get finished. In general we like Jojoba Hills, and are comfortable with our decision to "buy in" here for a winter home base. My only disappointment has been in the weather. January and February were much colder than I expected. We were glad for the rain, but it spoils my almost daily attendance at the pool.

My summer plans for our trip to Alaska are coming together. We will leave here on or about April 18. We want to  spend May in Oregon and Washington. My first reservation is in the Vancouver BC area for the Memorial Day weekend. My next reservation is in Valdez, AK for the 4th of July, and then at Denali National Park in mid-August. We plan to travel "with the wind" and make reservations a few days ahead, but only if it seems necessary. Although not enthusiastic about boondocking, we are comfortable dry camping for a few days at a time. It looks like there are a limited number of full-hook-up parks in Alaska, but plenty of no-hook-up accommodations. 

I hope to start more regular blogging once we are on our way. This is a travel blog after all!  And travel we will.