Finally to the Desert!

It started to rain about 7 AM this morning and it poured! That Pacific storm they'd been talking about finally caught up with us. We had only unpacked what we needed for the night and had left Toad II hooked up, so we were ready and on the road by a little after nine.

We drove along Hwy 99 most of the way right through the heart of California's agricultural country. We saw lots and lots of rice fields, nut and fruit orchards and then we began to see the grapes.

We drove by thousands of acres of grapes. Some of the fields looked kid of funny with these coverings on them. I'm not sure if this is protection from birds or what? Seems like birds would fly right underneath...

And we finally started to see groves of citrus trees. We went by the huge packing plant for the little tangerine oranges you get at Christmas time.

WE finally turned east at Bakersfield and headed out of the flat farming country into the Tehachapi Mountain range. This range of mountains probably has more windmills per square foot than any place else in the country --

There weren't too many of them turning today...

California Highway 14 took us into Mojave. We are spending the night at Sierra Trails RV Park where we have stayed before. It's just as you start into the great Mojave Desert. It certainly wasn't raining here on this side of the mountains -- the owner of the RV Park says they average about 4 inches of rain per year and they'd already gotten their forty drops this month...

With our early start this morning, we were able to settle in a little after three PM, so Forry got a nice nap before dinner!