Bombay Beach, Salton Sea, California

On Salton Sea, it’s a 20 minute drive from Fountain of Youth Mineral Hot Springs. I’d passed it once before only driving through without any exploration. It was memorable enough then that I wanted to return now.  A most unusual place.  It’s part ghost town and part steam punk art museum.  The beach is a place of zany funky installations that are reminiscent of Mel Gibson’s post apocalypse world. I had an LSD flashback just driving into town seeing a sign for Veterans and thinking the town really was reminiscent of the Vietnam Vets war or the testing of Nuclear bombs in the Nevada Desert.

It’s like no other place I’ve been.

I’d ridden my Vespa 300 GT super tech with Madigan in the dog box on the passenger seat. His head swivel around like the spotter in a WW 1 Bristol Fighter. I think of the Snoopy Beagle sometimes when I see him on the back of my motorcycles .  We stopped on the beach.  I let him run free and together we explored several of the more prominent installations.  Amazing.  My nuclear physicist engineering nephew writes steam punk novels and I thought of him. This would be the perfect location for a dystopian love story among the sculpture by a partial ghost town.  

There’s a bar and a market.  Here and there in the town are houses that have been kept up with locks and fences and new cars outside. Beside them are graffiti covered skeleton’s of old trailer park icons. The graffiti is often the sort I associate with crystal meth. 

There was a Seaside Baptist church, a beautiful blue and white uplifting affair that seemed to have its world cut out for it. Down the streets stood the Bombay Estates , the hand painted sign on a burnt out building that looked sordid and inviting to only an awkward teen age nerd and an older predator.  Another sign said Last Resort and again had a special irony.

In the history of the town it said this was ‘the beach’ , only a 100 miles from Palm Spring and 150 miles east of LA it once hosted the Sinatra Crowd and Later the Beach Boys Set. Then salination and silenium in the water reduced the appeal along with flooding and storms that caused the in crows to move or just pick up and leave.  I don’t know when the artists came.  After some hurricane or apocaluypse that spoke to the mortality of things and people and places.

I was staying at the over 55 Fountain of Youth Spa and RV park where some of us feel our bodies and lives are like living in a Ghost Town. That was the title of The Rolling Stones song in Covid 4 years before when we all masked for the Dr. Fauci Wuhan Lab Leak while being told the truth was a lie and the lie was the truth.  This era looked like the town with health and rot side by side. Ruins and repairs. There’s even an archeological dig in Bombay. It’s a huge inland water and the notes say you can still swim and fish in it.  A recent find of an amazing wealth of Lithium says the town will likely rejuvenate. I’m truly hoping the rich mineral waters  will do that for me or at very least slow the decline.  Only death is certain.  That and renewal.  I could be caterpillar on the way to becoming a butterfly. This town could be the next ‘in spot’ 

It’s an extraordinary place and was well worth the visit. 

 

Yuma trip Tillamook to Standish Hickey State Recreation Area then San Francisco and Yuma

I was travelling steadily enjoying the beautiful coastal views listening to Louise Penny’s latest Audio Book, a truly delightful and captivating inspector gameche novel, Madness of Crowds.  I’d so enjoyed her, “all the devils are here”.  She’s a brilliant writer and her references in this book to Ewan Campbell, the MK Ultra, McGill University psychiatrist working for the CIA and the discussion of eugenics are truly fascinating.  

I stopped at MacDonald’s to get me an egg McMuffin or a Burger and to get Madigan a quarter pounder burger. It also offere free WiFi and the connection was convenient. I loaded up on messages and checked the bigger picture maps.  My Ford F350 had a console gps and map I used religiously following the directions with rare error. This would prove critical travelling through San Francisco and later the foothills of LA to Pasadena.  The view is a short distance but it worked as my guide. I didn’t have a paper map and in retrospect should have.  

My Telus easy roam cellular service died at the Border.  By Tillamook I had an SOS sign and just assumed I was outside of cell range.  When I had WiFi in Macdonald’s it would work. I’d later find that I”d lost the capacity to ‘phone out’ but texts were working somewhat.

I drove through the Marin Country area with memories of my first being there with Maureen and meeting my friend Warren, later living there and doing my American medical exams, the FLEX.  I’d first been to San Francisco with Baiba the year after the song came out ‘if you are going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.’  I’d had love painted in lipstick on my forehead and been dancing in the streets.  We’d been at the Strawberry Mountain Peace and Love Festival and were on our way to meet Baiba’s family at the world Latvian song Festival in Vancouver.  Coming up on the Golden Gate Bridge I was washed over with the sailing memories, passing under the Bridge in the fog, with the near collision with a tanker but surviving to dock at the Pier 39 on Fisherman’s wharf.  Later still I’d sail solo under the Golden Gate to anchor off Sausalito before sailing solo at Christmas through hurricane’s to Hawaii.  Then Laura, blind cockapoo Gilbert and I drove through in the Mini en route and back to San Diego.  I’d drive through and back  again last November on my Yuma trip then.  Lots of fund memories. 

I was struggling to follow the digital maps, see sites, and not smack my over sized truck and camper with the Harley on the front rack driving through the city.  It was a rush.  Intense.  Madigan, this cockapoo was fretting wanting to stop and I just kept on going. I expect he was enraptured  with the smells,  When I was first there the joke was there was the smell of ‘shit’ in the air, referring to marijuana.  Gracie Slick, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead and acid rock were the thing. Then later it would be Huey Lewis when I met Warren in Napa.   

Now given the Democrat California problem lawlessness and businesses leaving, the ‘smell of shit’ refers to the street people invasion. I didn’t see any of that . Warren and I joked in the past about the media representation ‘pit bulls running in the streets of Vancouver ‘ and “street jacking in San Francisco.’  Media hype.  Actually was still struck by the sophisticated flavour of the city I loved when I lived there. There were still beautiful people but they were all younger and I really was getting older.  The young person, hippy era, visit changed to the academic despite the VW baha bug, painted blue with love and peace on it. This time coming through with the truck and camper eventually crossing the Bay Bridge heading east was another time. The young people of the city today were a different time from the hippy and the academic era.  I’d met Warren in Napa Valley and he’d come up to Canada to go wilderness canoeing with me. An amazing man.  I’ll never forget our talks of gravity and other ideas of physics and philosophy. 

Today I’m reportedly an old man,  All my friends kids are the age we were back then when we were crazy and young.  Life progresses and I have 30,000 patients to show for it, some grand adventures and beautiful families and friends, lots of paper. I’ve written some too, published some, but mostly survived till now quite surprised by that.  Trips like sailing blue water solo through hurricanes, riding my Harley Electroglide to Sturges, bicycling a cross Europe, the recent trip to Ireland to find the great great grandfather graves and the Hay castle north of Aberdeen, hunting and fishing, skiing and wilderness doctoring all were incredible.  One of the joys of aging is the good times are more important than the struggles.  

Now I an in a rally type RV race  with a truck, California city traffic, wild with speed.  I’d just keep on going.  Rest stops were great places to walk Madigan. He was a great companion.  To listen to the audiobook I had to forego the console map so I chose between the two. Even with  my hearing aid I had trouble listening to the audio book on the iPhone without putting it through the truck speakers. I realised I needed to use the ‘off line’ map feature in the iPhone but was taking pictures of the map and saving it to photos. All very complicated but it worked,  I muddle through. 

The challenge was the foothills behind LA 2 hours north heading to the Pasadena turn,  I”d hoped to stop at the rest area but it was full and the next one was under construction. I pulled off at Walmart but security said I couldn’t stay as the police came by and ticketed anyone after closing, I was tired.  Thanks to the camper I could wash my face. The signs had ‘high wind warnings’, campers and RV’s advised to delay travel.  I decided to go for it remembering similiar times I’d shot currents and tides against time in my sailboat.  It was a rush but I tucked in behind a big truck in the truck lane and carried on. 12 lanes of speed.  55 to 65 mph.  Nighttime horror. It was 2 hours of intense focus and rush. I’d been quite horrified in day time but at night with camper and motorcycle carrier in my truck was still scarey.  The truck though was relatively new and had been up to date with service, quite a far cry from the VW Baha Bug with sketchy engine and no parking brakes.  I was a kid back then, foolish and immortal. I was well prepared and old now and still feeling foolish but I made it.  

There was just no place to get off the freeway to Pasadena and then Palm Springs and beyond till eventually I was the freeway ended, two lane traffic began. I saw a campground sign.  I pulled off the highway at 3 am to see the gates were locked and yet there was a space on the side of the road where I parked . I let Madigan have a little walk about before climbing into the camper and to bed to sleep for a few hours,

Dawn was beautiful. Waking with the light, I looked out to see palm trees,  It was warm and shirt sleeve weather. I was just before Salton Lake only a few hours from Yuma.  I really was elated stopping to fill up gas where I’d stopped on an earlier passage,

I drove into Yuma with a big smile on my face. The truck had no issues. The 500 lb Nighster Special motorcycle had survived on the front  rack rated for 600 lbs The Adventturer camper had been great 

My only problem was the Telus phone, I still couldn’t phone out.

I stopped at MacDonald’s for sausage egger and his burger paddy and more coffee.  I used the WiFi to get address and directions to Bonita Mesa RV Resort and Park,  It was sin the foothills area east of town 5 miles.  A terrific place. I felt instantly welcome.  The two ladies in reception gave me all the Good Sam low down and a couple of guys in golf carts led me to my site and guided me in.  They left once I was hooked up and I felt a little bit like I was in heaven, hot and sunshine. I heard it was snowing back in Frazer Valley.  I walked Madigan to the desert and got my Starlink working to see my patients,  I was only able to see a couple who were on the Oscar and Doxy.me (like zoom) connection. I simply wouldn’t be able to phone with the Telus . I couldn’t even call 0 or star 611.  I surprisingly got a couple of calls in but there I was trying every way possible to reach Telus but it was like trying to get through the Borg.  Hal was crazy.

I couldn’t phone anyone yesterday. Belinda and Karen at Royal Columbia were trying to get a human at Telus without luck and the Doctors of BC technical assistance were very helpful. I even talked to tech support at T mobile the carrier which was working on ny iPad and my phone had dialed in.  They all said Telus was the problem.  The AI kept insistent that my number didn’t have an account too.  What a nightmare. 

I woke this morning at 3 am and was worried about this because I couldn’t even phone my bank and I’d set up What’sapp.  I could text and email but Telus only had a connection, very complicated through on line where I left message and the calls didn’t continue.  

Finally this morning, I thought I’d try and at 3 am, the hour I used to wake with nightmares, I phoned star 611 and got a lovely young man who checked my account and said everything was fine. Hallelujah, He even said he’d have some one call me later in the day.

2018 I found emails about the same roaming issue where I’d not been able to contact support but was run around by their AI but that time it was only a day. Here I am 2 days tell ing them I’m a doctor and patients and pharmacists are trying to reach me and I cann’t phone them. Now I can,

I’m still going to by a ‘back up’ T mobile phone and plan for while I’m here, In future I only regret I didn’t do that immediately so I wouldn’t have lost contact with patients and such but I never thought Telus would take so long to solve the problem,  I had left messages Saturday but became very Ernest Monday.  Now it’s 3 am Wednesday. I have back ups for everything so now I just need one more even though I have Star link.  My satelittle phone also wouldn’t call the Telus number and I’ll try to find out what the Iridium issue was there.  It says I can’t phone for for some reason but I have a 6 month plan from the fall.  I had the problem with Iridium in Europe as you need to do something when you leave Canada,

I didn’t drink and I didn’t kill myself, I appreciate how difficult technology is for my old patients and the frustration and castration of citizens and customers that occur with the companies going to AI.  Belinda told me she left Telus because when she had a problem she’d end up talking to a person in the phillipines who wasn’t helpful.  I know I’m not alone but feel for my patients with depression and anxiety and how overwhelmed they are with the high costs poor service and increasing demands.  Laura stopped having able to for a while because to the tech problems and so many people I know are enraged by the high cost of food now and they’re doing their own check outs and bringing their own bags. The joke is that soon they’ll be expected to unload the trucks,

The fact is I found a Walmart a mile and a half from here.  So I have milk for coffee and bread. I ‘d a fridge full of food but did’t bother doing anything but making coffee and a sandwich or two on way down. 

I just had macaroni today.

My HD Nightster Special had the problem with alarming at the beginning of the trip so the Barnes tech pulled the fuse.  I stopped at  Bobby’s Territorial Harley Davidson and the tech folk were great slippign the fuse back in but finding the ignition didn’t work,  Some wiring short. They were down a tech and booked for 2 weeks. I was able to leave my bike there with the assurance they’d get to it as soon as they could.  I’m enjoying my truck without the camper and Laura’s coming Friday. I don’t need the motorcycle.  

Sandra told us she’d used St. Thomas dental clinic so my next plan is to cross the border and set up cleaning if I can.  I’ve got day of patient and pharmacist phone calls to catch up on the next couple of days,  

It’s been busy.  I’ve been very very busy with the extraordinary 2500 to 3000 km drive over 3 days and little sleep.  I’d thought I’d be across the border in Mexico having Nuevo rancheros and watching the world go by but not yet.  Hustle . Hustle.  Good feelings though

So thankful that Telus and T Mobile, the Clinics and Doctors of BC all came through .So thankful for Star Link and my apple computer, iPads and phones,  Life is  amazing. I’m truly blessed and glad to be here. Looking forward to getting into a routine. I did that last fall and enjoyed the time.  I swam several times a week then and there’s a pool here. There’s a laundromat too. I bought a Yuma Harley Davidson t shirt telling the guys I’d be able to go another day without laundry. 

Now I’m going back to bed, grateful.,

Thank you Jesus.  Thank you God. Thank you all of you and for all the blessings,  God is good all the time.  I’m looking forward to getting to meetings and church too.  I’ve a 3 -4 hour drive to pick up Laura in Phoenix,  There was no easy flight connection to Yuma and she was afraid of the Christmas season chaos.  

I’m looking to hearing the rest of the Louis Penny Detective Gamavhe story.

Thank you, thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!