Wednesday, August 2
We left Columbia College about 8am in two vans - one was a cargo van (two seats
and loads of room in back for sleeping bags, duffel bags, etc.) And one was
a 10 passenger van - and drove to Modesto. Our first stop was in a residential
area to pickup a father and daughter at their home. Talk about service! Next
stop was Modesto Junior College to pick up a third large van and more people.
Once we were loaded up, we drove south (way south) to Glendale Community College
near Pasadena, traded one of the passenger vans for a larger passenger van,
loaded up lots of extra food and large ice chests and one more person.
We were up to 21 people. Two teachers, ten “adults” and 9 “kids”. I use quotations because the kids were adults really, three were 28, but the “adults” were all old enough to be parents to the “kids”. Our ages ranged from Jerry who turn 60 while we were down in Bahia (may I look even half as good as Jerry when I’m 60), to Hailey who was 11. Oh, and three of us were named Sue. How funny is that?
The final stop of the day was on the border at San Ysedro to a Motel 6 to spend the night.
Thursday, August 3
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The drive down through California and into Mexico was long, but we talked and began to get to know one another. Sometimes there was something along the way that was a real conversation starter. This truck was one of the starters. We saw it three times. The first time was Friday evening as we pulled off the freeway into San Ysedro and then again in the morning as we pulled back onto the freeway. The third time was as we traveled through Tijuana. Doesn't it make you kind of wonder what treasures this guy is bring home to his family in Baja? Or to sell in his roadside stand? |
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This is just some of what was being carried in the cargo van. Behind me (I'm taking the picture) are a couple of long folding tables and several ice chests and boxes full of food. |
We got to our desert camping area early enough to walk around and we learned
to name a few of the plants.
Boy is the desert full of weird and wonderful plants.
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Elephant Tree - With a gray wrinkly skin, what else could you call it? |
Cardon - These are a relative of the Saguaro cactus and were the tallest things in the desert. |
Barrel Cactus - These all had red tops on them, not the whole barrel, just the top. |
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Boojum - I ended up doing my project on the boojum, but we won't be talking about that. :-P |
Jumping Cholla - This cactus was not fun because practically all you needed to do was look at it for it to break off and jump onto you. |
Ocotillo - This was an interesting plant. When it has not rained in a while, it looks like dry sticks with thorns and after there has been rain, leaves pop out all along the branched, hiding the thorns. |
Here
are a few of our classmates, waiting in the parking lot of the motel for
the vans to return from gassing up for the trip to Baja.