Salton City was extremely hot over the 4th of July weekend.  I arrived in the evening hours of July 3rd and remained until Monday morning July 7th.  Tropical depression Douglas off the coast of Baja California swept most of Mexico's humid and wet weather towards Arizona and it turned Salton City into what felt like a gigantic hot house.  As far as I know no rain fell in the Salton city area.

No fireworks show was displayed in Salton city for the 4th of July.  The only fireworks were people who bought and used from fireworks stands.  I was part of the latter.  Back in National City where I live primarily at the moment, fireworks can only be viewed at public displays unless they are brought in illegally.  This type of celebration of the 4th (America's birthday) I do not like or agree with.  I prefer celebrating with my own fireworks display around my immediate family and friends rather then put up with public and sometimes intoxicated people.

On Saturday night however, we were greeted with a lightning show which I prefer over any fireworks display.  I attempted to photograph some for this page however my camera was too slow and the photo's taken were merely black boxes not worth displaying.  I did take pictures of the Thunderheads surrounding Salton city.  Here is the first:

This Thunderhead shows a smaller forming cloud rising to meet the upper cloud and is looking towards the southwest.  It was the closest cloud to Salton city.  This one dissipated by nightfall and produced no lightning that we saw and no rain.

The second one however, produced much more lightning but was too far distant to hear the thunder.

This was the first in a line of Thunderheads over the Chocolate mountains and in a fairly southeast direction pretty much following the Chocolate Mountain range which is located along the eastern shore of the Salton sea.  When Tom Cruise in the Top Gun movie was getting his top gun training, part of it was filmed over the Chocolate mountains if you remember the movie.  Had I remembered and I feel kind of dumb for not doing it was that my camera does film video in HD and I could have filmed some of the lightning had I remembered.
Some of my neighbors came over since I was sitting in the garage with the door up to enjoy the lightning spectacle with my son and it was enough to socialize.  The lightning by around 9:30 pretty much dissipated but the socializing continued.

On Sunday afternoon, Salton city experienced a power outage which started around 4:20 pm and lasted nearly two hours.  The house was quickly getting warmer since the air conditioning unit was not functioning.  I was going to wait till 7pm that night and if the power did not return by then, I was going to head back to National City since I suspect it would have been too hot to sleep that evening for the next days scheduled drive home.  Thank goodness that wasn't the case.  These power outages do occur from time to time and I'm not sure what is the cause.  Imperial Irrigation will probably have to be contacted to find the cause.  My guess is that since it was hot and their territory lies mostly in desert areas, every house and business were probably using air conditioning that there was not enough electricity to go around.  When the outage occurred, I called them and they had teams out to fix the outage and that it also affected Indio and La Quinta.


Well I hope you enjoyed this post for I as usual enjoyed the weekend to be able to write about it.  My next scheduled post will follow the Labor day weekend which is the 30th, 31st of August and the 1st of September 2014.  Till then and have a good day!

On Saturday May 10th 2014 during the evening hours, Salton city was sandblasted by strong winds which caused the closure of highway 86 for at least a couple of hours.  These strong windstorms pass through the area from time to time especially when a Santa Ana condition develops north east of the area.  A Santa Ana condition can be described as wind blowing from inland to the coast and is caused by a High pressure zone with clockwise rotation. 

When law enforcement closed the Highway in Salton city, most of the traffic pulled into the local AM PM gas station/truck stop providing the business with more business.  A couple with two children were somewhat anxious and asked if I knew of any alternate routes.  The only one I knew of was highway 111 which makes its way north-south on the other (east) side of the Salton sea.  The sea I told them is possible to form a buffer from the blowing sand since the winds seemed to be headed in an easterly direction.  They would need to drive north about 23 miles to Ave 66 go about 3/4 mile to highway 111 and turn right (south).  I also warned them that I did not know the condition of that road and they may be wasting their time.  They told me if they could not get an update on the condition of 111 they would wait it out.

I left my home in Salton city around 8pm with my son and a friend and even that short drive was treacherous.  A description is as follows:

You would drive down the street and there is blowing sand flying across the road at ground level making the road resemble the surrounding desert.  In other words you could not see the pavement of the road and you couldn't tell where the road was.  Its similar to a road and its surroundings covered in snow. 

Although the wind howled throughout the night, we did not lose power which I found surprising.  There was no trouble, people got along with each other and understood the situation and I heard rumors of people even helping each other out. 

Again its the main reason I like Salton city.  The people there are marvelous, even its visitors!  I apologize with my computer having trouble I was not able to provide photos on this post.  I'll try to change that on my next post which hopefully will be on the long 4th of July weekend.

I apologize for no recent posts, my computer at home bombed out and died and I should be obtaining a replacement in May. Then it'll be back to normal.  Right now I'm using my work computer to write this, however I cannot use my employers computer to download pictures.  I attempted to use my samsung tablet, but this proved difficult.

I love the area so much and as they used to say in the movie business, "the show shall not die".  I won't give up on the sight, even if it must be pictureless!!

My trip to Salton city for the weekend of February 1st and 2nd 2014 was different simply because I brought along my older son with his wife and Grandma.  They all enjoyed the perfect weather and beautiful sunshine.  The kids played with the neighbor's kids and everything went well.  I have a couple of photos I'd like to share with you, then more troubling news coming from my National city house which may hasten my move to live out here in the desert quicker then expected.

The first photo was taken inside the local Am Pm convenience store.  This place is open 24 hours and seven days a week.

And the second photo of the local watering hole which you may have seen in previous posts.  It's called Capt'n  Jims.  It was listed as for sale for $225,000 but whether someone bought it or not is not known.



I patronized this place only once and It's a lively place on Saturday nights.  It has a patio area, big screen tv, darts, a full bar and karaoke entertainment which I found entertaining.  The reason I went only once is that I don't drink alcoholic beverages due to medications.

Well, I've got to depart from the land of heaven and go back to the doldrums of the big city.  Back in National city, (a suburb city of San Diego) San Diego gas and electric is playing their hand at shaking more money out of the customer piggy bank. Rates for electricity are already the highest in the nation and they want more.  If you're not aware, our local nuclear power plant went offline because of rapid deterioration of cooling tubes.  The customers paid to replace steam generators which were supposed to last many years but didn't.  The customers have to pay to decommission the plant, and now the customers have to pay to rewire the grid to compensate for the loss of the  nuclear energy.  It's a no win situation for us customers.  How can anyone expect to retire in San Diego with electric and water utilities running amok, complaining they need more of my money.  I need my money too. The California public utilities commission (CPUC) is a big joke here.  They are supposed to regulate utility costs here but they don't.  They supposedly vote on these increases, which I deem as unnecessary because they always vote in favor of the utilities and  customers already know "what San Diego gas and electric want, San Diego gas and electric get".  Their parent companies are generating massive profits while we, the customers get poorer.  I figure since the investor owned utilities pay big taxes to the state, these utilities have the CPUC in their pocket.  Thank goodness I planned well enough and have my home in the desert and the cost is low enough so I can retire somewhat comfortably still. 

Faced with these grim realities, here in San Diego I hear from friends that live here, that San Diego will soon become too expensive to retire comfortably.  They have pretty much succeeded in killing solar as an option to save on electricity costs by charging more to low end users.  Net metering, which was a big benefit of solar is now being attacked and will probably no longer exist by 2018 which is the reason I am considering the move to my retirement home in Salton city sooner.  I hope to be there permanently before 2018.  Then, I'll pretty much be free from those greedy utilities and the CPUC.

There is one possible benefit to this, however.  The CPUC allows San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)  to reward its shareholders an 11% return on their investment.  And with the CPUC so in love with SDG&E this probably won't change at all.  After I move to the desert, I"m thinking of putting some of my 401k money into their stock to receive that rate of return to get some of my money back I paid them over the years.  11% sounds pretty good in today's low rate environment.


Please accept my apologies for this unusual post, but although I hate to see utility companies rip us off, I do have to be pleased that it will accelerate my move to the desert.  If any of you people wish a move to California from either another state or another country, welcome.  However do your homework and investigate before you buy.  Try to stay out of investor owned utility territory in California, you'll be better off and happier too.



New Year's was perfect in the Salton city area.  The weather cooperated providing plenty of sunshine and temperatures never exceeding 78 degrees during the day.  No strong winds to worth mentioning.  Many of the local retailers and businesses I visited reported very good business.  With New Years falling on a Wednesday, many off roaders were here for well over a week.  I was there for five days myself and the time went by incredibly fast. 

I noticed that the RV and off road enthusiasts were out in force with my neighbors mentioning that if we use their big number presence as a gauge the recession here in the US can be considered over.  Their off road vehicles were in every parking lot of every business I visited and therefore business owners were happy.

Salton city has at least one, possibly more off road parks to the west of the city.  They are designated off road parks on Imperial county maps available in the area.  The off road portion seems to end when you get to the San Diego county line which lies around seven to ten miles west of Salton city.

I took some pictures of RV off road areas to show you which were west of Salton city, here's the first:

This is an early morning shot looking east which shows the Salton city sunrise over the Salton sea in the background.  In the center are a group of RV's and their off road toys and that road you see in the foreground is the Borrego Salton seaway county road S-22.

 

This picture was taken from the same location as the above but looks to the west and shows another group of RV's in the off road park.  These photos were taken just after sunrise on New Years day and I suspect the majority of them were still sleeping from the previous nights celebration for no off road activity could be seen.

 

I strolled the grounds of what used to be a public golf course and now comprises part of the off road park west of Salton city.

 

 

 

Dead palms abound at the old golf course in this photo looking to the east with the Salton sea barely visible in the distance.

 

 

The foundations of what used to be a pedestrian bridge over a wash at the old golf course are visible in the middle of this photo.

 







The top photo shows a small maintenance shack on the former golf course while the second photo shows a much larger maintenance building which appears to be visited by off road vehicles performing donuts in its interior.  The bottom photo shows a group of RV's and seen from the location of the large maintenance building.

Hope you enjoyed this post and the next one will be in about a month.

First of all, I wish to apologize for no October post since I was unable to photograph events that month.  I was in Salton city over the long Thanksgiving weekend from November 27th to December 1st.  The weather was perfect, mild sunny days with cool nights.  What many consider off road weather.  Salton City's population probably doubles and may even triple over this weekend with all of the RV's and off roaders.  The photo below shows from a distance many of the RV's in the off road park area.

The sounds of powerful engines and the people operating those vehicles were full of excitement.  I love it when an off road vehicle passes by on the state owned property behind my home. I know they are having fun and hope they spread the word around that coming to the Salton sea can be fun.  Earlier in the morning I was at the AM PM gas station when I took one picture of the sunrise:

 

and a second picture of gasoline prices over the Thanksgiving weekend:

 

 

I decided to go from here to take pictures of the local medical clinic and the senior citizen center which were nearby.



 

 

 

 

The above medical clinic provides general practice medicine and currently is open only two days a week.  The senior citizen center is a membership club for local seniors and as you can see by the sign in front, bingo is a popular happening.  I've considered joining this organization but most of their activities occur during the week when I'm not usually there.

 

Well, we spent Thanks giving dinner at a neighbors house and it was quite different and fun.  To close this blog I'm putting a picture of truck traffic heading south on the highway behind my home.  I'm shooting for my next blog to occur around New Years holiday.

 



On the weekend of September 21 and 22 I was in Salton city again and found out through neighbors and the internet that the subject house in the last blog has been sold.  It has a "sale pending" notification on it.  It took less then a month.  This weekend we discovered more children of the same age as my son are living in the vicinity and all were willing to accept my sons friendship.

The selling price of the home is currently unknown as well as who are the purchasers.  I'll report on this subject as soon as the information is known.  Until then, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

This weekend I decided to visit and check out the Salton sea on its declining level.  What I saw didn't surprise me but the current level definitely is dropping at an alarming rate.  However, Its beauty is still incredibly fascinating as you will see in the following photos.  The bird life at the sea is busy in the morning with both their movements as well as their sounds.

 

 

The above is the earliest image showing the Salton sea at sunrise around 6:15 am  The sun was still well below the chocolate mountains in the background.

 

A little later image of sunrise at the Salton sea with the sun's glow right below the horizon ready to shine on the next beautiful day in the desert.

 

 

The final two shots and the those  I enjoy the most shows the sun over the chocolate mountains. The lower photo shows bird activity in the morning.  In the foreground that water you see has dropped at least three feet.  The old water line can be seen about a third of the way up on the jetty.

Off roading season starts around the first of October, but my son and his friends were able to enjoy it earlier due to the cooling weather.  This weekend the temperature never exceeded 90 degrees.

  

The above shows my son and a friend enjoying the desert through off roading.

Another view of my son and friends driving down the street getting ready for more off roading.

Later posts will give you an idea of how popular off roading has become in the Salton city area.  There are many open public lands with all types of terrain for those who love the sport to enjoy.  Well, I'll keep writing if you will continue reading, and if you so desire feel free to post a comment.  I would like to know how I'm doing, have a good day and my next post will be in mid-October.