SLAB CITY, CA

[Sparkle]

We picked up Chris and her rig in Blythe and here we be in Slab City. This is an overview.


We circled the wagons. Chris in red over at her rig. I am the purple blob.


Then we walked over to Salvation Mountain




Leonard, the builder, took us on a tour. This is inside the mountain.




And here we are with Leonard. Left to right, Beth, me, Leonard and Chris.


A nice photo of Chris with Leonard


All his vehicles ere "tarted" up.


You climb the yellow brick road to the top of the mountain.


It got pretty steep at the top

[Bethers]

Thank goodness for Sparkle. I'm sitting here trying to get my work done and she demands I go get my pics cuz she needs one of them. So she has upped all my pics to her camera, and used several of them in this post - and I haven't upped any of them yet - just barely got my work done. One of these days I may need to look at them first and edit out some. Hahaha - if you'd had dinner with Sparkle, Chris and I tonight - you'd have learned all about my active sex life. (cough cough) We have laughed so hard tonight. I truly wish I'd had a tape recorder.

The Slabs were on my bucket list - another one down

[Acadianmom]

That looks like a paper mache mountain.

Martha

[oregontocal]

Okay, here are some of my pictures from Salvation Mountain today. Tomorrow - lots of pictures from wanderings around Slab City itself. I love this place.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 8cec5d6d4f Again, you don't need to be a member of Facebook to check out the pictures.

Today we've seen two opposite ways of life out here in the desert: Slab City, which is boondocking at its most interesting and creative, and the Fountain of Youth RV Resort several miles down the road, with its approx. 850-1000 sites, restaurant, grocery store, six spas, pool, etc., and at least a full single-spaced page of daily activities. I visited with friends Pete and Rebecca, my neighbors and work buddies at Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas this year. But, I guess I'm kind of weird. I much prefer Slab City.

As Beth and Jean already said, dinner tonight was so much fun!!! Interesting sex life stories - I cracked up.

[AlmostThere]

I've seen specials on TV about this guy and how all that paint is donated etc. Kinda neat! Thanks for sharing!

[oregontocal]

I've seen specials on TV about this guy and how all that paint is donated etc. Kinda neat! Thanks for sharing!

Here are only some of the cans of donated paint. Not seen in the picture is a front loader they were filling up with cans to take somewhere else. It caught my attention because one of the volunteers there told us, "We're so glad you all are here - this thing doesn't have any brakes." And grinned. Not sure what that had to do with us being there, and hesitate to venture a guess. But, it did make me notice all the paint.

[oregontocal]

Before dinner last night, I wandered around here a little, checking the place out. Such a wide variety of rigs and set-ups. Here are some of the ones I found really interesting. I prefer to make a photo album in Facebook rather than mess with Photobucket which takes forever.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... 3ba08bc785

A little chilly boondocking out here this morning, but it's turning into another sunny day. I notice Jean has already taken Bogie for his walk.

[sharon]

Leonard is a cool guy, have enjoyed talking with him on many occaisons. Slab City is a fave of mine, DH and I used to load up and spend a w/e there when we just wanted to get away and go jeeping by ourselves. Folks are friendly and a few will usually stop by just to say howdy. There's a library down on Canal Road (continue down the road to where it dead ends, turn right and I think it's on the left about 1/8 of a mile if they haven't moved it again). If you're going to be there on Friday night, check out the music at the Grange just down the road from you. Some of the musicians there are fabulous! We used to go into the sand dunes that way, down Canal Road, but the road we took off of that, Ted Kipf, is washed out, so we have to go all the way around Glamis now to get in. An extra 60 miles plus and extra 10 miles of 5mph wash board dirt road. Worth it, tho!

[bluepinecones]

What an interesting spot. Thanks for sharing. Good job, Sparkle and Chris on the pixs.
Oh Sparkle, just noticed - now that you are in CA, you can color in another state on your map.

[Liz]

Enjoyed all the pictures, thanks!

[mtngal]

Thanks for another great tour! Love the bright colors. I've seen this on California Gold TV show too. (btw, welcome to CA Sparkle and Beth!)

[Rufflesgurl]

Where in CA is Slab City?? Thanks for sharing your great pix!

Linda

[mitch5252]

..

Really interesting pictures. I had to chuckle, wishing you did record your sexcapade stories to share with us all!

..

[oregontocal]

Wait until you see what Beth discovered this morning . . .

[oregontocal]

Beth was walking Peaches this morning and found this great spot up in the hills above Slab City. It's probably not for everyone's taste, so please feel free to delete it if it's a little too graphic.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... eb342d97ae

We talked to the artist by his little motor home. He was stuck in the sand, but someone drove up to help him out. When I asked if I could take his picture, he said he'd rather we didn't. So, we all talked for about ten minutes about his work and how he came to do it and about the loss of art, music, and other "non-essentials" in schools, and so forth. Very interesting guy. He was getting ready to leave as "my work here is finished." He was going to look for other places to paint, preferably things like other water towers, etc. We liked the juxtaposition of the love pictures with the ones about war on the other tower. What made if even more interesting was Slab City is the remains of an old military base out in the desert.