#84 / 2008 Tour 4 Winter: Salton Sea Recreational Area

SALTON SEA RECREATIONAL AREA

#84

Hundreds of white pelicans float on the Salton Sea. It's Tuesday morning, yesterday was Mother's birthday - she would have been 97 today. We left the Slabs on Monday, said goodbye to Michael Bright and all of our new friends in Slab City amid promises to return soon, to relocate here at this fee-area recreation site.

Honestly I think they have had better days. There was no where's near 5,000 people on the Slabs and I think it is definitely the high season now for Slabbers. Those are the kinds of numbers I read about in magazine and newspaper articles.  Many of these people look pretty desperate now and it saddens me, because I found true friends there.

I really like Carol W. She gave me a ride into Niland as she pulled out of town in her modest camper. She has the most marvelous laugh - aaah-ha-ha-ha. She has returned for the first time in five years and she tells me about a much more pristine Slab City than what is apparent today.

 

Now a widow she has been traveling around in her camper with her little dog for twelve years now. She raised seven children. She said her husband was in show business, first radio and then television. They lived in New Jersey where her husband commuted to the Big Apple and then moved on to California where they lived in Malibu Beach during the 60s. She's a Canadian originally and returned there when her children became teenagers.

And like me I guess she isn't on best terms with all her children so she inspires me because she is living a great life despite her children. "Well, if they don't need I don't need them. Aaaaah-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Here at the campground for almost thirty dollars we got a great seaside view, cold showers because they are heated by solar panel, electricity and a water spigot. I got out my big white bucket and got a few clothes washed just before the rain set in.

We strung our electric cords outside, one for the heater and one to charge batteries and play the boom box and DVD. The clothes are hung all over the inside of the van. The rain has set in.

On Tuesday it was daylight by 6:30 a.m. I like that. And it looks like the clouds are moving on. I am reclinging on my bed, drinking decaf coffee and looking out the window, past the beach to the pelicans and the sea. I can't get the Slabs off my mind. I worry about them like family.