Awake: 6:00am Temp 45 sleep 6+18 rain overnight @ Boron, CA.
I signed up for (2) nights stay here @ the Arabian RV campground; by just looking outside our windows thru the rain, Kathy predicts that there is nothing to see or do in this small town of Boron. So for the morning, we are content to simply stay inside & relax, however, the rain is blanking out Kathy’s favorite TV programs so now she is really getting restless.
Mid morning, I e-mail Gary & Rosemary thinking they should be in the town of Pahrump, Nevada by now; about (30) min later, a reply which leads to a phone call…. & in a few days, a planned rendezvous. Communications have never been so great ---thanks to computers & cell phones.
Early afternoon, I encourage the bored & restless Kathy to join me in an auto tour of the town; she reluctantly agrees. We were in for a surprise; Boron is home to the largest borax mine in the world; this community had a starring role in the feature film: Erin Brockovich. The Borax open-pit mine is (600) ft deep & (1.2) miles across. We were told by the locals that, unfortunately, it would not be wise to visit the bigger Borax museum there or the open-pit mine today due to very muddy conditions.
Boron is also very close to the civilian aviation development center & site of the world’s only privately operated test pilot school. It is also home to Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites for development of the Voyager—an experimental aircraft that made headlines by circling the globe on a single tank of fuel…. & now, Space-shipOne. In that same area, the US Naval Museum of Armament & Technology is waiting for our visit; both of these museums are subject to national security closures & one has to make reservations in advance, but now the day is too late for that to happen. But we did spend some time in both the new aerospace museum in Boron & their smaller Borax Visitor’s Center where we learned more about boron & borax which has many more uses than just doing laundry & hand washing. Boron is an element that is necessary in everything from strengthening human bones to making antifreeze, glass, dyes, adhesives, enamels, eye & mouth wash, nylon, shampoo, & on & on. This area is now on our priority list for another visit in the future. We still can’t tell a book by its cover or a town by its appearance.
Dinner: Tuna steak, broccoli, wild rice & a mixed salad.
Late DVR movie: “Kiss Me Deadly” with Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Cloris Leachman, Wesley Addy, etc. Meeker is a perfect Mike Hammer in moody, fast & violent adaptation of Mickey Spillane novel; yrs ahead of its time + Leachman’s film debut. 1955. Good entertainment but don’t strive for this type of adventure as a career.
Today’s high temp=48 Lights out: 11:56pm
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