Awake: 5:30am Temp 37 sleep 5+34 sunny, windy overnight @ Boron, CA.
Early morning, Kathy talks to Melissa in PA; they are packing for their CA trip next week.
Katrina calls: she is having her Honda’s water pump & timing belt replaced today.
We leave the small town of Boron @ 10:34am. Smooth roads continue on state road 58 to Barstow & I-15 northeast to the Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA.
Today’s travel: 53 miles 1+15 time 8.5 gal used 6.2 mpg 42.3 avg speed.
Fortunately the campground was big-rig friendly & the roads to our site were asphalt as we ended up parking on desert sand; aside from getting muddy shoes & tires, it was fine.
From our campsite, it’s a mere (5) min walk to the old Calico Ghost Town & we waste no time in getting there. The day’s cool temp & winds have us seeking shelter in & out of the re-enforced buildings of yesteryear.
(1881) marked the beginning of one of the largest silver strikes in California history & the birth of Calico. Named Calico on account of the great variety of colors of its soil; blue, red, gray, green, vermilion, brown, yellow are distinctly seen in patches along the mountain’s side. Besides roaming through the town & its old buildings, reading the history & looking @ early period pictures, my main interest was the Maggie Mining Company.
Today the entrance fee was “free” & we took our time going thru the tunnels. There were only a few places where wood or timbering shored up the walls to support the tunnels because the volcanic ash over millions of yrs turned this earth into such hard rock it wasn’t necessary to support the walls or overhead in most locations; thus the expression: “hard rock mining.”
Inside the tunnel, the iron rails for the ore cars were removed so that tourists would not trip & fall. The average size of these tunnels was (5) ft wide & (7) ft tall; large enough for a man to pass the ore cars through with no wasted space. I kept looking for veins of silver but found none. By the 1890’s, some miners had the latest in technology for getting silver ore out of rock: hydraulic drills vs. picks & blasting with gunpowder or dynamite. We emerged from the Maggie’s Mining tunnel in what seemed to be another town; an entirely different area. We didn’t realize how much distance we had covered underground. It was fascinating!
We also watched a simulated gun fight in the middle of town & listened to a small group singing Christmas Carols before returning to our bus a few hrs later.
Then we drive to the town of Barstow (11) miles to attend the 5:00pm vigil Mass @ Saint Joseph church. Afterward we peruse the local “Food for Less” grocery store before returning to our bus for the night.
Dinner: Kathy’s homemade Chili with Triscuits & crackers.
Evening entertainment: Watch the Republican Debate on TV.
Today’s high temp=53 Lights out: 12:10am
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