From Needles we went south and traveled on California roads that we, who grew up in San Bernardino County, had never been on. Now I know why. The dictionary people must have traveled on the road from Blyth to Brawley when they devised the word "desolate". But David would have enjoyed the many "bump the bumps" as he says. The road engineers must have been practicing dips. Many sections stretched out ahead of us like a licorice Christmas Ribbon Candy complete with a yellow line down the center.
One very interesting stretch was the massive sand dunes area east of Brawley. The area was jammed with RV's and dune buggies. Yesterday the high winds were blowing Serious Sand across the road.
In a few places, the sand had accumulated into dangerous speed bumps. After one particularly dangerous sand speed bump we came across several vehichles pulled over to the side of the road because they were involved in an accident after hitting that sand. As we continued west, several emergency vehicles passed us going to the scene of the accident. There were even 2, what Idaho and Utah would call snowplows, would be "Sand Plows" here, heading for the scene to clear the road. The sand drift buildup could not be seen because there was a sand screen blowing over the top of them. The one that caused the accident hit us pretty hard too. At first I thought that people were just pulled over to make sure they still had all their parts. Then we saw the car that no longer had a front fender and All their Air Bags had deployed. There were people walking around in the sand storm trying to help. We just drove past. We didn't really understand the seriousness of the event until we began to see the Ambulances and Sand Plows headed that way. Dad heard today's News Report that said Highway 8, the one we took from El Centro to I-15 is closed today because of high winds. So now we've been there, done that. We'll go back to Needles on the interstate freeways.
One very interesting stretch was the massive sand dunes area east of Brawley. The area was jammed with RV's and dune buggies. Yesterday the high winds were blowing Serious Sand across the road.
In a few places, the sand had accumulated into dangerous speed bumps. After one particularly dangerous sand speed bump we came across several vehichles pulled over to the side of the road because they were involved in an accident after hitting that sand. As we continued west, several emergency vehicles passed us going to the scene of the accident. There were even 2, what Idaho and Utah would call snowplows, would be "Sand Plows" here, heading for the scene to clear the road. The sand drift buildup could not be seen because there was a sand screen blowing over the top of them. The one that caused the accident hit us pretty hard too. At first I thought that people were just pulled over to make sure they still had all their parts. Then we saw the car that no longer had a front fender and All their Air Bags had deployed. There were people walking around in the sand storm trying to help. We just drove past. We didn't really understand the seriousness of the event until we began to see the Ambulances and Sand Plows headed that way. Dad heard today's News Report that said Highway 8, the one we took from El Centro to I-15 is closed today because of high winds. So now we've been there, done that. We'll go back to Needles on the interstate freeways.
3 comments:
Wow, sounds like an adventure. One of my early childhood memories of family vacation was having to sit huddled on the floor of our motorhome under an overpass. We were in a huge storm that rocked the motorhome so much that things were falling out of the cupboards. I'm glad that you guys made it through safely.
let me add a "me too" to the list of people glad that you guys made it through safely. That does sound like an adventure
From your images i wouldn't have thought that was CA. Now, we can be glad we don't live in a climate like that. Glad you are safe and you could be with the family, sorry you missed saying goodbye to Mom's Aunt.
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