AirstreamTour: Two Weeks in the Mojave Desert

We're back in Seal Beach, CA waiting impatiently for the little one to arrive. Jess is due next week and we're all on pins and needles, especially Jess!

We spent the past two weeks at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, so Heinz could use the base wood hobby shop to make a circus-themed toy box for "Thunder" (as you might recall, that's the current nickname for the baby since Jess and Pete want the sex to be a surprise). The box is coming along beautifully. It still needs sanding, detail work, sanding, and more sanding, and varnishing, and sanding, before it's complete, but we'll be here for a month, so he has plenty of time if he doesn't spend it all oohing and cooing at the baby. I'll be sure to post a photo when it's done.

Side One is ready.

Ready for sanding and sanding and sanding...

In the meantime, I was working on a menagerie to ride in it. I originally planned to make around four stuffed animals to go along with the box, but those little guys are addictive. I finally decided I'd better call a halt to the production line after a total of eight, or you wouldn't be able to find Thunder amongst all the animals! What a shame, I've still got lots of fantastic patterns begging to be knitted.

My "Gang of Eight", lots more fun than the one in Congress.

We got to Edwards with visions of time in the wood hobby shop for Heinz, a little knitting and reading for me, and evenings spent seeing old friends from our years assigned to the base, roaming the area taking great photos of the desert, and checking out favorite restaurants from years past. Ah, to quote Steinbeck, "the best laid plans of mice and men." We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Golden Cantina, ate the carnitas and grilled fish (our favorite dishes), drank good margaritas, enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, and woke up the next morning feeling like an army had marched through our stomachs. Probably coincidence, especially since it was w-a-a-a-y longer than food poisoning usually takes to kick in, but none-the-less we stayed sick for just under week. Cancelled: 2 dinners with friends, 1 motorcycle ride up the Angeles Crest, several days in the wood hobby shop, and several great photo ops for sunsets. Sigh...

But we finally recovered and made up for lost time with our friends fitting in dinners, a BBQ, that motorcycle ride, visits at the rig and lunches. Included in all events were interesting conversation, lots of laughs, and a whole lot of catching up with each other. We also fit in a dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant, The Big Tuna where we totally pigged out on all-you-can-eat sushi. We could barely waddle out at the end of the meal, but man, was it good!

We pulled into Edwards a few days into the wildfire down by Santa Clarita (about 50 miles south). There was a smoke layer all across the Antelope Valley which was making for some fabulous sunsets. Heinz and I went out to capture one a couple of days before we got sick.

Smoke layer over the Antelope Valley from the Santa Clarita fire.

Smoke layers make beautiful sunsets. Those are the Tehachapi Mountains in the distance.

This spring was a banner time for the Joshua trees. Scientists aren't sure why, but the trees all through the Mojave Desert (the only place they grow) bloomed in a spectacular manner this year. Almost all of the trees bloomed (unusual) and the blooms were bigger and showier than usual. Some biologists think that the blooms are a stress response by the trees to climate change, specifically to much less rain. The Mojave Desert normally receives between two to five inches of rain a year, but this year it received less than an inch. The theory is that the trees are producing more flowers, and thus more seeds, in an effort to survive with less rain. Biologists are hoping that it works, because the iconic trees are in decline. The Joshua Tree National Park's Wickenburg study site has not seen a new Joshua tree emerge in almost 30 years and a number of trees in the study have died due to changing climate conditions.

Joshua tree blossoms.

Joshua tree.

Large Joshua tree.

(Photo taken several years ago while stationed at Edwards AFB.)

Edwards AFB is a fascinating place. It's on the western edge of the Mojave Desert in the Antelope Valley, a high desert region. The history is amazing. There have been more major milestones in flight here than anywhere else in the world. Here's a "brief" list of some of the history and more spectacular flights that have occurred over the skies of Edwards AFB's 301,000 acres.

1933: established as Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range serving the Army Air Corps as a training site for bomber and fighter pilots.
1942: becomes the test flight center for experimental aircraft, using the dry lake beds as runways.

Bell XP-59A Airacomet, first experimental aircraft to fly at the base.
Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star flown.

Bell XP-59A Airacomet, first US jet powered airplane. (photo courtesy of Aviation History Museum)

1946: Rocket powered Bell X-1 flights begin.
1947: Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the X-1.

Bell X-1 (photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

1949: Muroc renamed Edwards AFB in honor of Capt. Glen Edwards who had been killed in a test flight of the YB-49 Flying Wing the previous year.
1951: base designated the USAF Flight Test Center and the Test Pilot School moved from Wright Patterson AFB in Ohio to Edwards AFB.

D-5-58-11 Douglas Skyrocket reaches Mach 1.88 (1,180 mph) and a peak altitude of 74,494 feet.

1956: Bell X-2 reaches 126,200 feet.
1962: X-15 reaches 314,000 feet.
1967: X-15A-2 reaches Mach 6.72 (4,520 mph), the highest speed ever by a manned airplane.
Late 1960's: SR-71 Blackbird routinely cruises at Mach 3 and altitudes over 80,000 feet.

SR-71 Blackbird on static display at the Edwards Aviation Museum.

1970's: F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon developed and tested.
1981: becomes alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle. (I got to see two shuttle landings during our years at Edwards AFB, what an amazing sight!)

Space Shuttle Discovery on the runway after landing at Edwards AFB, August 9, 2005.

(I took this shot at the time.)

1980's: B-2 flying wing bomber developed and tested.
1990's: Global Hawk and other unmanned airplanes developed and tested, along with testing of the CV-22 helicopter and the F-22 fighter.

I have always said that it was fascinating to drive around the area and watch the "toys in the sky". During our years at Edwards it wasn't unusual to see folks pulling off the road to stop and watch the action for a few minutes.

Do you remember hearing sonic booms as a kid? How many years has it been since you've heard one? At Edwards it is an almost daily event!

Well, it's time to get out and enjoy another beautiful day in sunny southern California, so I'll leave you with some old photos of friends of the day from our time being stationed at Edwards AFB.

Hummingbird nest under construction in the bushes by the house. It was the size of a small teacup and made of plant fibers, spider silk, feathers, lint balls from the dryer outlet, and small twigs.