Friday, March 11, 2016 (Trona Pinnacles, Searles Valley, CA)

As Steve opened the blinds this morning, I heard him comment on the sunrise...and he immediately headed outside with his camera. Absolute spectacular...probably one of the best we have witnessed (and we have seen many, many sunrises!)...

We had a fairly calm morning...the calm before the storm. We knew that a storm was on the way, so we had no plans today. After a lazy start, we did our resistance exercises, showered, had breakfast, cleaned up the dishes...and next thing we knew, it was late morning.

By this time, the wind had started but it was warm...we had all windows and the door open. Since the wind was forecast to come from the southwest, when we arrived yesterday, we positioned the trailer with the door facing the opposite direction.

While I worked on our blog, Steve ventured out to take a picture from the hill behind us...

On our way here we passed Victorville and noticed a lot of aircraft parked in the distance. Steve thought it might be a maintenance and storage facility. After this little fella flew over Steve investigated further. He must be landing at the Southern California Logistics Center Airport formerly known as George Air Force Base. It's now used by international carriers to ship foreign products to southern California. There are also a lot of fighter jets passing through very low everyday but by the time Steve gets the camera they're long gone.

Salt flats are starting to get whipped up by the wind...

 Some pretty ominous looking clouds are coming...

We get a few long trains passing through everyday. They also store rail cars here...

The winds got stronger and stronger...whipping up salt from the dry salt beds...

Wind gusts, according to the National Weather Service were forecast to reach 45 mph, 55 mph on the east side of the Spring Mountains. Well, we're not sure where the Spring Mountains are but it sure felt like we were getting the 55 + mph gusts! We've never experienced such strong winds!

We had to put the three slides on the wind side in,..leaving us half a home to live in. The temperature also took a dramatic drop...it was only 52F outside, that's a good 20 degree drop! Steve was still in his shorts and with no access to the bedroom to change, he had to bring out the small fleece blanket and sat with it wrapped around his legs
 and feet. I grabbed a towel to put around my cold feet....so the two of us sat on the couch bundled up watching TV. Luckily Steve had re-positioned the truck to give added protection to the satellite dish!

Shortly after 6:00, the wind seemed to have subsided enough to put the slides back out. I managed to make dinner and a short while after we'd finished eating, the wind picked up again...so we pulled in the 2 large slides, leaving the bedroom one out. We can't get into the bedroom if the slide is in.

Just before 9:00, we decided to go to bed and watch TV in there. Well, the wind gusts were so strong that Steve decided we should bring in the bedroom slide, leaving it out just enough for us to squeeze through the opening. That was another first! Let's hope we get through this night in one piece!