HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ODEL

Ummmm.... check out this spacious "site", in the boonies just east of the tiny town of Borrego Springs, CA, surrounded by California's largest state park, Anza Borrego. We've come here to meet up with JoAnn and Doug for a few days of boondocking in the desert sunshine before we head north.

This area (Rockhouse Road) is one of many boondocking areas surrounding Borrego Springs, and we were here a year ago when Richard Dopp built his earth oven. It is still here, becoming a local landmark for boondockers' gatherings.

Today is Odel's 66th birthday, and we decided to host a birthday breakfast, inviting JoAnn, Doug and Joyce and Larry, the other friendly Boomer couple in our small enclave. Odel donned (our) apron and (his) matching hat and treated us all to cornmeal pancakes with - as Joyce, from Vermont, pointed out - REAL maple syrup. What an excellent start to a birthday.

Richard, if you are reading this - yes, that is your handbuilt table hiding under the tablecloth!

After breakfast, JoAnn and Joyce gave me suggestions for good wildflower hikes and we headed off to Glorietta Canyon, a little used (and poorly marked) hiking trail on the other side of town. We couldn't have picked a better day - 70 degrees, sunny and calm. I don't know where everyone else was - we had the trail entirely to ourselves.

I took SO MANY photos as we hiked the trail. The rock formations were glorious, hosting perfectly beautiful flowering gardens. We saw ocotillo with arms almost as big around as my own (not as well toned, though - ha, ha), thickly covered with green leaves, the tip of each arm decorated with a brilliant orange blossom.

We were just a bit early for the blooming of the barrel and beavertail cactus, though we saw lots of fat buds... and all sorts of blooming desert plants. Bright yellows, pinks, oranges and blues, sometimes in carpets on the hillside, sometimes as exquisite miniatures pushing up out of the sand of a wash. We tromped all over in the sunshine, listening to birds and bugs and the occasional little plane coming in for a landing in Borrego Springs.

After our hike, we did a little sightseeing and exploring in the Jeep, then headed home - where I promptly fell asleep on the bed. Thank goodness my husband is 66 - I couldn't keep up with him otherwise.