Gas and Steam Engine Museum

Yesterday, I spent a couple hours wandering around the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in nearby Vista.  There are numerous buildings and sheds rambling over the 55 acres, including a blacksmith shop, a weavers building, model railroad building, stage, and grass area.

 A hillside harvester that was pulled by a team of up to 24 horses.  The engine ran the cutting end of it.

 The following are random pictures of things that interested me.

Dodge Brothers truck.

Autocat truck.

International truck.

 Now I know where the 60's rock group Buffalo Springfield got its name!

 Part of the very large blacksmith shop.

 There are perhaps hundreds of old tractors and other equipment parked in long rows out in the elements - sort of like a tractor graveyard.

 What a beast this steam powered tractor must be when it is fired up!

 A mini-beast.

 The weavers building where several people were weaving away on projects.

 There used to be so many different vehicle manufacturers! Most all have disappeared long ago...

 including Studebaker, of which this is an awesome example of.

 This is a steam powered ammonia compressor used to refrigerate wine in a winery for 50 years.  That flywheel is 10 feet in diameter!

More of the grounds - a one of a kind place!

Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve

Friday, we took the hour drive up to Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve just inside Riverside County.  The reserve exceeded our expectations in several ways. It is 9,000 acres of land that is home to many threatened and endangered plants and animals.  Bikes, dogs, and horses are not allowed on the trails except in a smaller area of the reserve.  The trails are very well maintained and clean, and on this particular day, we saw only a few other hikers and they were closer to the visitor center.  We hiked about 10 miles, but I believe there are 70 miles of trails altogether.

There were raucous Acorn Woodpeckers.

 A few fence lizards.

 Scolding ravens.

 There were vast areas of open grasslands, and steeper areas of dense chaparral.

 The only irritation was this helicopter doing training overhead for the first couple hours.

A Western Side-blotched Lizard hiding in the leaves.

The old ranch adobes are the two oldest standing buildings in Riverside County.  The nearby windmill still spins.

The Moreno Adobe, out of sight to the left, was constructed in 1845.

One of two American Kestrels (the smallest U.S. falcon) we watched hunting.

Moments earlier we saw this Brown-crested Flycatcher being fed by its mother.

We certainly intend to return to the reserve again.  By the way, we saw a photo of a mountain lion on the reserve taken last month. Well, the reserve must be spectacular when the hills are green, water running, and flowers popping - please El Nino, deliver!

The Desert in August

Tuesday morning, I heard on the news that one of the biggest meteor showers of the year would occur that night - the Perseid Meteor Shower.  It would be exceptional because there would be no moon rise until dawn.  We hastily loaded up Dusty for an overnight.  We figured if we went to the desert late in the day, we could avoid the worst of the heat.  The desert would be far from city lights. Whoopee, a spontaneous adventure!

We chose Little Blair Valley in the Anza Borrego Desert.  The temperature was about 97 degrees when we arrived at 5:00 PM.  We were a little concerned about the clouds and our night sky.

We set up camp, which was pretty easy without a tent.

The clouds were pretty, though, and as the sun dropped, the temp started to cool.

We climbed up the boulder strewn hill above our camp to watch the sun set.  You can see Dusty down there in the lower right.

Fire in the sky!

Gail either really shrunk, or that is a giant asparagus!

Well, we lay on top of our sleeping bags staring at the sky periodically throughout the night.  We saw roughly two dozen meteors, a few which were wowsers that left brief trails.  It wasn't quite the meteor shower we expected, but it was thrilling anyway to see the Milky Way so clearly, and several satellites. It was very peaceful, and the light breeze made it very comfortable.

In the morning, we got up early, broke camp, and drove a few miles to the end of the road for a morning hike.

We saw several Loggerhead Shrikes, which can catch insects, sparrows, and mice.  It sometimes will impale its prey on a cactus thorn.

I got a fine reptile fix, as the lizards were up early to beat the heat, also.  This is a Granite Spiny Lizard.

Another Granite Spiny Lizard.

Another Granite Spiny Lizard.

Pictographs from the Kumeyaay Indians who had camps in the area.

 Our "trail" came to an end at the top of a dry waterfall.

I've been having fun with my new camera which has a superzoom lens - good for wary lizards and other wildlife.

Aah, there goes one now!

 A new find - a Mearns' Rock Lizard!  Gail spotted this one right above where we were resting.

This may be a gravid female because of the orange on the throat and over the eyes.

A few minutes later we saw this Western Side-blotched Lizard.

 I wandered over to some large boulders and was rewarded with seeing these morteros, or bowl shaped depressions created by the Kumeyaay grinding seeds.

 There were morteros all around!  This must have been a seasonal village in the past.

Another mortero.

 Our second Mearns' Rock Lizard!  Pretty good camo, I think!

And one more Granite Spiny Lizard.  Well, we were starting to wilt from the heat, and got back to the car around 10:30.

Hit the brakes!  Gail gets as excited about spotting a Mylar balloon as I do about a reptile.  She can spot them from a half-mile away.  No tortoise will die eating this one!

Well, time to book it up the mountain to Julian and get burgers!