We were here many years ago when we lived in Southern California. Back then the California C4C Chapter was just getting off the ground and was very small. I don’t know their total membership numbers at this time, but there were 29 of their coaches here for this rally.
We were thrilled to reconnect with old friends, Sharon and Roger Garst and Nonie Smith. They were part of the original group when we were also part of the California Chapter.
And we started with an ice cream social! What more could you ask for?
One afternoon, we decided to visit the Salton Sea since it was only a few miles away and we hadn’t been there in many years. Remember, we are trying to “Go Back.”
For years Don has told me the story about when he was eight or ten years old, he went goose hunting with his dad and his brother, Dave at the Salton Sea. They sat waiting for daylight to begin the hunt. All of a sudden, just minutes before daylight, a guy on the other side of the lake let loose with an early shot. The sky turned black with geese clawing for the sky.
Don’s dad took three shots and missed. His brother took two shots and missed. Don, with his little 20 gauge shot gun, fired and down came a goose right in front of them. His dad tied it’s feet together with a bandana and hung it over Don’s shoulder to carry. It’s head dragged on the ground, but obviously he was very, very proud. (I have heard this story many times.) We still have that gun hanging on our wall at home.
Don says his brother may have a slightly different version of this story but Don likes his version best.
The Salton Sea is a vast landlocked body of salt water. It covers 376 square miles.
There is the usual sandy beach and the smell of salt water. Sea Gulls and sandpipers squawk. However, due to the high salt content of the sea, only four or five varieties of fish exist in the water…and two of the varieties are less than two inches long.
Back in the 20’s and 30’s the rich and famous and the Hollywood crowd flocked to the Salton Sea seeing it as a new playground. Some built expensive houses there.
Very few are left and it is a sad place as far as population goes.
Not only was the Marina completely gone….
but I think possibly Gilligan and the Minnow may have ended their trip here.
Our visit to the Salton Sea made us a bit hungry, so we found an In-N-Out Burger back toward town to help us recover from the depression of where we had just been.
In-N-Out Burgers are only in a few states and started in California. Sadly, they are not in Oregon. Now if you are going to waste calories on a grease-burger, you definitely want it to be at In-N-Out Burger! Soooooo good!! Once in a while you CAN go back!!…and if you do, it’s good to have a burger in your hand!
Back at the Fairgrounds, there are thousands of motorhomes, all parked tightly together in a sea of steel.
There are barns here where some of the local FFA (Future Farmers of America) keep their animals. Every day a group of about a dozen and a half kids would exercise their sheep and goats by running them on leashes through the motorhomes.
These three girls stopped to chat and catch their breath while holding their sheep just in front of our motorhome. These kids get in some really good exercise as the animals run like crazy and the kids have to hold on to them. They did this twice every day.
On Saturday night there was a dinner for about 120 people sponsored by the California C4C chapter. After dinner Don performed his Nicodemus monologue.
Don does a great job and this was his best performance ever…however not without incident.
Just as he was retelling, with great emotion, the conversation between Christ and the two thieves on the cross, his microphone went DEAD!!!
While I held my breath, Don apologized, “lifted his skirts,” pulled the battery pack out of the pocket of the shorts that he (thankfully!!) wears under his costume, and calmly changed his batteries.
Then he began again exactly where he left off and didn’t miss a beat or lose any of the emotion he had before the battery failed. It only took a couple minutes and the audience stayed with him and got right back into it.
As I began breathing again, I was immensely proud of how well he handled it. We credit all those who have been praying for him and his performance for how well it all went.
We met lots of great people in the California Chapter of C4C and had a good time with them. Our next stop is to go about 45 minutes away, up to Desert Hot Springs for several days. There is an RV Park up there where some friends from our Oregon-Washington C4C Chapter stay for the winter and we will be hanging out with them for a few days.
Before we moved the coach out of the Fairgrounds, we met with Jack and Claudia Downes, old friends from San Diego who we haven’t seen in about 10 years. This is a friendship that Don and Jack have had for 35 years and it was important to Don that we get to see them.
Jack being about 6’6” or so used to call and say, “Can little Donnie Foster come out to play?”
We had lunch at a beautiful restaurant and caught up on the lost years.
Desert Hot Springs will give us more area to explore and I will fill you in on that next time.
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