Picacho, Imperial Co. - 3/7/01

[Mark Walker]

More rain in southern California - what a trip.  The storm that blew in from
the ocean on Saturday was pretty solid.  I had little hope of driving out
from under it.  The forecast was dim for even Las Vegas, NV.  Well - with a
day at home with the children and little of interest on the tube, what
better way to spend the day then to drive like a bat outta hell towards the
next days sunrise.

We actually started to see sunshine when we hit Imperial county.  The
Vanessa cardui were plentiful - about 20 a minute across Interstate 8.  We
kept driving, and about ran out of gas when we got to the Imperial Dunes
recreational area.  Not having either a quad or a dune buggy handy, we kept
driving to Winterhaven.  Sounds like a place to go skiing.  Not.  Pretty
nice place to avoid shoveling, however.