So, as luck would have it, my buddy got a rare week off of work this week. And guess what he wanted to do! So I scrubbed my ebay auctions for the week, prepped the 45 again, and off we went, in search of high desert views and solitude.
Lucky for us (and the rest of the off road community, very few people can really tell what is out in the Mojave desert while they're rushing from Barstow to Vegas.
This first mirage is the result of an underground river that is forced up from bedrock over 70 miles from its source, at the mouth of what is refered to as the grand canyon of the east mojave.

We thought it was a little puddle. Little did we know! This next pic should give a little more perspective:

In the aftermath, we had to make use of those very cool and sometimes useful factory drainplugs in the cab floor!

Next stop was the railroad graveyard, where the ghosts of history rest. Always find something cool to bring home, and this time was no exception. Got an engineers log that was dated 4-30-29, a day short of 75 years to the date of me finding it!

My buddy found a log from 1912 with two interesting entries. In the first one, the engineer noted: paid rancher for loss of one cow- $12. In the second, a few weeks later, the engineer noted: paid workman for loss of one testicle-$10. :eek: That was workman's comp in 1912.

more to come. Stay tuned.

more to come. Stay tuned.


*adjusts antenna*














































:flipoff2:

Wow...Thats pretty dang cool to find an old engineers log!!

My buddy found a log from 1912 , the engineer noted: paid workman for loss of one testicle-$10. :eek: That was workman's comp in 1912.

Apparently, there were no laywers in 1912.

:D

This first mirage is the result of an underground river that is forced up from bedrock over 70 miles from its source, at the mouth of what is refered to as the grand canyon of the east mojave.

Izzat the Santa Fe railroad bridge in Afton Cyn?

The next morning was typical east Mojave weather: hot! Some of us came prepared!

Very cool, what better way to spend time off than camping and enjoying the Cruiser!

Wish my job in Comp was that easy.. $10 for a testicle? Kinda makes you wonder what happened to lose that? I've heard of a nipple in a file cabinet before! Almost bought a testicle once but it healed.. Luckily.. It would have been way more than $10!
Pics of the Train grave yard? Those old steam engines?

Jeez, I know of plenty of people I would pay $20.00 to chop off both testicles. :D

After we had breakfast and packed up, we put in a few highway miles for our last gas and headed off for what is truly a step back in time. A perfectly preserved train station out in the middle of the desert! Built in 1923, it has been idle since 1985, but rumors continue to circulate that it will become a visitors center. Tried out the sepia setting on the digital camera for effect:

A closer look at the front, this time in normal setting:

Heading east from the train station up into high country, I was immediately struck with how much more this looked like Utah than California! Plenty of high country chapparal and plateaus. Again, nothing like what you see (or don't see) from the interstate.

This was probably the only unoccupied building in the valley! Appropriately named the Rock House

nice pictures! we demand more! :flipoff2: