CA Adventures 3/15-17/2011

Tues PM  On our way to Corn Springs just east of Desert Center, CA. 

BLM campground - $6/$3 for us.  

Summary  Left front tire on the RV had gone down,  the tread had separated from the carcass and wedged itself between the backing plate of the drum and the leaf springs.  The excess tread had drug back and got caught underneath the left rear tire, which of course, pulled the tire tread tighter into a wedge between the drum and the leaf spring.  J had to use an angle grinder to cut the tire tread and then disassemble the spring from the axle in order to dislodge the tire tread.   

Small campground - about 9 sites.   From Wikipedia:

Corn Springs is a palm oasis situated in the Chuckwalla Mountains of the Colorado Desert in Riverside County, California, United States, seventeen miles southeast of Desert Center. Native Americans relied on the springs and they engraved many signs, petroglyphs, on the rocks in the area. In the late 19th century miners in the area also relied on the springs and they established the Corn Springs Mining District in 1897.^[1]
The springs were added to the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1998.  The springs were used for thousands of years by nomadic Native Americans. The Chemehuevi, Desert Cahuilla and Yuma bands frequented the spring and carved elaborate petroglyphs in the nearby rocks.

Some of the oldest rock art is over 10,000 years old.^[2] At times, there was enough surface water for gardening by the springs. The Indians also utilized the fruit of the palms.
Early white visitors found feral corn plants in the vicinity, giving the spring its present name







Only two other camp sites occupied.  Rest of Tuesday & Wed.  relaxed in the shade and recuperated from hot ordeal.

Today we spent quite a bit of time getting the RV propped up so Jerry could access any damage to the brake drum - inner and outer bearings and inspected the magnet and the shoes of the wheel that had the flat on Tuesday.  He was concerned since it had gotten so hot.  A sigh of relief - all seemed to be OK.  However, did find a crack in the RV frame where a piece had been welded on in Missoula last summer when we broke the leaf springs due to a flat tire.  Bummer...will have someone do some welding on it at our next stop. 

 As a reward, Jerry and I took a short motorcycle ride further into the Chuckawalla mountains on a dirt road.  Found some beautiful flowering cactus!

This is a really quiet, out of the way campground.  We will return another time to do more exploring!  

Friday - on to Redlands, CA.  Will be staying at the Elks.  Oh, by the way, we ordered Pressure Pro sensors for our tires - we've had it with the flat tires and all the damage they have caused!  Yippee.