Monday, December 12, 2005:
8AM - Exploring the Valley of Santa Rosalia.
This morning Mr. Mavica and George will explore the valley heading into the hills southwest of El Centro. In the pic below you may see the hills and valley extending out in the distance. To the left and down below in this pic, is the bustling El Centro district.
Standing at this place, we could hear the sounds of dogs barking and roosters crowing. Light morning traffic noise drifted up. Students are seen walking to school. It is a nice day for a long walk. Not too warm, only 61°F and a cloudy sky.
 Will Mr. Mavica and George reach the end of the valley today?
2PM - Back from our long, long walk!
Actually, we returned about 1PM, but a nap was needed. Man-O-Man! Our imagination plans hikes that our feet cannot manage! Below is the story of our hike.
Our hike up the valley.
On our way up the valley, we stopped at our neighbor Pancho's house behind our Camp to ask about this hike. Pancho said to just go straight, and you will not get lost. So, that is what we did.
In about 30 minutes, we came to where the paved road ends. We walked along a dirt road, and gradually the houses began to be further apart. The houses way up here are pretty basic, mostly shacks. We were very surprised to find a very well maintained baseball field! The field had a pitchers mound and homebase that had been watered down just this morning. The infield and outfield were very well groomed, no grass, just dirt. We will have to return to this baseball field to watch the games played here.
After awhile, the electric lines to the houses stopped, and from that point there were only a few very small ranchos. The valley walls closed in a bit. And for awhile, the valley floor turned into a very large junkyard.
By now we had been walking and climbing up the valley pretty steadily for about three hours. Our goal of reaching the end of the valley was getting close. But the closer we got, the more tired my feet got. We came to the last rancho, and a place where there were some very well built walls. This would be as far as we would go.
Mr. Mavica took some pics of the last rancho and the walls. A young boy on a horse rode up, and we asked him who built the walls. He told us that the Chinese built them more than 100 years ago, but he did not know why they were built.
We sat down and shelled some peanuts to eat. It felt good to rest. It was sooooo quiet, you would not believe. Then we heard some bells, and up high on the valley we saw a man on horseback herding several horses. When the horse with the bells was far enough away, it got completely quiet again. It must be wonderful to live in a place where there is absolutely no sound from cars.
After about a half hour, we started our walk back home to MsTioga.
 
 Baseball field, junk yard, Chinese wall and rancho.
[Thumbnails]
5PM - What to do with an eggplant?
Our amigo Pancho who lives up the hill gave us a couple of eggplants. What should we do with these eggplants? "Betty Crocker's Cookbook" had the answer. Eggplant Parmigiana! This is our first eggplant parmigiana but it won't be our last!
 Eggplant parmigiana is so easy to make, and tastes so good!
 
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TiogaRV Team Mission
To share the vagabonding life with our fellow RVers like yourself. We hope that you will try to boondock and dry camp.
We have found great joy in camping away from the RV Campground. We would like you to try our camping life style yourself.
Sharing with you our Daily Adventure is our way of encouraging you to try to camp as we do.
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