About Me

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Cedar, Leelanau County, Michigan (near Traverse City), United States
I am a 76 year old (born 7/4/1937) retired Public Radio Engineer from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Happily married to the love of my life, Teddy (nee Teddy Schlueter). Teddy is a retired Medical Records Clerk from Theda Clark Hospital in Neenah, Wisconsin. Two children, Michael and Lon. Lon passed away in 1994. Michael is married to his wonderful wife, Toni and lives in Appleton, Wisconsin. For photos click on link below or visit our photo site http://www.flickr.com/photos/igboo NOTE: Click on photos for full-size images.

Monday, April 27, 2009

The China Ranch Date Farm

Last Saturday, April 18th, Teddy and I took a day trip to visit the China Ranch Date Farm. The China Ranch is located near Tecopa, California on the southern periphery of Death Valley about 45 miles from Pahrump. We decided to make a day of it so took our time and enjoyed the drive there. We left Pahrump on Nevada Rt. 372 which turned into California 178 at the border.


Along the way between Pahrump and Shoshone we spotted these delicate beautiful desert flowers growing wild along the road shoulders and had to stop and photograph them. They grew in bunches and the individual blossoms were about an inch and a half in diameter.






Reaching Shoshone we turned left (south) toward Tecopa.



We stopped in Tecopa to visit the hot springs which apparently are a natural phenomenon in the area.
The cost was $7.00 per person to go into the hot spring baths. It was highly commercialized, bathing was in the nude and there were separate baths for men and women. I couldn't see sitting in a pool with a bunch of other naked men so we decided to pass. If Teddy and I could have went together we might have went in. The kicker was that later in the day on the way back to Pahrump, about three or four miles north of Tecopa we spotted several cars pulled off the road on the shoulder of the road and people walking into the desert. Curious, we stopped and I waited in the truck while Teddy investigated. She came back about a half hour later and said that there was a natural hot spring pool/pond and several naked people were lounging there in the muddy water. Wrinkly old men and sagging breasted women, so I was probably better off that I didn't go with her. ;-)


Continuing on we finally arrived at the date farm.

These date palms are entirely different from the date palms that we saw two years ago down by the Salton Sea. I never realized that there was such a great variety of date palms.








While there I snapped these macros of some desert cacti.




















...and these three classes of wildlife...avian...reptilian...mammalian.



Needless to say we also sampled several varieties of dates before leaving.
And guess what?
Teddy made some date cookies when we got back. MMMMMMMM.

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