The 55th annual Borrego Days Desert Festival took place over this past weekend at Christmas Circle in Borrego Springs.
The theme Eyes to the Skies seemed appropriate as the peak of the Orionids Meteor Shower would also be at the same time. Alas we did not see a single meteor.
On our way we stopped for lunch in Santa Ysabel, and noticed Don’s Market had a fresh load of Julian apples on display.
Fran selected a few for the trip
As usual we had to visit Dudley’s for lunch.
We split the Baja Chicken sandwich for lunch, but skipped the Apple Mango pie.
That just doesn't even sound good!
It’s a fun shop to wander while waiting for the deli to make up our sandwich
The Borrego Chamber of Commerce has a quiz section in their newsletter on street names taken from local cattle brands. There’s a nice display of some brands at Dudley’s.
My entry has been selected twice, but I only win bragging rights for a week. Here’s the quiz from last week.
Can you name this street? Leave your guess in a comment.
We stopped briefly at the airport to view the brightly colored planes from Air Group One based in El Cajon.
We set up at Pegleg Smith camping area with only one other rig there.
That first night I set up my metal fire tub over the location where a previous ground fire had been. The tub puts out a lot of heat, so I always place it on rocks. Ground fires are not permitted within the Anza Borrego State Park. All fires need to be built in a metal container.
“-Illegal ground fires are prohibited. Campfires must be kept inside a camp stove or in a metal container provided [by] the camper with a bottom and sides.”
Ref: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=638
As the winds became stronger I still managed to rekindle those coals left behind. Fortunately I was able to extinguish both fires before the desert burned down!
Covid kept the schools closed last year. Hence the parade lacked the local bands and groups. In fact only CalFire was listed. So here is the entire parade.
But what’s a Borrego Days Parade without Miss Borrego. This photo is a quite fuzzy, I was not expecting another entry.
The wind increased overnight! I was pleasantly surprised the slideout topper was still there in the morning! The wind was still going strong enough to force Air Group One to remain grounded.
I took a short walk around while waiting to see if their ‘air parade’ would occur.
Carlee’s has repainted their sign. you may recall it was dark blue and sky blue before. I like the change. We often order their Jerk Chicken Salad to-go. It's more than enough to split.
The Bayfield Bunch likes to stop at Los Jilbertos for a quick bite. This picture is for Al, who remains stuck in the Ontario cold.
The work on the ‘shadeway’ still has not begun, but there are now shaded picnic tables at the Community Garden. Guess that's a start of sorts.
The first band at the festival was Soul Frenzi, who played some Jimmy Buffet and ZZ Top tunes.
They did not capture us, so we went over to check out the entries at the show-n-shine.
187 lbs; goes fast; makes left turns; no brakes
Quite a few desert toys were on display
And Fran’s favorite a 1960 Ford Thunderbird.
Miss Borrego and court made an appearance at the mainstage.
After the announcements The Sound of My Voice Band took the mainstage. They are billed as the Ultimate Linda Ronstadt Experience. And they are really good, Micaella has that ability to sound so much like her. She is not just singing the songs, but she captures the music.
Their website contains samples of their music. We really enjoyed them.
Back at the airport we went up to the viewing deck of the Propeller Bar and Grill.
It was fun finally seeing these planes getting to fly.
Almost every trip to Borrego includes a visit to Font’s Point. It’s been over a decade since I released my dad’s ashes there.
I’ve taken Fran to the Great Snake of Clark Lake a few times and she’s gone up once by herself. She felt totally qualified to act as guide for one of her gal-pals.
The mature landscaping at The Springs golf course looks very inviting.
A Buddy Holly tribute band will be there in March. Maybe we will too.
Between the Road Runner Club and the Circle this lonely mailbox has been there for years. This is the first time we used it. It does have a pick-up schedule on it that promises 12:45 M-F, let's see how long it takes a postcard to arrive in Ohio.
The hard cold wind was blowing again in Ranchita. I stopped to take this picture of the heavy dark clouds that were coming from the coast.
We were able to make it home and settled before the rain came. It did indeed rain all night – YAY!
