I am being sent to Hesperia against my will!

[XemaSab]

So my company is FINALLY getting this big transmission line project off the ground, and starting Monday I am going to be walking corridors in the desert.

It might be a few months. :scared:

[devilgrrl]

1. Oy!

Freeperville-O-Rama! :scared:

[KitchenWitch]

5. I have heard it called "Despairia"

[XemaSab]

10. Straight outta Steven King yo...

:scared:

[XemaSab]

7. If you drew a Venn diagram of California lowlifes

Hesperia would be where fundies, tweakers, gang bangers, and nazis intersect. :scared:

[Redstone]

12. Ah, but the real fucking crazeouts like Manson always ended up in the Saline Valley.

It's still a spooky place, and the locals advise you to not go there without being armed. Really.

Redstone

[XemaSab]

14. That does not surprise me

There are a lot of BLEAK places in California.

[fizzgig]

2. that name sounds more like

a disease than a place

[XemaSab]

3. I had this REALLY nasty rash on my groin

but the doctor said it was just Hesperia. :P

[fizzgig]

6. exactly

did the cream clear it up? :P

[XemaSab]

8. It went away on its own

:P

[Redstone]

4. Where in blazes is Hesperia, and why?

Redstone

[XemaSab]

9. BFE... north of the words "San Bernardino" a bit... the leftmost "San Bernardino"

[Redstone]

11. Right near Apple Valley, where my mother's cousin and her husband

used to own a gas station.

Small world, and all that.

Redstone

[SoCalDem]

13. hang out in Victorville..It's a little better.. not much, but a llittle

If you hike, there's a great little canyon near Apple Valley that's quite pretty :)

[XemaSab]

15. The sad fact is that I have already spent too much of my life in Victorville

Have I ever mentioned that birding is a shitty hobby that will take you to more armpits than you ever imagined? :shrug:

[Shakespeare]

16. Escape to LA when you need a break.

I'm sure I'm not the only DUer who'd meet you for a beer or dinner!

[XemaSab]

17. Awesome!

I was also thinking of checking out Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and some other spots on the weekend, but I'm sure I'll get deserted out after a bit. :P

[Shakespeare]

25. Death Valley should be at the height of wildflower season right about now....

...so it's a great time to visit there.

[Redstone]

18. But hey, at least you're within striking distance of the Owens Valley, which is one

of my VERY most favorite places. Lone Pine is a wonderful little town (at least it was 20 years ago), there's the ghost town on top of Cerro Gordo, Mount Whitney, Mono Lake, the Alabama Hills, and Darwin Falls. You can have some damn good weekend drive from where you'll be working.

Redstone

[XemaSab]

19. Exactly

Right in the peak of spring migration, too. :D

Inyo County, here I come. :D

[Redstone]

20. Oh, yes. Be sure to stop by Darwin if you can, and if you get north enough,

Goffs, California. Interesting little towns, they are.

I'm jealous right now. Red Hill and that other ghost town right next to it. Mojave Airport. And for a long drive, Bodie.

I miss the desert. I miss Amboy and Bagdad, going a bit south now. I miss the ocotillo blooms in the spring. I miss seeing if the rental Sentra will really do the 105 MPH that the speedometer indicates, and not worrying about the cops because I can see 40 miles ahead of me. I miss being at least 50 miles from the next human being.

Redstone

[XemaSab]

21. I have been to Bodie

Got poured on there. That was the weekend I put to bed my 100 for Mono county. Inyo is virgin territory... I mean, I've fooled around a bit there in Manzanar and Death Valley, but I've never really DONE Inyo.

[Redstone]

22. Good birding to you, then. Keep us posted.

Redstone

[XemaSab]

23. Will do!

:hi:

[begin_within]

24. You won't be far from the fantastically beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite, Sequoia,

King's Canyon, Death Valley National Park, Mount Whitney, the Alabama Hills, the Owens Valley the Inyo Mountains, the Bristlecone pine forest, with the oldest living organisms on earth, the Colorado river, and not all that far from the Grand Canyon, one of Earth's most stupendous sights, the Big Sur coastline, Joshua Tree National Park, the beautiful San Bernardino, San Gabriel and San Jacinto mountain ranges, Palm Springs, and on and on. Hesperia itself may be boring, but you're not far from a great variety of beautiful and world-famous scenery.

[XemaSab]

26. I'm close to most of that stuff now

:P

[Redstone]

27. Holy shit! You know ALL the good parts of California, don't you?

You didn't mention Anza-Borrego, but I bet you know it.

Redstone

[begin_within]

29. I have been to Anza-Borrego a few times, in fact I drove right past it Saturday.

But frankly it doesn't hold that much appeal to me. Neither does the beach frankly. I'm more of a mountains & forest type person, really.

[XemaSab]

31. I went to Anza Borrego and the birding was wack

so I left.

Hot and windy. :(

[july302001]

28. Hesperiidae

Is Hesperia windy? Do the tranny lines go to a wind farm?

There's actually a family of butterflies called Hesperiidae. When I hear that town's name, I think of the little butterflies usually known as skippers.

Maybe there's not too much social life out there, but there's always lots of stars in the sky and time for a good book.

I hope there would be flowers in the desert, although this year I hear it's been awfully dry.

[XemaSab]

32. The lines *do* go to a wind farm and skippers *are* brutally hard to ID!

Welcome to DU! :bounce:

[necso]

30. When rattlesnakes come out

of hibernation, sometimes they're cranky and relatively aggressive. (I've seen this, heard credible stories.)

And until it warms-up during the day (ie, when it gets relatively cool at times -- for rattlesnakes), sometimes they can be found in unusual places, having gotten stranded the night before -- or having sought some convenient warmer spot when it started to get cold the day before. (I've seen them lying across a trail, stopped in mid-slither, a number of times in the lower-lands.)

Of course, I'm not trying to scare you; just to give seasonal advice.

And almost always, animals that could do you harm are primarily interested in getting away from you. Be aware of where you walk, be careful where you reach and sit (squat), and you should be fine. I've gone out alone: deserts, valleys, hills and mountains; on trails and crosscountry -- many, many times.

And if you aren't peeing (or if it's darkish), then you're not drinking enough.

You can freeze water in bottles (leave room for expansion; check for breaks), then drink it as it thaws. (The more ice, the longer it lasts; I used to do 1/4s, 1/2s, fulls. In a cooler, of course, it melts much slower than on your back. Covering your cooler will also help.)

You'll want sun-block, insect repellent, and some basic first aid supplies (headache remedies, stuff for blisters, forceps or tweezers, cutting instrument, etc).

I usually cover-up fully, but this feels sweaty.

[hunter]

33. It's hard to imagine now, but I used to do that sort of thing for fun...

When I was young, single, and footloose, I once followed the HVDC lines from the San Fernando Valley to the Washington State border.

Oh my, but I saw a lot of Hesperia kind of stuff, but this was long before meth became the scourge it is now, so maybe it wasn't quite so bad. Actual farmers, ranchers, hippies, and miners made up a larger portion of the population than mystery gun people subsisting on cheap beer and big tubes of summer sausage they bought at Wal-Mart.

Now that we are outsourcing methamphetamine production to other nations, I wonder what all those Americans who used to make meth are doing? (Is this a great nation, or what...)

I always feel if I've got a pleasant attitude, and I respect that I'm on someone else's turf when I run into people, that I can travel pretty freely. It's always interesting to experience the America you never see on television. Behind the masks and the stereotypes, the United States is a fascinating place.

[LSK]

34. will the neighbors wireless still work from there?

:popcorn:

[XemaSab]

35. The email made a point of stating

that the hotel has wifi. :D

[LSK]

36. they have wifi in bobo hick towns?

:shrug:

[XemaSab]

37. who knew?

:shrug:

[hunter]

38. Here you go, without comment.

Termite People of Hesperia:



http://www.calearth.org