2016 - Thanksgiving on the Desert

Thanksgiving on the Desert

by Bob Jaussaud

Sure hope that you all had as wonder.ful a 2016 Thanksgiving as we did.

Following kind of a tradition, a small group of Desert Explorers gathered again on the East Mojave for Thanksgiving. Our hosts were Leslie and Chris Ervin and Leslie’s folks, Shirley and Kib Roby. They filled us with turkey, ham and everything else one could expect. How did we get so lucky?

There were 15 of us around the festive table including Neal and Marian Johns, Mignon Slentz with her son, Joaquin, Debbie and Steve Marschke, Glenn Shaw, Cheryl and Rich Dodsen, plus Bob and Sue Jaussaud. As usual, we ate too much turkey and too many pies. Everything was wonderful.

Two days of field trips and left overs followed. Friday, we worked our way over a rough road to the Keystone Mine. Believe it or not, Neal and Marian Johns had never been there before. They almost didn’t make it. Part way there, Sue saw smoke coming out of their camper! Steve’s quick action is the only thing that saved their rig. Too bad, Neal. The new camper will have to wait.

Saturday was our day to explore the Hackberry area and we hiked into a little known spring and old mining area. Then we headed to some abandoned claims. Steve showed us an old drilling rig he and Deb had discovered. We continued exploring until the sun went down and we, sadly, had to call it quits.                                                                                ~ Joso

– Fire! – Fire! – Fire! –

This past Thanksgiving, we and several other Desert Explorers joined Chris & Leslie Ervin (Archivist of the Library at Goffs) for a turkey feast at Goffs. Then Friday, Steve and Debbie led us on a trip to the Keystone Mine in the New York Mountains. About a half hour after we left Goffs, Bob and Sue Jaussaud, who were the sweep right behind us, noticed smoke coming out of the camper and via the CB said we were on fire. We immediately stopped and sure enough - smoke was pouring out of the back of the camper. It could have been so much worse if we, rather than Bob and Sue, had been tail end; we wouldn’t have discovered the problem until it was too late.

While I fumbled around, quick-thinking Steve got his fire extinguisher and put out the fire inside the camper. Thank you, Steve! Damage was a hole in the canvas over the stove burner (some idiot left it on when he put the top down). All four of our blankets that were stashed under the table were burned and the table itself was scorched. Two of our four cushions were partially melted and the big catch-all box on the floor and part of its contents were ruined.

After all of the excitement we gathered our senses and decided we might as well continue on. Back on the road again, we drove over a “good” (DE term) road to the mine and found lots of new lumber that Dave Nichols, the Mojave Preserve’s Archaeologist, has hauled in for further rehab of the cabin and loading dock.

After returning to Goffs that evening, we all pigged out on left-overs and then, since we no longer had a usable camper that we could sleep in, we drove on home that night.

Thanks again, Steve.     ~ Neal