Borrego Springs is backdrop to more than 125 free standing metal sculptures

Scattered across the southern California desert near Borrego Springs are more than 125 amazing life-size depictions of animals that are said to have roamed this same landscape from prehistoric to present times.

Known as the Galleta Meadows Sculptures, the menagerie includes a 350-feet serpent (right), mastodons, dinosaurs, wild pigs, sabertooth tigers, ancient camels, wild horses and longhorn sheep.

Dennis Avery, an heir to the founder of one of the world’s biggest label-making companies, is the master mind behind this massive installation of free standing art.

According to an article in the San Diego Reader, Avery "learned from open-space advocates that land in Borrego Springs was selling for rock-bottom prices. He wound up buying a number of noncontiguous parcels that added up to about three square miles of the town."

Back in 2006, Avery underwrote the publication of Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert, (Sunbelt Publications). The book about the unusual paleontology of Borrego Springs included "detailed illustrations of the region’s landscapes over the past five million years and the creatures that once lived there," according to the San Diego Reader.

Avery envisioned taking the illustrations in the book into three-dimensions and commissioned artist/welder Ricardo Breceda to create life-scale original steel sculptures to be placed on his property. The first sculptures--three giant tusked gomphotheres, ancient members of the elephant family (bottom photo)--were erected in the spring of 2008.

Breceda’s creates his works in his welding shop in Perris, Calif.  "I just look at a drawing," said the self-taught artist, in a video posted on 'Road Trip' on KPBS San Diego. "All I need to know is the size and we go from there."

Using recycled metal for the frame, Breceda welds rolled steel "together bit by bit" for the exterior.

For a map of the sculptures click on here.

Nearby is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park where there are developed RV campgrounds. Many visitors approach the park from the east or west via Highways S22 and 78.  Highway S2 enters the park from the south off of Interstate 8.

To read more by Julianne Crane click on RVWheelLife.com

Photo: RVer Jane Justis of Susanville, CA., stands under part of artist Ricardo Breceda's 350-foot serpent near Borrego Springs. (Photo by Kevin Justis) Bottom: The first sculptures were "Gomphotheres," ancient members of the elephant family (Galleta Meadows Website).

Dinosaurs and dried fruit 'n nuts lure road trippers off I-10 in Cabazon, California

Added to our list of "must stop" roadside attractions along I-10 in southern California's Mojave Desert are Hadley Fruit Orchard's store and the World's Largest Dinosaurs in Cabazon, Calif.

In 1951, Paul and Peggy Hadley began selling their products from a roadside stand. To attract customers to the remote location, Paul bought slabs of lumber, painted signs in bright colors and set out to find neighbors and other property owners along the highway who would allow him to put up his homemade billboards.

Not too long after that, in the mid-50s, my family was emigrating to warm and sunny southern California from freezing, snow covered upstate New York. Five of us were had packed all our belongings into a Plymouth station wagon towing a 32-foot travel trailer. Just west of Palm Springs, we saw one of those painted signs that advertised 'Date Shakes' and pulled into Hadley's. What we discovered was a bonanza of packaged fruit and nuts. We then knew for sure we were in the land of milk and honey.

A few years later, about two miles east of Hadley's, the Cabazon Dinosaurs were created by Claude Bell, a theme park artist.

With the help of a few friends, Bell began building the dinosaurs in 1964.  It is said that Bell spent the next 11 years completing Ms. Dinny, (pronounced Dine-y) the 150-foot long Apatosaurus. Construction of Mr. Rex, the towering three-story concrete Tyrannosaurus, was begun in 1981.

Both Hadley's and the Cabazon Dinosaurs are open daily.

More information: 

Hadley Fruit Orchard
48980 Seminole Dr.
Cabazon, CA 92230
(951) 849-5255
URL: www.HadleyFruitOrchards.com 

Cabazon Dinosaurs
 50770 Seminole Dr.
Cabazon, CA 92230
(951) 922-0076
URL: www.CabazonDinosaurs.com
General admission: $6.95; children: $5.95; military with ID and seniors: $5. Tours are self-guided.
On I-10 and the Main Street exit, 13 miles west of Palm Springs.


Read more of Julianne Crane's writing at RVWheelLife.com  

Photos: Aisles of dried fruit and nuts inside Hadley Fruit Orchard (Yelp.com/Jihan M) Mr. Rex (flicker.com)

Visit birthplace of the U.S. national anthem

When driving through the Fort McHenry Tunnel on I-95 near Baltimore, Maryland, you will be under the very water where Francis Scott Key was stuck on September 13 and 14, 1814 during the War of 1812. Key, a lawyer, had boarded the British flagship to secure the release of a friend.

He watched a gigantic flag with 15 white stars and 15 red and white stripes flutter defiantly on the ramparts of Fort McHenry. Sewn by Mary Young Pickersgill, her daughter Caroline, nieces and servants, it was so large (30' x 42') that it could not be stitched in their home. So they had it completed in a Baltimore brewery at a cost of $574.44.

Key waited out the 24 hours in "shock and awe," as the British fired off 200-pound bombs, which often blew up prematurely in mid-air. At night they sent up signal rockets which burned in flaming arcs across the sky. Through all of that, at dawn Key was amazed to see Mary's flag still waving and the Fort intact.

OVERCOME WITH EMOTION, he wrote some phrases on the back of a letter. His brother-in-law suggested singing the poem to the meter of a British drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." The song was an instant hit, but it took Congress until 1931 to designate it as the U.S. national anthem. If you want to see the flag, it is still a moving sight; it is displayed in the Smithsonian Institute, which is down I-95 a bit.

It's only about an hour pitstop to tour Fort McHenry. In the summer months there are daily ranger talks, weekend living history, and drill, musket and artillery demonstrations. Do not miss the 10-minute orientation film with its surprise ending! The fort is at 2400 East Fort Ave. in Baltimore.

Visit Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point) for a quick Mexico winter escape

It may be Margaritaville to the college set, but it is also a winter escape for snowbirds, a dose of salt and sea air, and bargain shopping. Puerto Penasco, Mexico lies 66 miles below the border at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, 212 miles southwest of either Phoenix or Tucson.

Here you can revive nostalgic memories of those lost weekends or semester breaks, enjoying a cold Dos Equis, watching the parade of bikinis cruising the broad sandy beaches, or plying the streets in search of the perfect taco.

Near the northern tip of the Sea of Cortez, Rocky Point is the closest saltwater beach to Southern Arizona. Choose from several campgrounds with hookups where you can step from your RV right onto the sandy beach.

And who needs to be told about the bargains among the numerous streetside stalls offering Mexican-made goods from leather purses to colorful blankets, and rows of fishmongers line the sea front offering the catch of the day.

You can find Puerto Penasco at the end of Arizona Highway 85 (which becomes Mexico Highway 8).