Ducks of Desert Springs

Water is the oasis of life in California right now with the drought.  It always surprises me (although it should not having studied biology in college) how adaptable animals and birds are to environmental changes.  The drought in California is terrible right now.  Rivers and lakes have slowly faded away to dirt. 

But every so often, thanks to the efforts of someone trying to maintain a piece of serenity within the landscape you run across an inviting view like this.  It does not go unnoticed by these adaptable ducks.  They were not too pleased to be the subjects of a camera shoot and migrated to the water rather quickly where they glided away from us.  However, for a brief moment in an otherwise arid landscape, we had five-minutes of serendipity watching them and gazing at the blue-green, shimmering water.

Water and Fresno

Fresno is experiencing a severe water drought along with most of Central California.  In fact our next stop takes us to an area that is suffering from fires as I write influenced by the lack of water.  We are enjoying our stay so far in the north part of Fresno.  Blackstone RV Park is in the city, but we feel like we are in the country with all of the trees, grass and birds.  Even being close to the street, we hear traffic only occasionally.  This is a popular stopping point for people that want to visit Yosemite or Sequoia National Parks.  I'd like to see both, but if we are lucky we will get a day off to drive up to Yosemite (a drive of about an hour and a half from here.)

We have all the windows open and I am sitting outside at our picnic table writing to you.  It feels delightful to be enjoying the outdoors at noon in the shade in a sleeveless shirt and feel comfortable in Central California where we were expecting temperatures over 100 degrees at midday.  This park is popular for the big rigs as they call the larger RVs and we have several around us to admire.  Spaces here are the largest we have seen measuring probably 35 by 70 feet on average with a patio and a paved space for the car.  (We are the third RV down on the left.)

Speaking of water, I have come up with a system to remember to drink 60 ounces of water a day.  (Jim and Snoopy think I am crazy!)  However, I always forget how many bottles of water I have consumed.  So we took four 17 ounce plastic water bottles and I filled them with filtered water from the tap, numbered them one through four with a permanent marker and placed them in the refrigerator in numeric order.  As I empty one into my Thermos bottle that holds exactly 17 ounces of water, I refill the bottle and put it at the end.  Violá!  I can track the bottles I've consumed and I always have a cold bottle of water at the front of the line.  Ok, maybe I am being a little over the top,  but it works for me!  It is sort of like counting your steps every day I suppose.