Lenny and Vita invited us for lunch at the Shadows Restaurant located within the Shadow Hills Golf Club. This golf course frontage setting restaurant offers an extensive menu for lunch. Monday being my meat or fish day, I couldn’t resist ordering the calamari appetizer as my main course. J.J. wanted the club sandwich which Lenny warned is very large.
This was our 4th get-together with Vita and Lenny, a very interesting couple from Schenectady, New York. The four of us reminded each other that it’s been almost 3 years from our very first meeting in the parking lot of the Zion National Park. Friendships can germinate and blossom from totally unexpected beginning.
The 2 1/2 hours the four of us spent together was barely adequate to catch up with our personal and family news. J.J. and I were under a tight timetable. We wanted to reach the campground before sunset.
Our destination for the night, Barstow-Calico KOA is actually located in the town of Yermo, Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County. The two of us really never paid much attention to this tiny and obscure town 13 miles east of a popular ghost town for visitors.
I learned that Yermo in Spanish means wasteland, badland, barren land, untillable land, and wild land. The KOA campground probably was one of the first to be established and not much has been done as to upkeep and upgrades. The only saving grace is the Santa Fe Railroad car parked in front of the establishment. Thankful for my reliable hiking boots, I walked past ant hills and small animal tracks to fulfill my daily 5 miles target.
Aloha -- Cathi
