I spent 3 winters camping in Mojave 1970's
Inside the Chocolate Mt USAF Gunnery Range
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocol..._Gunnery_Range
No camera
and now more than glad I took none
as my memories and the subject is best in memory
I saw and learned the wonderful desert as we drank warm beer, rode bikes and our DIY dune buggy
We quickly learned to always have 2 vehicles just in case
The VW was a stripper, bare bones, a steering brake. I flat towed it from Chicago. It never failed even when it lost a wheel
I slept under the stars, glasses on to see incredible stars
and USAF jets practicing at night, they knew we there
Same place Patton trained his desert tanks, we saw the tracks
found tiny bits of a Jet as it had crashed strafing an ancient bridge
I think of that pilot often
saw UFO's chased by USAF that could never get close nor maneuver those crazy 90 degree turns and accelerate way faster
Also saw touch and go USAF right beside a road, over and over
I know this is a repeat post, so what!
My memories will follow me
at that time I could not have made images to match my memory
A real horror was finding burned out tall palm trees in an oasis
One oasis had barbwire, a severe and convincing sign, "Trespassers will be Shot." It was public hand
We carried paper Geological maps which were a great help
Got shot at in totally empty land. I wanted a snow plow to bury the druggies
I had to quickly get our 11 people in 1 van, lights off and escape at midnight
next day they were still shooting, but not at us
my new 1977 Pickup had a 45 bullet hole
We moved camp much farther away and into the Patton Tank Tracks
pictures would have been worthless, I did not have the skill
I like my adventure memories
I was NRA for a long time, now I don't show or tell
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