Chili Bob's Grand Tour - East Jesus

I'm behind on my posts since we've been up late chatting, sitting around the campfire and generally doing nothing, so there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging, but things have been happening. So, this one is about yesterday, Wednesday, Jan. 15. We really saw a lot - too much for one post, so I'll have to break it up and give each part of the tour it's own post. Uploading time is a problem with too many photos.

There's been so much bombing, shooting and air traffic these past couple of weeks over at the Navy Seal training centre just on the other side of the canal from us, it's been something we have not experienced in the six years or so we've been coming down here. We've been here basically over Christmas and New Years and have gone home and gone back to work about the time people go back to work on training down here, so we've not been here over a 'normal' work week until this year. I've heard the stories about the military air shows, the loud booms and the constant hail of automatic machine gun fire, but having not heard it before in person, it was a little weird when we first heard it, but then realised what it was. The machine gun fire isn't so loud, but the bombs going off is enough to shake the place up a bit and make one jump out of their skin the first time you hear it that day or after a long bout of silence. So, anyways, one of our camp mates asked our friend Chili Bob about it and he mentioned he'd take us for a tour around the place and show us where all the action is happening - from a distance, of course! There are many signs around indicating to keep off the land as there could be undetonated ordinance and other hazards. You didn't have to tell us twice, that's for sure! So, anyways, a tour the next day sounded wonderful. I've been waiting on a chance to go on one of Chili Bob's tours of the area here for awhile now. When we went out to visit him in Colorado almost two years ago, he gave us a real good tour all around the sights of Grand Junction, so a tour out here I knew would be good. He's very well known for his grand tours. So, this is about yesterday's tour, which started about 9:30am.

Our first destination was the military training camp, but to get there, we took a long scenic tour through the desert on the other side of the canal with stories of adventures and tours requiring a tow out of a rattlesnake den from another one of our friends and neighbours, Seann. This time, there'd be no getting stuck. We saw the Slab City 18 hole golf course. There were a couple people out either playing or doing maintenance, not sure which, and just drove around some of the roads out there. We saw some mountains and villages or towns in the distance that were made for training missions. I guess they use those towns and buildings to learn and perfect their skills so they know what to do in the real ones. We drove some more and found the training centre entrance. This is the sign and driveway in.

There was no activity that day, so not much to see. That could be a good thing. I think the land boundary and fence is a safe enough distance to keep people safe, but you never know.

We drove around for a bit and our next stop was a place just down the road which I've been meaning to go to for a long time now, but just hadn't got there yet - East Jesus it's called. Most all the news and journalists that come out here always visit there and write about that place, not many other parts of the Slabs, so it was definitely on our list of things to see. I took a bunch of photos, but I'm not sure I can get them all up here or not, but I'll see what I can do.

I'll start with the entrance to East Jesus:

As the sign says, it's a work in progress, like everything pretty much is here.

Here's some of the projects and artwork these folks have been working on:

This is a pretty cool glass bottle wall complete with archways and everything:

And here's a panorama of a lot of it:

A wooly mammoth:

A crooked house:

A whole TV display:

A tower of art in progress:

This is on one side of the tower:

This was another:

There were some interesting vehicles:

And the half buried bus that someone's transformed into a home. It was on the private side but I thought it was neat. 

And even a boat!

This is for BillyBob, another friend who was out here for a couple of years but hasn't been able to make it back. He had a plastic duck called Fred and Fred ended up with some duck puppies the second year we came out and BillyBob got a good kick out of that. So, this is dedicated to Fred and his duck puppies, who all ended up coming to a terrible end over the course of a few years. 

And:

I thought of you BillyBob as soon as I saw this. Miss you out here. 

So, that's East Jesus in a nutshell - well, not quite, but there was so much to show, I couldn't keep it any shorter. 

I'll continue with the rest if the tour in Part 2. Stay tuned for more!