Odd things one can see in the desert

These photos are of the kind of thing you might see in a TV show or movie that might show the desert residents as possibly being a little 'off'.
Well, there were many places both Stacy and I went to over the years that would have proven those suspicions of mental stability to be true!
My personal favorite was the car tire turned inside out cut to look like a crown and often painted white and used as a planter. I saw many of those planters!!

The top photos are of a real eye catcher that used to be in Lucerne Valley area if you were on Highway 62 and heading to or from the Yucca Valley area. It was right off the highway on the South side and while not right next to it if you saw the moose you'd remember it!
As these photos are almost five years old now, I can't say if the "Moose" is still there or not. Back then, and for several years before I took these photos, for most of the year the moose, and it was/is a full grown stuffed moose, lived inside the 'cage'. At Christmas time the owners moved it out and decorated it the cage and a little area in their yard for the holidays.
I actually never stopped to ask the owners about the history of the moose as there aren't any that live in the San Bernardino County area that I'd ever heard of, where it had come from or how these folks had acquired it. I'm not sure if it still there since I know 'living' out in the weather of the high desert hadn't been too good for the moose, even with the shade roof on the cage.
'He' had become pretty tattered looking as his fur wasn't doing to well with the heat, cold and wind of the area. If anybody that reads this drives that area and it is still there, send me a photo!




Last photo is just of the truck I was driving for a while in 2005. I was on "Route 66" or "National trails Highway" in the Daggett area just East of Barstow and heading East in this shot. Interstate 40 that replaced Route 66 for much of its length, is just South or in the background of this photo.
Perpetually dusty from all the dirt roads away form the towns, on this truck you can also see what the bad roads could do to those front air dams. Even a truck, where the air dams don't hang as close to the ground as a cars would be, most if not all would be damaged, falling off or just gone from the desert trucks.
Over the years many trucks were casualties of the washboard dirt roads of the high and low desert areas. Broken suspension parts, broken frames, cracked welds on the cages, cage doors falling off! All because of the rough roads taking their toll on the trucks.
I'll be honest though, the roads weren't the only problem. Most of the drivers, the ACO's, took no care or concern for their 'assigned' vehicles. They usually felt whatever broke the County would fix it! And would go flying down dirt roads, go out in areas most vehicles wouldn't and shouldn't!
For me, since I didn't want to ever be stranded anyplace, it was slow on those bad roads, tread lightly on those really bad roads. I still had cage hinges break. They were held on by large rivets and the bouncing and weight of metal doors themselves would literally slice through them or pull out the rivets.
I can only think of a few of times I had to be towed in. It was never for a literally broken truck!