Tribal Travels, Musings, and Jawbone Canyon Chapter 8 by R. Cane

Gramps taught us all about the geology of Death Valley - the alluvial plains , the scarred canyons, the scorching salt flats, and was a walking encyclopedia of geological and mineral knowledge.

Grandad was a self taught prospector and knew all kinds of stuff about geology, and minerals. He had even found, and made some mineral claims near Death Valley that he had successfully sold. A genuine prospector!

The history of the earth was of great fascination to me... I had seen the La Brea Tar Pits often as a child - and I loved learning about ancient times ... Gramps knew all about it (claiming he'd been there for most of it - being older than dirt don'cha know) and loved to teach me about the history of the earth, it's geology and such.

In one of these lessons he explained that Death Valley, and most of the deserts, had been inland seas or oceans at various times. He would pique my interest further by sprinkling his answers with tidbits like .. ' there are many neat fossils to be found by someone with a keen eye walking and kicking up stones' - I was fascinated. Wow - an inland sea ... and now dry as a bone .. walking on the ocean floor as it were! He was able to fill us with the wonders of nature! This was how I became an avid 'rock-hound'.

Farther up one of those endless desert highways, I pondered out loud at the long sweeping power lines that we passed – those awe inspiring huge transmission lines and towers. The span between the towers was long, and the huge cables would sag pronouncedly. I was also quite curious why each cable had a huge orange ball in the center of the sag? After puzzling what they were, and why they were there... I said "Grandad... those orange balls on the wires? ... What are they for?" ... and Gramps thought for a moment - and then said ..with his famous twinkle .... "Why those are floats to keep the lines dry at high water!"... It took me a moment to realize he was having me on... and then we both laughed at the cleverness of the answer and gullibility of the questioner, and just as quickly he added they were big weights to keep the lines from swaying in high winds.

A bit of fun at my expense and then a straight answer. What a guy!

[Editor's note: This story was written by R. Cane and is part of a 10 story series]

Power Lines in the Desert