Day 23 Friday January 31

new yuma library - who knew

Organ Pipe 1

Organ Pipe 2

Bouncing back to Yuma for the mentioned watch band, we spied the Quechan fry bread woman and chased her around for a bit but found she hadn't started frying yet. Found vast new library we had not known existed and vast areas of new Yuma not seen before. Shopped the Target, posted the post, returned to Big Auntie for the fry bread and shot east on interstate 8 and right on hwy 85 to Ajo, Why, through 2 border patrol chechpoints to Organ Pipe National Monument where we occupied #170. Hood up to discourage varmits.

Day 22 Thursday January 30

the land around here

winning the mad max award again this year

second site senator wash - just getting ready to leave in the 9 o'clock hour

trouble at the city on the hill

crossing the colorado into yuma

evening at second site with john gresham on the phones

     After a day sitting still mostly with a few hours circling through the badlands on the bikes we have felt the edge of the long wavelength life of the desert. Flash floods and wind storms happen but mostly it is bright and clear and warm during the day and then chill and clear at night over and over. There is a city on the hill of rvs but we are in our own little tuck with only a few showing across the nearby bay of the reservoir, but you can hear some times a clear rendering of a conversation over there if the atmosphere is just right. No wind tonight. Lots of mesquite logs about after a culling by the government; incredibly hard and heavy. Ridiculously heavy. Dense.

     Small fire, snacking, g and t’s. Tomorrow Yuma Target to get a apple watch band replacement so all important life coach can keep coaching.

     Credit were it is due - S had a nice swim, but I could only stand a quick dunk. Water pretty but very cold.

Day 21 Wednesday January 29

First site Senator Wash Reservoir 

Irrigated Dates

     Wind blew in at about 9 am as we were leaving Mike and Palm Springs although we didn’t actually leave the vicinity until 11 due to Target and Trader Joes and Albertsons visits. S got a few things like a swim suit and I got an Hawaiian shirt in black and white plus I forgot about the trip to the thrift store, Angel View, yesterday at which S and I got long sleeve light colored shirts, mine was linen and about the size of a pup tent, for to keep the sun at bay on the hike.

So we left Rancho Mirage at 11 and the dust was blowing hard but mostly from the rear so no problem. Rolled past the Salton Sea, Bombay Beach, Niland, Brawley, and mile upon mile of industrial lettuce, broccoli and such to arrive at Yuma and not too long thereafter at the Senator Wash Reservior in the late afternoon. Slipped into the spot occupied last year by the three Sprinters group so now with just our nuclear family it was a bit lonely seeming. S says Mark and Lisbet of that trio are in Kentucky working the Amazon warehouse and E is figuring out life after F passed this past Christmas. B was happy however standing in the water drinking and peeing simultaneously. S whipped up a stir fry to die for and we settled into a cup of box wine as darkness flowed in and the wind eased. 

     Spending so much time in public toilets these days was thinking of maybe a photo essay, but not tonight because there are no toilets around here, maybe tomorrow, maybe not.

Day 20 Tuesday January 28

Tahquitz protection

M's place up the steps and in the gentler part of town

     A day in Palm Springs. Had to move the van because one of the condo residents felt it was a collision hazard. Dog maintenance then a bike ride with a short portage where civilization failed us. So many unique house shapes and colors that one gave up on photos before even starting and also if one stopped S and M disappeared around the corner. The vast mountain loomed over the carefully managed homes; Tahquitz Canyon threatened the houses on the west side of town so they build a wall of boulders a mile long and real high to protect them from it floods of water mixed with other boulders. (see photo).
     Went to visit Bob and he served a nice lemon water and showed us around his construction site/home. Dog maintenance. Laundry. A nice dinner at the Tropicale where you felt like Ol' Blue Eyes might show any minute. S had the fish tacos, M the seared char while I dealt with the Indian Butter Chicken plus the fruity drinks. Tomorrow we are on our on again and heading for Yuma.

Day 19 Monday January 27

Atlatl use by non natural

   

PS Public

     After classic breakfast in the BLM into Josh Tree City where S took a five dollar shower across the street from the Joshua Tree NP visitors center while I read about the naturals use of the atlatl to hunt in the cooler wetter environment around here 12,000 years ago. From there it was all downhill back to Palm Springs Public Library prior to meeting Mike at 1:30 at his digs on East Amado Drive.
     Arrived M's, got through the gate, parked van with B left in and to her own devices while we chatted and swam. M off to square dance and we to see Parasite, the movie, down the street via bikes.

Day 18 Sunday January 26

shadow with pf flyer

Willow Hole 1

Willow Hole 2

Willow Hole 3

Willow Hole 4

Willow Hole 5

the neighbors

Creosote

     Out to the trail to Willow Hole. Great walk among  magnificent stones. Old snow here and there. Got kind of burnt though. S liked the snowball fighting, I thought is was somewhat dangerous due to the coarse grainy icyness of the material. Out to Key View for the view of the five cities of the desert below. Backed by the snowy San Jacinto. Lunch at the Blacktop or the Three Natural Sisters cafe which had a travel themed menu - dinners were called Destinations. The food was good and covered supper later. 

Every one in Joshua Tree City is either 30 or 60. 

     The library was closed and offered no leaked wifi like S said it would in all likelihood. Return to camp 100 feet from last night’s bivouac in time for sunset that was not like last night because of no clouds and the wind came up right as the sun went down. It is buffeting the van now hours into the dark, but there is a sickle moon and the heater. Going out into the howling creosote dark can be a little otherworldly. Listening to someone reading John Grisham on the phone. Soon we will be into the Trader Joe's Honey Grahams after that who knows, maybe a toddy.

Yep, toddies.

Day 17 Saturday January 25

     

Sky above BLM Dispersed Camp - Joshua Tree area

Same as above but with creosote

Boondocked

Boondocked 2

     After a coffee, toast, peanut butter, cream cheese and three kinds of jam, a dog walk and home tour up at the rose garden by the mission. Delineations and ruminations about our ancestors between K and I as we strolled along with the dogs through the magnificent ancestral homes of some one’s, but not ours.  Good bye to K and G and their luxurious hostpitality at Cota and Chiquita.  Beetled down the freeways skirting LA’s eastern fringe to Beaumont, Joshua Tree City and finally, due to the fact that in all of Joshua Tree NP there was no camp site that nite, to the edge of a dry lake on BLM land where in the vast expanse some campers of various types were strewn. Deep green creosote bush and little golden tuffs of grass was all there was. Sunset was pretty good. It started to get cold fast. We are favored with many new food items from Trader Joes and Albertsons such as veggie burger and chopped salad. And of course there is the heater.

Day 16 Friday January 24

The Bot Garden as it is known colloquially

Above and next to the Bot Garden

     Off to R's house near the mission for sweets and a tour through the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. R has the natural history of the region in his blood and one is given deep details on these walks. Over to Parma park for another trek surrounded by distant homes with often striking styles and qualities not to mention prices. Lunch of left over pasta y fagioli under the Tipu tree.
     Later met R at Harry's bar in the little shopping center anchored by Gelson's. Rene, our waitress, had been there a long, long time and R was one of her favorites. The onion rings were great and the drinks muscular.

Day 15 Thursday January 23

lunch over at the Padaro Ln. Grill

this could have been a useful picture had it not been a total failure - anyway the confluence of Padaro Lane, Santa Claus Lane, Highway 101, and the BNSF rails

The Tipu

The Tipu 2 - a splendid thing in S and K's yard

Tipu by night

     Bagels, walked the dogs around the block, took off to Romero Canyon and hiked for a couple hours up and down the mountains behind Carpentaria. Damage from the big blowout of boulders out of said mountains 2 years ago was much mitigated except the 20 people killed in their beds in the middle of the night by round rocks the size of locomotives could be renovated. Lunch in our old neighborhood of Santa Claus Lane was appreciated. Much talk of negotiating a visit with Richard; no news on that effort that I know of. Maybe later.
      Later: At the Wine Bistro we met with R and some drinks, some nice bread and oil and finally a poblano pizza which seemed more like a plum pizza, good though. Home to Cota and drifting off to beds.

Day 14 Wednesday January 22

Richard's Apartment Building

Molly and B went for a walk in Parma Park

Awoken from their nap

From the new house

     Not a long range travel day; the van didn't move as it hasn't since Monday. All went for a dog walking at Parma and the Botanical Garden. S went with K to swim and G and I biked about SB touching on a bike shop for brake cable for me, a sandwich among the foreign language students, Richard's apartment building, the funk zone and the real funk zone, another bike shop, an another bike shop and a beer joint where G discovered ABV and IBU. Later I had to shop for dinner, Pasta e Fagioli, again on bike which was short but hard because there was a deadline; we wanted to go to someone's new and unoccupied new house for the fine view and the sunset and the wine. Finished cooking after sunset and the dish was fine but subtly different from that made at home possibly because I bought the wrong type of canned tomatoes. A fine day in the golden state.

Day 13 Tuesday January 21

Teva Quilted Boot

     Molly and B were taken to the beach below Beany Baby's mansion and the waves were good, the sky was partly blue and the breeze light and chill. Checked out Brett and Colleen's house on the steep slope just above Cota and Alameda Padre Serra. On bikes out to the U and Coal Oil Point on the far side of Isla Vista where it was trash day and a good thing too. The transit of campus was an Amsterdam of bikers and pedestrians but no incidents due to our somnambulant passage. Don't remember a visit when I was present in the time of thronging utes (22 k G said). Lunch on the bluff off Del Playa on a stairway down to the sand. On to the Draughtman Brewery in an office park off Hollister Avenue which thoroughfare we travelled for quite a ways through downtown Goleta and back to the bike trail and the truck parked just off Modoc. Also the old shoebox apartment we lived in on Trigo back in '68 before the bank burning etc. Oh, and the headquarters/showroom of Dexter sportswear wherein the shoe brands the company owned were cooly displayed (see above example which caught my eye). Home to salmon and steak at the most hospitable Stevens/Baker home. Possible some wind/sun burn.

Day 12 Monday January 20

Lost in the parking lot - a tragedy for a child of Ojai

the iron works

pop fly

One night in Ojai

One night in Ojai 2

     Skip, S and I went for pancakes at the Rainbow Bridge market ($2.50 each and $1.00 for extra syrup) although S had the asian noodle bowl plus some of my cakes we bid goodbye to Sheila and Skip and Ojai and headed west to Santa Barbara and Greg and Kim's home at Chiquita and Cota off Milpas Street. Soon we were on the bikes beating a path to East Beach tacos and batting cages. Tacos were very nice but the batting cage was a little tough. We followed that with a visit to Fast Track Cycles where there was a 35 lb. electric bike that was very sleek but at $6500 a bit much. Some beer at the Mill and a quick look into a metal working shop. Now we sit in front of the fire at the house and drowsing off into the afternoon.

Day 11 Sunday January 19

Ojai from the shelf - restricted access

S and S on the shelf

Rest after shelf and before lunch

     Lazy morning then bam Sheila force marched S and I up hill to the shelf and then up hill on the shelf. Already near exhaustion she tricked us onto a steeper alternate path to the pinnacle of Wilson Point where the oxygen was even less available. Fortunately hunger stopped further onslaughts and we stumbled back to Lion Street for a light lunch of cheese and lentils supplemented by a few crusts.
      Later we will go to Ventura to see Little Women the movie and later still we plan to hear a friend of Skip's and Sheila's (who may be god parents to the musician's children Raif and Barlow) play at the Vine night spot just down the street.
     So we went on down the river to Ventura and saw the movie at 3 pm and it was good by way of sumptuousness and sheer realistic romanticism and surely more compelling than Adam Ant of previous south central coastal movie choices. There was kind of a cultural intersection moment with 12 or 14 Hispanic youth of Ventura in an elevator to a third floor bar downtown. A sumptuous dinner of leftovers was had following our return to Ojai in a Fit. And then we went to the Vine and Danny's band made our skin vibrate; the customers were on their feet and passing cars were blowing their horns, probably. An authentic feeling of accomplishment ended the day in the driveway.

Day 10 Saturday January 18

Previously on this road

B before

B after finding out this journey is not over

     Came to the general conclusion that one of the best things I can do after a day on the highway and after supper is to share Nabisco Honey Grahams with S and B as the day winds down regardless of the location or weather. But other than that the events of the day are as follows:

Left Refugio camp about 9 after breaking out S's new mini stove to fry the bread and the eggs due to the fact that we used up all our regular propane last night using the heater. Took extra time to find a place where they would refill a propane bottle rather exchange one for another one. Took 4 tries specifically. Soon after the refill we left 101 to engage with the 133 over the hills past Lake Casitas to Ojai and the driveway and home of Skip and Sheila on Lion Street in the eclectic heart of downtown O. After a hearty welcome we strolled to the Sage restaurant and enjoyed a pleasant lunch under the sycamores but somehow just outside the radar of the staff for which neglect we were gifted an almond croissant and a pumpkin muffin. We scattered later and I suffered an absolute spastic moment when, having failed to properly thread my right pedal into my right crank arm, it fell off in the street and had absolutely cross-threaded the crank to the point I could not by hand screw the pedal in. Skip saved the day by taking me to his old bike shop job bike shop and wherein Ron assessed my situation and gave me a deep lesson on what I would need to do to carry on bikewise. Back to Java Joe's and a chat with Trumper Randy and Dutch Nancy.  This outing was closed with our evening drinks and dinner back on Lion Street and some stories of old times. B attended in house and all was satisfactory.