sunday, november 8, 2009
when we wok up, julia was feeling better!!
today we had an interesting drive through joshua tree national park. strange land. desert land. cool big rock mountains. and cactus! it made me stop and think of all the different landscapes & climates we’ve seen since we started this trip. the joshua tree was named by the mormons (i think) because of the way they seem to look like they are raising their hand in supplication to god.
and speaking of cactus…please do not touch them, julia.
after we left the park – whew! it was only 88 degrees, but that sun is H O T!!! we headed towards niland, way in southern california. we were headed for slab city.
story goes slab city was a marine base back in WWII where they did weapons testing, then when the testing was over, they rolled up the base and all that was left were the slabs. now, it is inhabited by a miriad of folks. from the homeless, to hippies, to artists, to snow birds, year round the population is under 200 (as the summertime temps get in the 120’s!!) but during the winter, snow birds flock by the thousands. and! salvation mountain is there!! built as a tribute to jesus. this one guy building it on his own. quite amazing.
it was not easy to find, but we did find it. go to niland california, make a left (east) on main street and drive about 3 miles, you just cant miss it. it was quite an interesting and fun experience. we drove around checking it out, didnt see many people except for the two creepy guys who followed us around in their van. we did see alot and alot of garbage. there are no service there. no water, no electric, no trash pick up. these folks live completely off grid and completely away from the rest of society. i have to say that i think it would be a really neat community-like place to live if people would just not leave their crap everywhere, truely.
then we stopped and talked to a couple of snow birds and asked them where we might find some young folk to hang out with as we really didnt know the neighborhoods and were looking to camp the night. they pointed “over there”, we talked a bit, they were really nice, and we were on our way. we found pixie, justin, & keebler. justin lives in a school bus there next to what was the swimming pool and is now slab city’s skate park. pixie and keebler live in town as keebler (pixie’s son) lived “on the slabs” this summer and suffered heat stroke, so she moved them into town where it is cooler. they offered us to share their slab for the night, and we felt safe and comfortable so we did.
it was alot of fun hanging out with them for the night. some traveler kids came by and a few others, and we sat around a fire listening to machine gun and artillery fire from the artillery range a few miles away. we slept in the vibe under more stars than i think i have ever seen in my life.
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