Joshua Tree National Park

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Joshua Tree National Park
Dave B 2/28/07
I got up around 7 and got organized to get back on the road. I had a quick bowl of cereal and some Chai Tea. Terri was busy that day so I needed to try and stay out of her way. I left around 8:30. As I drove from her place I saw another plane fly low into the City. I loved watching the planes do that, so I tried to find a place that really showed the planes height in relation to the San Diego skyline. I drove around the neighborhood looking for the right angle. On the tops of these hills the streets are very confusing as they are placed essentially wherever they can be placed and not in a grid patter per se. As a result there are lots of dead-ends. As I drove around I realized that I was back at Terri’s unexpectedly. I drove down the hill and parked my truck on the hillside near her place. I put the tailgate down and stood on it waiting for the planes to come barreling past. Jack said they come through about every 3 minutes and I think on this day they were spaced out a little farther than that, but not much. I got the photo I was wanting and decided to mosey on down to Mission Bay to check it out. I drove to Seaworld knowing I would not go in as I didn’t want to spend $60 plus dollars for that on this trip. I think it would have been loads of fun, but this trip is more about getting to know the City and it’s people.

While I was in Seaworld Karen called and said she was going to be off tomorrow, but would have to work the next day. I told her I had planned to go to Joshua Tree today, but since she was going to be off tomorrow I would just go there today. We could then hang out in the morning when she would be off.

As I drove through Mission Bay I was amazed at all the people working out. Most seemed to be in great shape. This was inspiring.

I decided it was time to get on the highway and head to Seal Beach to Karen’s. As I approached Interstate 5 I noticed a oil change advertised for $19.99. I looked at my odometer and it had been roughly 5,000 miles since the last one so I decided to pull in. There was a lady talking to the attendant who was dressed in a manner I thought might be a little progressive and vain. The whole time I had been in San Diego I had hoped to encounter the vain California lady that is so often portrayed in this area and I thought maybe I had founder. I couldn’t wait to talk to her.

As I walked into the room I made some small talk and she was a lot brighter than I thought she might be. As I asked her more questions I learned she is a farm girl from Iowa. I was way off and she was not vain at all, but instead very down to earth not to mention very with it. She had graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in journalism and has been traveling for a long time with her job. Her name is Angelica and has two brothers. Her brothers have flown to San Diego to purchase classic cars and drive them back to Iowa to be restored. She started asking me questions. She was a lot better asking questions than was I. I told her I was on my way to Seattle for a Rick Steves conference on traveling Europe. She said she was moving to Seattle and will be staying in a place just a few blocks from Rick Steve’s buildings. I jokingly ask her if she wanted me to take some of her stuff with me as I have a truck. She surprisingly said would you, as she has 3 boxes that she can not fit in her car. I was surprised by this response and asked her how big the boxes were. She said not too big. I ask her how she knew I would actually deliver them. She said I appear very honest and asked what would I do with 3 boxes of women’s clothes. I reminded her that we are on the west coast and that people do that out here. She said she would pay me and I told her that was not necessary. We talked awhile longer and she gave me directions to her apartment. We loaded up the boxes and Angelica asked again if I was sure I had room. I told her of course. She asked to take me out to lunch and I told her that I probably should get going and besides she was needing to get her workout in, which is why she was wearing the clothes she was. She had explained that to me at the auto shop as I guess she felt a little self-conscious about it? Angelica insisted that she takes me out for supper one night in Seattle and ask me what I like. I tried to think of something cheap and said hamburgers and she emphatically said she knows the best hamburger joint in Seattle. I got back on the road and was soon on the highway again, but this time in addition to my stuff I had 3 boxes of women’s clothes. As I drove along I decided I had to put the boxes out at the various places I visit on my way to Seattle kind of like a Flat Stanley. This would be cool to have in my blog.

I called Dad, Katie and Mark trying to get Red Woefel’s phone number. So I could call him to get information on Roger’s whereabouts and availability to see visitors. Finally Katie text messaged me Woefel’s phone number and I called and left a message on Woefel’s answering machine.

I drove through most of the towns along the Ocean as I went North including Oceanside, San Clemente, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. It seemed like most of the towns had a pier. At Oceanside I went out on their pier and had lunch at the restaurant on the end called Rubys. I went in and to avoid the wait said I would sit at the bar. It was extremely windy that day and the Restaurant actually moved an inch or two because of the wind and wave action. My stomach actually started feeling a little queasy. I think ever since the Stratosphere rides in Vegas my stomach has not been able to handle much. At Cape Canaveral I had a hard time in the simulator ride there too. Anyway I asked the waiter if I could have a window seat to keep my eyes on the water and outside. This seemed to help. I talked to the ladies at an adjacent table and learned that they are from Georgia and they were mother and daughter with the mother taking their daughter on this trip as a 21st birthday president. The mom worked for the Army so I asked her what she thought of the chances of getting to see Roger. She really didn’t have any idea, but thought it was worth a shot.

As I got back on the highway I saw signs stating Camp Pendelton where I thought Roger was stationed. I pulled off the highway and went to the entrance to talk with the guard there. He said the enlistees can only have visitors on Sunday and that there was no way I could talk to him today. I got back on the highway and continued on. I wondered why Roger was flying into San Diego as Dad had mentioned to me, when Camp Pendelton is closer to LA? This question was answered a few minutes later when Red returned my phone call. Red said Roger is actually in training in San Diego and goes to Camp Pendelton primarily for shooting drills. Now that made more since. I remember when I was driving to San Diego in Arizona I couldn’t even find Camp Pendleton on my map in the San Diego area. Red and I talked for awhile about San Diego, since they were recently there to watch Roger’s graduation ceremony. Red said they did some sightseeing and went to Seaworld while there. It was fun talking to someone about an area I had just left. Red also asked me about my trip and where I was headed. I enjoyed the conversation.

I made it to Karen’s at Seal Beach around 4:00 and after the hellos went into my bedroom and immediately crashed for about an hour. Man did that feel good. Not sure why I was that tired, but I was. I got up around 5:00 and had supper with Karen. I enjoyed talking to Karen about traveling and she had some good ideas for me. I worked on the blog the rest of the night until 12:30 to finish my New Mexico entry. Karen’s son who is also named Dave came in later in the evening as he had just gotten off work. Dave was great to talk to. For a kid that age he really seems to have his act together. Also he was a great conversationist. He had some home work to do and then went to bed. I felt a little bad as I suspected my staying up probably was affecting his sleep. I really wanted to get this blog entry knocked out, because I didn’t want to get any farther behind. A lot happened this day!

3/1/07

The next day I got up around 7:30 and Karen had already went for her 5:30 run and was back. Karen and I had a great healthy (something I have not done much of on this trip) breakfast. I showed Karen my website and she showed me hers. After messing around with the computer for a bit, we went for a walk down to the pier. It was another beautiful day in Southern California. As we walked down I noticed several Irish bars. Karen said there are three irish bars and on St. Patty’s day they close off the street and have a St. Patty’s celebration all day long. As we walked along the pier I took several photos of the surfers. Some of them appeared really good though the waves were not very big so what they could do was limited. Karen said there was an etiquette to when you surf and when you let someone else surf. For the first time in recent years I was thinking I would like to try that. Karen said she knew a guy who teaches lessons and she plans to try it this summer. All the surfers were wearing wet suits as the water was very cold. As we walked to the end of the pier I petted the seal statues head for good luck. Not sure if that is a tradition, but it will probably be once everyone learns that I had done that.

Karen knew I had another rushed day of driving ahead of me so she suggested we start heading back to her house and she would quickly drive me to Long Beach for a look see. Karen took me past a friend of hers, Pauline, for a quick chat. Pauline was home and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to her. She is a great communicator and a very quick witted lady. She has raised I believe around 4 kids as I forget the exact number, and has grandkids now as well. Pauline had spent some time in Europe and we talked about traveling Europe for awhile as well. Karen knew I needed to try and beat the rush hour traffic in the San Bernadino and Palm Springs area as it gets really congested, so she suggested we keep moving. We all took a picture together and headed back to Karen’s. Karen volunteered to drive to Long Beach for my tour and I let her as it was nice not to drive for a change. Once we got to the long beach area Karen pointed out some noteworthy things one being the mural painting on a building for which I forgot the painter and building. The street we drove down was being set up for a upcoming grand prix race. It was kind of cool to see the preparation, but I am not really much of a race fan and neither is Karen. We drove near the Queen Mary and she showed me the building which use to contain the Spruce Goose whatever that is. I noticed the smoke stacks on the Queen Mary to be slanted back for some reason, which I would like to know why that is someday. We drove through a harbor where a friend of Karen’s, whose name is Frances, has a boat. I asked a few questions about the boat and Karen wasn’t sure of the answers, so on the way home Karen called Frances at work and unexpectedly put me on the phone with her. Frances is a civil engineer and does similar work as do I did except on a much larger scale as they treat the City of Los Angeles' sewage. Francis told me about her sailboat and how they sometimes sail out to Catalina Island and spend the night. I was really impressed with Frances and her knowledge of boats and could have talked to her much longer, but I figured I better let her get back to work since she was on the clock. Maybe if I get back down that way in the Fall I will see about going on a boat ride with Frances. Sailing is about the only thing I would have liked to do more of on this trip but it just hasn’t worked out that way. A lot of the reason is because I have not been in any one area for more than a couple days. I have not taken the time to go to many harbors at all as I have been pretty much rush, rush, rush. The trip has been a little hard at times, but overall not to bad. I wanted it to be a little rough so that is a good thing.

Karen and I got back to her house around 1:00 and I wanted to take her out to lunch but she suggested I get a move on to beat the traffic. Karen had been extremely hospitable, but I guess my thanking her properly is going to have to wait. I decided to go ahead and take off as suggested. I got my next address programmed into the computer and I was off. The problem with that computer program is that the newer roads and current construction is not updated on the program. At times it tells you to turn in an area that is under construction and you obviously can not turn. Also the program doesn’t take into consideration the accuracy of the gps receiver. I would think it would be easy to program it such that if the accuracy is poor then it should state something about the accuracy rather than screaming “Off Route, Recalculating” to me so frequently. Sometimes I am actually correct, but it says I am not, due to the gps receiver not having a good signal.

I was really surprised how bad the traffic was in the San Bernadino Valley. I took a couple wrong turns in the construction zone, but eventually got things straightened out. I saw lots of wind turbines as I approached Palm Springs. I never expected Palm Springs to be that far out in the desert, but it is and they have lots of turbines. I turned off the interstate to head towards Joshua Tree National Park. I was really looking forward to seeing this park. After about a 45 minute drive I made it to the entrance. It was too late and the gate was unattended so I continued on not taking the time to see what I was supposed to do. After a few minutes of driving I started seeing the Park’s namesake Joshua Trees. They were pretty cool for me but not awesome like the Maine Coast are the Key West Regatta, but cool nonetheless. I saw the moon was already up so I made several attempts at capturing the moon in the background of a Joshua Tree. You never know how any of these pictures are going to turn out so I just snap a bunch. Typically I have one or two nature photos a day that I like. I take a lot of pics just to help document where and when I was at a location. After driving a little farther I saw some massive boulder sout in the middle of nowhere. These boulders were awesome like the Maine Coast and Key West Regatta. I even saw some climbers on a few of the rocks. It seems like in my recent years heights have scared me more and more. You will not catch me on one of these rocks that’s for sure. No desire! I finally made it to my campsite and got some water heating. That is typically the first thing I do at most campsites since it is usually late when I arrive and time for supper. As the water is heating I get things organized. It really has been going pretty good all and all. I knew this night however was going to be a cold one. I just hoped it would not get into the low 20’s as that is unchartered temperatures for the equipment I have. My gear struggles to keep me warm when the temps. or in the upper 20’s. I talked a while to a guy from Arizona named Brian who was also their by himself camping. I enjoyed talking to Brian as he is very experienced in camping mostly in the Arizona area. We agreed to touch base again in the morning before we left and maybe we could hike together for awhile. I typed for about 2 hours in my journal. After that I got ready for bed and noticed something had pulled my trash bag off the picnic table and tore through it. I suspect some rodent got it, but wasn’t sure what that might be. I picked the stuff up and through the bag in a yucca bush. If the rodent wanted it in there, he was going to have his work cut out for him as the bush’s branches are somewhat flimsy but yet are stiff enough to poke you pretty hard with their needle like tips. I got in my truck ready to call it a night dressed pretty warmly knowing that it was going to be a very cold night as it was already cold. Again another busy day is in the books. I find it hard to believe it is already March. Time flies when your having fun and I am having a fun!


3/2/07
Through the night I awoke several times. I could feel the cold like no other night on this trip. I knew it was in the 20’s. I tried to roll myself up in my sleeping bag to create a mummy like affect. I enjoyed the roominess of the sleeping bag I had and it is definitely the right one for this trip as most nights I did not need the warmth, but this night I could have used a mummy bag. Somebody came rolling into the campsite around 2:30 with a muffler that was bad or nonexistent. I figured they had just been pushing hard all night and finally made it here. They made two passes around the campsite the first I presume was to find an empty campsite and the second to actually park after registering the site. I think National Parks, which Joshua Tree is, are open 24 hours while state parks close at certain times. Not sure about that just speculation. I again tried to get rwapped up better in the sleeping bag and the wool blanket, but the cold still penetrated. My feet were the coldest. I had put two pairs of socks on and I think maybe that was a mistake. I can not think of any time when having two pairs of socks on that my feet were warmer. I think I will stop that practice. I think they have to be able to move to stay warm.

Around 4:00 I heard some yelping very near which didn’t sound like coyotes, but they probably were. Again around 6:00 I heard the yelping again. The sun was just coming up and I wanted to stay in bed as long as possible to allow the sun to help warm everything up. In the desserts because of the lack of humidity the air cools and warms extremely quickly. I layed in the bag until around 7:00 and then decided to get a move on as I was burning daylight one of my favorite sayings, which I believe I first heard in a John Wayne western. It’s weird how certain things in life you remember and others you do not. Ok enough reflection.

I got up and got the stove going. I ran out of fuel in the stove I brought and was very low on the stove that I found in Valley of Fires. This was going to have to be a quick get the water boiling add the oatmeal and eat it. No extra fuel to waste. The cooking went quickly and breakfast was made. Brian stopped by as I was eating breakfast. He made the comment that it was not warming up very quickly and that the wind was strong. He also commented that their was a coyote near my truck this morning. I told him I thought I heard them yelping. I offered him to ride with me to a lookout called Ryan’s View. He said he would like that. Brian slept in the tent that night which is fine if you have a good bag and ground pad. I definitely had a much better set up though for most nights. When we got to Ryan’s view the wind was really whipping. You could see Palm Springs and all their wind turbines when we got there. I had asked Brian if he did much mountaineering and he said no he mainly hikes valleys. I told him this is what the summits are like. The wind is crazy and it is cold as hell and you are just ready to get off the summit after arriving. But having said that it is a great challenge, the view is spectacular and I hope to summitt more mountains in the future.

After leaving there we went for a short 3 mile hike to an area the ranger had recommended as another must see. There were huge rocks around the trail and the parking location. Very cool. The 1.5 mile to the summit was on a pretty steep grade and I began sweating. It was a great workout. We snapped a few photos on the way up and talked about lots of stuff. At the summit you could see for miles and miles. Very cool view. We could see our campsite just below us and I was thinking we could have walked here very easily from our campsite. On the way down we met some other hikers and snapped a few photos at one location in particular that offered a great view of the rounded rocks in the background and their seemingly sporadic placement. After getting down and feeling like I had a good hike under my belt I went back to the campsite to drop Brian off. We exchanged email addresses and I was on my way to Los Angeles.

I left Joshua Tree around noon and stopped at restaurant for a quick bite to eat. I had an egg-salad sandwich and it was probably the best one of my life (sorry mom). Everything was so fresh and fluffy. The people sitting next to me said they wish they had ordered that as well and ask me why I order that. Which seemed like and odd, but appropriate question as how often do people order egg-salad sandwiches when eating out? I told her I had not eggs in a long time and just thought it sounded good. I asked the people next to me a few questions and learned they were headed out of town for a few days. I smiled and told them I had done the same thing, but didn’t elaborate. They talked a lot about a parrot they have and of course I asked about it’s talking ability. They said it talks great and really gets upset when they are about to leave as the bird can since that. They said if someone calls and the phone is not answered right away the bird starts saying Hello, Hello which seemed funny. They said African Greys are the best talking parrots out there. They said you can not even tell the difference between the Parrot and a person. That sounded fun. I asked them how long does a parrot live and they said about 50 years. Wow now that’s a commitment. They said however they usually die of something else before then. After a little more discussion I told them I wanted to beat the LA traffic if that’s possible and had better get going.

The ride into LA was a lot better than the ride out to Joshua Tree as I had gotten lost a couple times which was partly do to the road construction and following my gps computer program too a tee. I just like to keep her happy as I do not like the sound of her saying “Off Route Recalculating”. In all honesty that thing is very good. Generally I can just plug in an address and it takes me there. Sometimes it is off by a house or two, but it generally gets me too the block.

As I approached San Bernadino I quickly, or not so quickly, got to experience LA traffic. I determined within a few minutes I would not be moving to LA anytime soon. After about 30 minutes I covered 3 miles when the traffic suddenly sped up. Thank God as I was growing impatient. As advertised the program took me to Mark’s house, a friend that I had attended high school with. I believe Mark said he had been in LA for about 10 years now. I think the key is to live close to work. Ok actually Jack from San Diego had told me that about San Diego and I am applying the same comment to LA.

I found some wifi in the area and borrowed it to check my email and then went to Mark’s and tried to get some rest as Mark would not be off work for about another hour. I couldn’t sleep very well so I started typing in my journal. Mark arrived and we juggled parking spots around and I went in to take a shower as I felt like I needed one after traipsing around Joshua Tree all day. Mark has a very cool place. He rents a building behind the main house on this property. He has a loft up above where he sleeps and then the first floor is the kitchen, living, bathroom and dining areas. I liked it a lot. After getting cleaned up we decided to go to Sunset Boulevard and check out the walk of fame. We found a shop that had the location of all the stars indexed as there are hundreds of names. I was looking for Bruce Springsteen. I was disappointed when his star wasn’t there. I took lots of pictures of the stars including Marilyn Monroe’s. We ate at a pizza place and it was very good. I had a slice of pizza with pesto that I liked a lot. After that Mark took me to the Kodak Theatre where we ran into Vanessa Williams who was just leaving some NAACP awards show. She is a very pretty lady and I was only about 10 feet from her when I passed her on the escalator. Mark said hi to her and she looked up and smiled. I was still frantically trying to get my camera to work, but couldn’t get it to. Finally I got it to work, but was behind a pole and had to wait for the escalator to move me past the pole. When I finally got a clear view of her again I was probably 35 feet away.

Mark was telling me how the Kodak Theatre is where the Academy Awards are held and showed me where they place the red carpet. At the top of the Theatre you could see the infamous Hollywood sign. From there we walked back to Mark’s car and drove around. I had asked to see the Beverly Hills area and Rodeo drive and hoped to see some limousines. We seen all of the above. The drive with all the Palm Trees that you see is Beverly. Not all the streets in Hollywood have the palm tree lined streets like you might imagine from the pictures of Hollywood. I was very pleased with what we had done that night and was tuckered out and ready to hit the hay as evident by my incessant yawning so we did just that. Mark had mentioned going hiking the next morning in a dog park, which sounded very cool to me. From the trail he said you can see the Hollywood sign which I looked forward to. Sweet Dreams!

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Photos

Joshua Tree
The Moon and a Joshua Tree. An amazing combination!

Mecca for Rock Climbing
I learned that Joshua Tree is the Mecca for Rock Climbing. See the person near the indentation in the Rock? Not my thing!

Crazy Climbers
Now you see the climber?

Karen and Her House
Karen is a lady I met in Austin, Texas at the Broken Spoke. She was two-stepping all over the place there. She invited me to stay at her home in Seal Beach, CA during my travels. Thanks so much Karen!

RX Bandits
Karen's son is a rocker and is doing very well in his band called the RX Bandits. They were on tour during my stay. The photo is a picture of the their studio with the 3 boxes I picked up in San Diego. I was transporting the boxes for a lady in San Diego who was moving to Seattle.

Cuff him and Stuff him!
The Seal Beach police finally caught up to me!

Police Dept. with an Ocean View!
The police get to eat their doughnuts while watching the sunset. Looks like a pretty good gig to me! I wonder if they are looking for help as I am unemployed?

A long day Surfing!
That's me walking in from a long day of surfing. Long Beach is in the background!

Queen Mary
That's the Queen Anne in Long Beach, CA.

Heading to Joshua Tree!
Recognize any of these places?

Palm Springs
It is amazing all the Wind Turbines around Palm Springs. I would be curious to know what percentage of ther power is generated by these turbines?

Joshua Tree
One last picture of the Joshua Trees to close things out. Remember this is a desert!