Day Three, in words

Memories from the third day…apologies for the length, but it’s hard enough trying to cram all the memories into this small of a space.

• Waking up to your alarm at 5 AM may be painful, but stepping outside to find the moon has risen over Joshua Tree and you’re alone with the desert makes it…well, “worth it” doesn’t even begin to cover it. Amazing. Just…unbelievable. I was there with the coyotes and jackrabbits to watch the sun rise over the giant rock formations, and it was absolutely incredible. Words just seem so futile at a time like this…it was incredible in a way I will never truly be able to explain. You just have to come see for yourself. (No, really. You really do — you owe it to yourself to see it at least once in this lifetime.)
• If you come, you must go see Keys View at sunrise. The road was closed this year, but I’ve done it other years and it’s just plain amazing.
• Mmmm…coffee in Twentynine Palms. (Another military town, this time very much a desert one, even more fascinating…right outside the largest Marine base in the world.) Four and a half hours of sleep makes coffee so, so good.
• And then I was off…out across the desert and the California highways; this is where the U2 post (below) came from, and this was where I finally remembered exactly why I do this: the giddy feeling of complete and utter freedom, the amazing beauty of the desert, and that combination of loneliness and beauty that produces some feeling I can’t explain but which I wouldn’t give up for the world…
• I knew of it intellectually, but actually seeing the aqueduct that transports enormous amounts of water from the Colorado River to Los Angeles is pretty amazing. Out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert, is a giant man-made river in a concrete bed, staggering amounts of water flowing day after day after day…
• The Yuma Proving Grounds in southwest Arizona…”that road looks interesting” led me here. Another huge military base (note: the military owns a lot of the land in the southwest). (Apparently they test experimental weapons here. I stayed on the highway.) This is the only time I’ve ever seen a “tank crossing” sign, and I really did expect to see a tank crossing my path at any point. Alas, no, but there were some very strange-looking smoke/dust swirls far off in the distance…
• There are little RV communities all over the Southwest. They’re invariably hidden far away from anything, are the only oasis of green in the desert, seem to have almost nothing to do other than lie in the sun or (often) boat on the nearby lake or river…and make a 50-mile drive into town to get groceries once a week. In a way, it’s a very hedonistic lifestyle — although my own personal hedonism is far, far more active than that. Also, the “vehicle” part of RV has largely been forgotten, as it looks like most of them haven’t moved in years. Talk about a different world from the one I live in…again, I was completely fascinated, even though I can’t imagine myself ever living someplace like that. (I have way too much passion for adventure and stimulation to do that kind of thing for very long.) The different ways that people live, even in the same state, are incredible.
• Lest you think everything is interesting on the road — the nearby National Wildlife Refuge I visited was, frankly, very hot, very humid, and exceedingly boring. Then again, maybe I was just stupid to visit it in the summer when it’s 103 degrees outside.
• I am now dirtier than I have been since I was a small child. There is red dust everywhere, and it doesn’t matter how many times I wash my hands — they still look filthy. I will need a shower soon.
• Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, nestled up against the border with Mexico, is named after the cacti that grow in clusters out of the ground and look like, well, organ pipes. This is one of those little moments that comes out of nowhere and is just plain incredible: the sign said “campground closed”, but my travel guide noted an alternative “primitive” campground off a back road. I went back there, half expecting my car wouldn’t make it over the dirt road, half expecting it to be closed too, half (one-third?) worrying about staying there all by myself (being right up against the border, there are lots of signs warning you against such things due to crime)…and when I was nearly there, driving in among an incredible forest of cacti and feeling so small in the beautiful world, I came upon two women and two young boys, walking along the road. They spoke with accents, but were very friendly…just around the next bend was the campsite, where I met Jan, one of the women’s husbands (the other was her sister). An entomologist from Lithuania, now living in Kansas (this is exactly what I love about the US) — he was reserved, she was friendly, and their kids were joyously friendly (and kept trying to tickle me and play with me, which was very sweet too).
• There, among the cacti, I set up my tent, took out my camera, and watched the sun set among the red Arizona mountains and the blue sky that stretched on forever above us. It was another one of those amazing moments that comes out of nowhere, and the kind of moment I can never, ever forget.

Day 3: (Monday, August 6, 2007) Joshua Tree to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Miles: 873.2 + 462.6 = 1335.8 total. Current distance from home: 815.7 miles.
Photos: 417 (5.38 GB) + 343 (4.62 GB) = 760 (10 GB) total.
Next up: who knows? More of southern Arizona…heading east.