The Day 9 blog was cut a bit short as we were not sure about the ability of “connectivity” to post, so the ramblings today will bring you up to speed.

Yesterday we spent a good deal of the day on the road going from the Grand Canyon in Arizona, southwest, under the tip of Nevada, and into southern California.  It was a desolate trip for many of the miles. 

We thought Kansas was a long, wide-open state.  Kansas had signs of life.  Large, sprawling fields, cows, and traffic on the highway.

When we turned off of Highway 40, we quickly learned that we were not in Kansas anymore. 

The Mojave Mountains were in the distance.  They are not so bold as the Rocky’s, but they are beautiful in their own right.  They stand as tall, brown and tan monuments along the edge of the desert.

Desert.

Vast open desert.

No winding mountain roads as in Colorado.

No red cliffs to hug us to the highway as we grew accustom to in Utah.

This place is wide open and there is absolutely nothing but sand, rocks, and creosote bush for miles and miles.

We spent a good deal of the time on Highway 66 in San Bernadino County, California.  As we rode through this portion of the Mojave Desert, I cannot lie… we were nervous.  

The only way we could describe the landscape was “post-Apocalyptic”.  

Picture it.

As far as you can see there is sand and rocks.  It is almost moon-like.  There are scraggly creosote bushes, and occasional teddy bear cholla cacti.  Side note about the teddy bear cholla… they sound warm and fuzzy… yet the barbs they grow are hook-like and NASTY.

The only things that broke up the desert were the mountains in the far distance, and the railroad tracks with freight trains in huge numbers.  These trains had three to five engines and pulled at least 60 freight cars the size of tractor trailers.  From far away they looked like tiny toys.  

There were a couple of towns we passed through.  They were desolate.  Yes, some of the small houses seemed to be occupied.  Many of them were not.  The windows were broken, roofs caved in, and any businesses that had been were ghosts.  We saw remnants of an old restaurant and a gas station.  Katie Q said it reminded her of a scene from the 1960’s that stood still… ghost towns.  We saw a population sign for one town that read "Population 6".

There was a town that was surrounded by huge flat fields with rows and rows of mounded dirt.  That was the town of Amboy, and the fields are used to mine calcium chloride.  They do not use much of that in the desert, but Pennsylvanians are accustom to it ruining their vehicles in the winter months.

We did not stop along the way.  

We were happy when we finally neared the town of Twentynine Palms.  There were occupied houses, traffic lights, gas stations, and a McDonalds.  

Civilization.

A note about Twentynine Palms, California.  Katie Q’s dad informed us that the United States Marines refer to this town as “Twentynine Stumps”.  I had to do some Google research to learn that the town is home to a Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.  The Marines named it as such because it is in the middle of the desert with not a palm tree to be found (I removed the colorful language used in the information I found… sorry Urban Dictionary).  

Special thanks to Katie Q’s dad for the information, and his service as a U.S. Marine!

It was just a short time later that we reached the town of Joshua Tree.  It too is a bustling desert community.  Katie Q found us a fantastic place for dinner.  We ate at Natural Sisters Café.  Great food and a really nice health food store next door for good snacking provisions… and beer!

With our bellies full, Katie Q navigated us safely to our tiny cabin.  She found the cabin on Air BnB.  It was a perfect spot, on a sand (dirt) road, just north of the park in a quiet area outside of town.   There were Mourning Doves and White Crowned Sparrows flitting about in the bushes.  We were in the desert for a night of rest under the open sky with the crescent moon hanging in the horizon.

We woke to greet the sun coming up over the mountains in the east.  Watching the sky change from dark blue to rose to the brilliance of daylight never gets old.  We just sat in the wooden chairs around the fire pit outside of the cabin and reflected on our journey thus far.  

Good times.

We packed, loaded the car, and headed into Joshua Tree National Park.

We entered the park back in Twentynine Palms.  We learned that the city earned its name when an oasis found in the desert had only 29 California palm trees.  The conservationists have done a remarkable job at protecting the desert landscape and restoring the natural balance of life.

The park is is almost 800,000 acres.  No typo.  All we read about the desert taught us that it is adaptable, and the species of plants and animals living there are hearty.  The ecosystem relies on the interconnecting pieces for survival.  Despite that, it is fragile.  Back in the 1930’s a woman in California recognized that the landscape was being threatened by civilization.  She persuaded then President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim Joshua Tree a National Monument.  It was not until 1994 that it became a National Park, as part of the California Desert Protection Act.

Given our short time spent, we saw a fraction of what the park has to offer.  

Joshua Trees?  There are many of them.  There are also gigantic rock piles scattered along the desert with no rhyme or reason.  That also required some research.  We learned that the rock piles started underground eons ago, as a result of volcanic activity.  As the granite cooled and crystallized underground, cracks formed horizontally and vertically.  Water forced the granite upwards.  Over the years, the surface soil eroded, leaving these amazing rock formations.

I love science.

We saw many varieties of cacti and other desert-loving plants.  Some of them were still green, and a few even blooming despite it being fall.  We saw tiny lizards daring from bush to bush for cover.  There were holes in the sand everywhere… literally.  The desert comes to life at night, and the holes are entrances to tiny burrows protecting reptiles, tarantulas, and rodents.  

We saw a white-tailed antelope squirrel, a desert cottontail rabbit, and a western fence lizard.  Despite my fear of spiders, I was hoping to see a tarantula… from a distance.  Katie Q had no interest.  The desert is also home to many birds.  We saw a few, and I was able to add two to my life list.  I was happy to add to my list of new plants and animals.  

We did a drive through the park, stopping along the way.  Although we did not have time to visit an oasis area this trip, we did go to Keys View.  This is an amazing overlook on the Little San Bernadino mountains.  It was clear enough we could see the San Andreas Fault, Palm Springs, and, Salton Sea, which was 35 miles away.  We could see Signal Mountain, 95 miles away, which is near the United States-Mexican border.

We traveled back towards Joshua Tree (the town) for a quick stop at Natural Sister’s Café.  When we viewed the menu the day before we saw they had smoothies.  They sounded good then, but that was a search for dinner.  We both got a smoothie for the road.  They tasted like a milkshake with chocolate, almond milk, frozen banana, and peanut butter.  

Hey… It’s vegan… so it’s healthy!

With our fill of the desert, we headed towards the Pacific Coast.

We drove towards Los Angeles, our destination the Santa Monica Pier.  Katie Q is a proficient city driver.  Thank goodness for that!  I kept my head down so not to have an anxiety attack given the number of cars and lanes of traffic.  Katie Q would cue me when we neared interesting sights.  We saw the sky scrapers of Los Angeles proper and the “Hollywood” sign.  I did attempt drive-by photos of both.  Like the elk in the Rocky Mountains, the “Hollywood” sign is a white rectangle on a hillside in the photo, but we know what it is.

Once we hit Santa Monica, we were off the freeway and in the thick of it.  It did not take us long to find the pier and parking.  We crossed the street to the pier and started our walk down that historic boardwalk.  

The boards are worn from foot traffic.  There were many people there but we reckoned it was not as busy as it would have been in summer months.  We passed an indoor carrousel. We passed Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, made famous from the movie Forest Gump.  We passed a small area with amusement park rides.  We passed performers dancing and singing in hopes of attracting money from onlookers.  

When we got to a staircase, we descended the pier to the beach.  We took off our shoes and walked to the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Ocean.

As we walked, we chatted about how much of our wonderful country we had seen on our journey thus far.  Desert, ocean, mountains, canyons.  We had passed through a town with a population of of 6 and a city of 3.9 million. All of it open to us.  All of it vastly different, yet “home”.  

We took pictures, wandered a bit more down the beach and decided to turn back. As we did, the tide washing in and out, I looked down and spotted a sand dollar just exposed by the retreating tide.  Katie Q had not seen a sand dollar intact, and we took time to admire and marvel its beauty and delicacy.

We were able to navigate our way through the people back to the car and back on the road.  We turned west one more time and merged on to the Pacific Coast Highway.

We rode up the highway towards our resting spot for the night.  Once underway, we decided to detour back inland a bit to a little eatery Katie Q thought we should try called JOi Café in Thousand Oaks. The staff was pleasant and helpful, eager to explain items on the menu.  This place was strictly vegan.  Given the food experiments I have tried this week, I was actually excited to try something new.  

Katie Q ordered a Mediterranean bowl that had fresh greens, grains, olives, and hummus.  She finished her meal with a pumpkin chai cupcake.  Yes, vegan!  I had the Americana.  It was a bean and grain burger with all of the vegan fixings on a rosemary ciabatta bun.  It was served with a fresh side salad and the flavors were amazing.  No cupcake for me… I opted for a bite of dark chocolate.

We left dinner, back into the crazy California traffic towards our resting place.  There are so many people here.  People, cars, houses, concrete.  As we drove, I was snapping pictures with my phone (aka dash cam) of the sunset.  

Did the people around me see it?  

I do not know.

I hope that despite the pace, they take a moment to look.

I know that Katie Q will be a Californian who will look, as will her hubby.

They know, as I do, that life is good.