Desert Sessions

Holy fuck! There is half an inch of snow on the ground. It was 70 degrees yesterday but today there is SNOW on the ground.

These are my first thoughts of October 4, 2009. After getting myself vertical and attempting to snap out of the bad mood that continually being woken up during the night by someone claiming that I was snoring had put me in, I rushed to pack the car. In the snow.

During our scurry to get out of the snow and get the f out of dodge, I, still in my shitty mood, am approached by a young asian woman. Outraged that she hasn't been able to read my mood from 20 feet away and that she can't tell that we're leaving, I offer a grimace. She tells us that she and her friend have just arrived from Korea and they did not expect it to be so cold. Do we happen to know the weather forecast.

"I don't know that shit. Leave me alone."

But then out loud I was accidentally polite and told her that I wasn't sure of the weather forecast and wished her luck.

After successfully fulfilling the tall order of packing the car in the snow, who do we notice has once again invited themselves into our campsite? DA BEARS. We got pictures this time.

Realizing that we now have food in the car (and that's a no-no), we hightailed it out of their before the bears recognized the intoxicating scent of our nutty buddies. We had planned to take showers in the morning and then head to the Mariposa Grove to look at some big fucking trees (sequoias, they're commonly called). So, we headed to the valley to find showers. Kate and I, having fully established our hatred of cleanliness, decided that we would wait until we arrived in Palm Springs and could take a comfortable, free shower without the fear that our hair would freeze. So, we waited for Liz to shower who has reasonable personal grooming habits and had to sit next to people on a plane later in the day.

With a freshly showered Liz, we embarked on our trip to the Mariposa Grove with the intention of continuing on to Fresno where we would drop Liz at the airport. On our way out of the valley, we discover that the road to the grove is closed due to the snow unless you have snow chains for your tires. Needless to say, we have none. No big fucking trees for us.

So, we cancel the stop and just get the hell out of dodge hoping that we can get rid of Liz before her flight. The rest of the trip was uneventul. We dropped Liz off on time. Kate and I ate Jack in the Box. We got to Palm Desert around 6:30, made some spaghetti and went to sleep.

Driving through the California desert was pretty crazy. I don't know if I had ever realized how big it is and how much crazy government crap is probably going on out here. We passed by Edwards Airforce base and I saw a weapons testing range on the map that was probably bigger than Rhode Island.