Day Eight - Joshua Tree and the road to Victorville...

     First let me say thank you for following my road trip virtually.  It really makes a difference when I stay connected to the people in my life that I know and love.  That said, I am going get all floral on you today.  Joshua Tree had an amazing number of plants in bloom, which is what I had hoped for when I scheduled this trip.  There were so many deserted shacks on the way into town I couldn't possibly shoot them all so I decided against shooting any of them.  I started to wonder what happened, did they run out of water, go broke, what?  It was very depressing to see which is another reason I didn't take pictures of the shacks.

     Instead I focused on rock formations and blooming plants, a beautiful pursuit in the desert in the middle of April.

    Everywhere I looked there was amazing beauty.. especially if you like the contrast of the living among the seemingly dead.

    When I see cactus growing out of rocks I am amazed by the determination of the plant's will to live.

     It's a little hard to see (because photography flattens everything into two dimensions) but I am standing on huge rocks looking down upon Hidden Valley.  

      The next mini walk was to an old gold mine called the Queen Mill Mine.  Apparently a lot of gold came out of this place at one time.  All that remains are the filled in mine shafts, the remnants of a stone building and some old equipment.  Why someone drug that old bed frame in there who knows, but it made for a fun picture...

      Something about lives once lived....  legacies.... the thought of which strikes me with a mixture of awe and fear.  Are all artists like this?  After all it's legacies, our history and the works of art we did in our lifetimes that will remain after we are gone. 

     The rock formations were another spectacular aspect of Joshua Tree.  The unusual one below brings to mind a Tom Waits song, "Whats He Doing in There?" mostly because the cave in the center of it looks large enough to live in....

         The next one captured my interest because of it's size.  Enormous rock formations remind me of lives that are much older and wiser than my own.  (Yes, I believe that rocks witness the life that happens around them and that those memories are stored in the textures and shapes of the rocks themselves.  I am an old Rockhound after all).  Again I am awed and made to feel small (in a good way)...

     I left Joshua Tree around 2 pm and decided I wanted to get to Victorville, California.  Leaving Joshua Tree I found 'Old Woman Springs Road' (highway 274) which went straight to Victorville.  And on it I found the most beautiful old shack of the trip (so far).

      I could tell it was really old not just because of the 'patina' on the wood but because the one inch cedar boards were actually one inch thick.  These days one inch cedar is really 3/4 of an inch or less. Of course I had to take a shot from inside.  You can just barely make out the fields of yellow flowers that covered the valley. 

 

    When I was 15, having gotten inspired by my 500 mile Arizona ride, I headed out alone on my bike along the back roads towards Victorville.  I had a girlfriend at the time that lived there and I was determined to get there.  I remember it was pretty hot outside.  I had no water, no helmet and no food.  Between where I started in Upland and Victorville there was El Cahon Pass with an elevation of 4000 feet and about 50 miles.  I did finally make it but I called my mom that night and told her I wouldn't be coming home.  I hadn't been to Victorville since I was very young and since this whole trip was revisiting my past I had to include it. 

     I went through Victorville without even stopping because en route I decided I was close enough to my mom's house for a quick visit.  She, being 85 and a woman of few visitors was happy to see me.  (I hadn't seen her since my head exploding incident in December of 2007).  We went out to dinner and hung out for awhile but she is very hard of hearing which made conversation difficult.  Also my oldest brother (whose 56 and who I do not get along with) still lives with my mother.  This morning before I left she asked me if I wanted the old dresser that I had as a child so her and I struggled it out of the house and into the back of my truck.  I hugged her 3 times (she's not the touchy-feely type) and then I came to Boomers cafe to update the blog.   It's the only interesting cafe in all of Upland.  Besides it's beautiful 50's decor it also has wifi...

 

   Today I am going to take the back roads and try to get to Ojai.  As always your comments are welcomed and encouraged...

Arcosant #2 - Day seven

     Just as I was stepping out of the cafe at Arcosanti yesterday a nice 40ish woman named Cabiria complimented me on my boots.  She was dressed in ragged jeans and tied a piece of cloth around her waist like a skirt.  On top she had on a well worn tank top.   I had just written to you on the blog that I had not made any connections here so when she commented about my boots I took the opportunity to talk with her for a bit.  Turns out that Cabiria was a San Fransisco transplant and had lived at Arcosanti for 4 years.  Also she worked in the bronze casting foundry (which explained her well worn look).  She, having seniority, had a great apartment that she pays $120 a month for.  I told her I was disappointed with my tour from yesterday so she offered to give me a one on one tour at the foundry.  Here's a picture...

     After she showed me how they compress the sand into the molds she offered to let me make designs on the bells.  Her favorite part of the job was that she could make any design she wanted.  I drew a few lines after watching her for a bit and realized that it took some experience to get it right.

    The most experienced people worked on the bigger bells, the least experienced people on the smaller bells.  This guy (didn't catch his name) had arrived here last June and was still considered relatively new.  That beautiful square box with the amazing hardware is what the molten bronze will be poured into.
     Cabiria had said at one point she was cynical after the four years and while we were working I asked her why.  "After being at Burning Man for many years", she said, 'I know if you really want to get things done and you have the people to do it, you can make it happen.  Paolo is such a prolific artist, we have an entire trailer full of his drawings, bronze sculptures and architectural models, that I don't think he cares whether it gets done or not".
    I said, "Yeah at 91 yrs old one probably accepts their limitations more so than us younger ones".
    Cabiria said she liked living in community and that Arcosanti is a good place to go when you need a change in your life, although she also mentioned there were some people there with a 'small-town attitude' and it occasionally felt like she was in junior high school.
    Meanwhile they were preparing for 'the pour'.  Here's a picture of the two that suited up to handle the crucible as is came out of the kiln.

    Bronze casting has some similarities with glass blowing in that they melt the bronze in a crucible.  Once it gets to the right temperature two people pick it up and sit it on the deck.

     Once everyone is ready for the pour the two who are suited up pick up the crucible and walk it over to the molds.  Here they are pouring into the first mold which has four bells in it....

    Below is a close up of the pour ... the molten bronze looks a like the golden paint color called Quinacridone Gold...

      Cabiria and the other guy are patting the sand down because the bronze is bubbling up which indicates repairs will have to made on the bells later.
     Cabiria said it took her a while to figure out how to position herself so that she could lift the molten crucible.  As you can see it is quite heavy and it takes some skill to pour it just right.  Once the bronze is poured they wait until the molds cool and then remove the bells....

     Pictured below is a few of the the poured bronze bells cooling in the sand molds...

  

        And here's a picture of the bells when they come out of the molds...

         After the burrs have been polished off the bells they patina them with muratic acid...

    I got to take one kind of artzy shot in a storage area for the bells.  The red of the structure made a great contrast for the greenish-blue patina of the bells...

    Fortunate for me Cabiria invited me back to stay at her place and do a night time fire with a few beers and stories thrown in.   I am looking forward to that and it gives me a great excuse to go visit again.

    I left Arcosanti about 11 am and headed towards Joshua Tree (the town not the park).  On the way I did happen to find 'The Rice Shoe Tree Monument' out in the middle of nowhere on Highway 62.

     For some unknown reason when college kids came back from Lake Havasu during spring break they started hanging shoes on what was once an old Tamaskus Tree.  In 2003 someone arsoned the tree so the shoes now hang along a wire fence.  Also, all along the railway tracks people stop to make monuments for themselves using the multicolored basalt rocks.  The ones that stand out the most used the black rocks then the white as a contrast.  For several miles there was 'rock graffiti' like what you see below along side the railroad tracks...

   As a parting shot, here's my favorite image of the day... I love both the subject matter and the composition of the shot... It's the infamous Sunset Motel weathered to an almost unrecognizable mass of metal.  The giant cactus and the endless span of blue sky (a rare sight in Oregon these days) frames the scene.

   I made it to Joshua Tree that night about 8pm, dirt tired from the long days drive.  As always your comments are welcome either here on the blog or on Facebook.  Today I am headed into Joshua Tree National Forest and tomorrow I will post whatever it is that I find there.  As always thanks for reading... Yona C. Riel