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...

Day One Road trip...

     I did not leave Eugene until almost one o'clock, admittedly a late start on a 13 day road trip which would take me about 1000 miles away from home.   I got on I-5 south long enough to pick-up HWY 58 which crosses the Williamette Pass.  I jumped out of the car only once and took a few shots, knowing there would be a lot more snow shots to come on this trip.  (and yes there was that anxiety about my late start).

     After that I drove south on HWY 97 till I got to Klamath Falls.  Cute town.  Wouldn't wanna live there.  (Didn't even take a photo).  Good cheap place to get gas though.  South of Klamath Falls is this little road called HWY 140.  I had never been on it before and was not sure whether it was passable or what elevation the summit was at.  It was a dreamy, easy ride because on that weird little road I found a small town called Bly just loaded with the sorts of things I am looking for on this trip.

     This great little bldg was constructed in 1899.  I love that they repainted the 'Wild West Show' mural.

     And right around the corner was a second hand store that probably hasn't been opened in years.

 All this stuff was just sitting outside.  (Maybe it's worth more 'gone' than anything else).  There were several old glass fuses,  3 old clothing trunks and even an old bathtub rusted beyond repair.  Quaint but basically worthless except to summon up that nostalgic feeling some of us adore.

     
     Next place I stopped was on the outskirts of town.  Two abandoned buildings caught my eye, one right across the road from the other.  How could I not stop?  Yes I did see the 'no trespassing' signs but I figured if I am just taking pictures I am not hurting anything.  The first one was cute and small.  The huge old handmade yellowstone bricks and the signage caught my eye.  "South Fork Trading Post" the handpainted sign read...

     I looked around the back and found the door had already been opened by someone else.....and inside was an old piano.  Does this say Jeanette Wall's 'The Glass Castle' to anybody else?  If you haven't read that book it's a short, intense read featuring several old shacks and a scene with a piano that you will never forget.

   The place across the street was once a beautiful country style home with a huge inviting porch.

      It too had an obvious 'No Trespassing' sign.  (I take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints).  I peeked into the hole where the window had once been and found the remnants of a life once there.  Perhaps several lives now located on the other side of town or some new horizon several miles away.  The turquoise chair says 1970's but I have no idea whether this place has been squatted in after it was abandoned by it's owners.

     I took a little hike around the back and came upon this... (the next big windstorm is going to take this down.) 

     After traveling for a hundred or so miles I finally got to HWY 395 and a little town called Lakeview.  Must of been the same guy that owned this place because they too had several 'valuable' items just sitting out there on the dirt sidewalk.

     and around to the side more junk presumably for sale....

    I continued down HWY 395 till about 9 that night.  Tired, I found a Super 8 motel in Susanville.  It was Friday night and I forgot that high school kids in small towns often rent motel rooms to party in.  There was a group of them hanging about smoking cigarettes around the entrance to my room.  I did get some good sleep after the bozo next door turned his TV off.  But the wireless internet was so bad I couldn't download these pictures onto my blog.   But that did give me time to post some pictures on Facebook and mull over Day Two.   (to be continued) Yona c. Riel