Salt Lake City Utah

I am pretty sure I would have skipped Salt Lake City had there not been familiar faces there. It was a strange place all together. Every street had a number, and there were no names to be seen anywhere. It was a city on a perfect grid, with perfect blocks, all numbered in perfect chronological order. The houses bothered me more… All the little outskirts and well into the city all you could see was neighborhood after neighborhood of big-family mansions, all looking eerily similar to the next, and every one of them painted tan, with an occasional brown or off-white one thrown in. This was not only a city without personality it was a city without color. I knew there were people around but all the houses seemed dark, and although many had children’s play gyms and toys in the yard and it was the dead of summer there wasn’t a child to be seen. You could see lots and lots of churches though, one for every neighborhood. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the people I was about to meet, I had hoped they weren’t as bland as the city itself.

Chris and Brandy lived on one of only two streets I saw with a name. Their neighborhood had regular sized houses and seemed a bit cheerier. I was greeted at the door by two fantastically friendly little mongrels, a Chihuahua mix (I think with a shibu inu or some other unusual breed..) and a rat terrier mix. Already I was set a little to ease.

It was Father’s Day so my visit was short but pleasant. Chris and Brandy were both very laid back and seemingly happy people with a sense of humor. They were very easy to get along with. Brandy and myself just sat quietly. Though she did joke we should check out their lake whose salinity was like the dead sea, making people float. The idea intrigued me but the area kind of scared me off trying this…

The next day I visited a guy named Mike. I stopped in at their place and was greeted immediately by three cheerful talkative children, two of which hugged me within the first five minutes of being there. The eldest chatted off my ear for awhile while her brother looked at me with big adoring eyes. Their mother was sick so we only met her for a moment when they woke her up. It was later in the day, she had a migraine, and everything was bothering her. I know what that’s like! Mike himself seemed a very laid back guy, though he did seem quite tired. I can’t blame him though, three kids, all close in age… ouch. They in turn spent a lot of time dragging around two kittens who I’m sure will be amazingly tolerant cats someday. They had two cats and two kittens in the household and Mike told us they were probably not going to keep both or either of the kittens. I enjoyed the little black and white kitten who reminded me of my mother’s cat, Tobey. It reminded me of the Wal-Mart I went into before Salt Lake City. There were two kids outside with a box of free kittens, each hugging a kitten as tight as they could like, “Our mom sent us out here to get rid of these but don’t take our kittens! We love them!” I don’t think they were very successful… And yesterday I saw a guy in an old Volkswagen Bus taking his cat for a walk at a truck stop.

Anyway, Mike told me of his recent artistic ventures making some sci-fi shorts for online and he told us about his prior job as a truck driver, stating he’d been to all the lower 48, save for the New England states. My visit was short and sweet as the children had to be off to bed. I left Salt Lake, again.

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June 19, 2011 0

Jeep Breaks Down – Plymouth Indiana

I was on my way to Michigan, to a Dutch store, when the Jeep finally decided to give me trouble. It was really only a matter of time before something had to go wrong. Today was exceptionally hot, in the high 80’s, and the Jeep decided to throw off it’s serpentine belt like a string of Mardi Gras beads, leaving aside the highway before overheating and dumping some sort of metal wheel from the engine. The steering went whack and the Jeep was no longer functional.

It was a Sunday in mid summer so although AAA was called it would be a more than two hour wait standing aside a cornfield dying of the heat before someone showed up.

He was a big guy and sweating profusely. I was worried he might have a heart attack or something. He looked so uncomfortable! But once he was in the truck he seemed to be doing better. He talked to us and we told him what we were up to. He was sweet enough to call around to find a place that was likely to have the part I needed so I wouldn’t end up stranded for a week. The mechanic that AAA had initially told him to go to wasn’t even open on the weekends. So it was a 30 minute drive to a bigger city. He told me about Notre Dame and pointed out Touch Down Jesus as we drove by. He said he had two kids and that football here was huge. I thanked him as I walked into Sears.

I was set to deal with an old man who had taken the call earlier. He looked gloomily at the engine, three others did the same. They were all quiet, too quiet, and no one would really tell me what was going on. I got the distinct feeling that the Jeep was on some sort of life support and I was about to be asked to pull the plug. Eventually he said that it was an easy fix but he didn’t have the part, and that he couldn’t find anyone who did. He insisted it might be Tuesday or Wednesday before the car was fixed which was not an option I had. I was already just scraping by with the few pennies I had left. I had no money for a hotel or a rental or anything of the sort. Perhaps I’d be sleeping in the park tonight.

Eventually he asked if the guy had tried calling Advanced Auto Parts which we had already driven by. The guy said he did but they weren’t answering and must be closed. He said most of the places around here closed at 2:30. What? I had never heard of such a thing, mechanics having the same hours as a high school… and I grew up in a family of mechanics! All of them stopped working when the sun went down, only because of the dark, otherwise they’d be open even later. One of his coworkers heard the conversation and said, “They should be open! They’re usually open until 8 or 10 PM.” By now it was 4PM. He called again. This time they picked up and he proceeded to order an $85 serpentine belt which I knew should cost $35. He got a cheaper one. In the end it cost $230 and took an hour and a half to fix. I was soon on my way and driving towards Michigan, a state I had no real desire to experience — you see every person I have met in my life from Michigan has been a total bastard, people who are out to just fuck with you for no reason. I have talked to others who said the same thing – everyone they met from Michigan was someone to be avoided like the plague. Now maybe I just had a bum deal and met all the bad apples fleeing the state but I was more concerned I hadn’t and that there was something about Michigan that made the souls of many of its citizens rot at the core.

I ended up in Kalamazoo. I skipped the Dutch store and settled for a gas station where everyone was rude and odd. I left as soon as I could.

***I apologize for any missing photos and galleries as I continue to work getting Catching Marbles fully migrated to a new host. Please come back soon for restored photos and thank you for your patience!***

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

June 16, 2011 0

Seattle Washington

I was asked what Seattle was like and I didn’t really have an answer. It always struck me as a sort of yuppie city, famous for coffee and sour dough bread. Also I heard it rained a lot. So what’s in Seattle to see? I don’t know, the Space Needle?

The Space Needle is one thing but what else is there? I had no idea so I asked my phone. It told me of a troll living under a bridge… so I went to check that out. I don’t think I expected a giant troll grasping a real Volkswagen Bug in its hands. I had some teenagers take a photo and then I wandered off to see what else was in the area (besides the overwhelming stench of a local tomcat.)

I ended up in front of a bunch of eateries. Before coming here today I realized the budget could no longer stand up to eating out every few days and I decided to stop this and go back to the PB&J sandwiches, which by the way do not fill you up and after awhile instead train your belly on a constant grumbly aching for real food. However there was a place here selling shawarma, and the idea of something I normally cook at home being served here was doubly tempting… Shawarma is a dish usually made of lamb or pork, shoved in a pita pocket and drowned in garlic sauce. It’s a Turkish/Dutch dish and I had made it a few times using turkey as a substitute. It’s pub food, what can I say? Filling and delicious. I walked by but not with much conviction.

This place must have been the artsy neighborhood. It was filled with weird art everywhere including unexplained works in the making and a crazy bum wielding a guitar while talk-singing to himself and telling the Laundromat off. So that’s where people get their chips installed these days… I always thought that was the dentist…

There were college students everywhere here, in every eatery, even the Vietnamese hot noodle place. I walked back to the car only to have my hunger hit again. I wandered around the neighborhood looking for a place to park but there was absolutely nothing. Now I was starting to see why everyone here seemed to be riding a bike or jogging. Even the middle aged people, potbellies and all, were seen jogging down the streets with an I-Pod and a step-o-meter on their hip with an expression of, “Why am I doing this to myself??” I failed at finding a parking space and left, ending up at Green Lake.

Green Lake is a nice little lake with a two and a half mile track around it which cyclists, joggers, and dog walkers go around and around on. It was flat, perfect for this sort of activity I wasn’t feeling all that great and was hungry to boot. I walked back to the car after finding the lake had nothing particularly interesting in or around it. I made one final note about the people here… they all seemed to have dogs… old muttly dogs which looked like they’d been in the family for twenty years… now that’s some dedication!

I left the city hungry and found a grocer’s nearby. I had gotten there a little after the deli counter had started to get ready to close shop. The woman there was not in any mood to deal with me and despite her name being Angel she was far from one. She pretended I wasn’t there… for ten minutes… and when I didn’t leave she yelled, “WHAT YOU WANT?!” I cleared my throat and answered as best I could which caused a great deal of muttering. She was either reciting a hex or cursing me out in a foreign tongue. Either way… little weird. I had to dodge the turkey and cheese as she threw it full force across the counter, continuing to curse. WOW. Paying for these choices took another twenty minutes at the counter as most of the registers were completely abandoned and the one that was open for some reason only wanted to deal with everyone but me despite the fact I was in the queue….?? Yup. One of those days.

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June 16, 2011 0

Random Beach – California

After the redwoods the GPS decided to try and kill me again, attempting to send me up dirt roads clearly labeled, “not a through way” and then telling me to turn left into a tree. There was no road at all where she claimed there was one. This resulted in me being creative in my attempt to find an exit and in doing so I somehow stumbled onto a beach with a number of little structures, half buried in the sand. It was a little fort or something. I’m not sure. It was however low tide and the sea seemed so far away.

I was hungry and tired and in no way in the mood for walking on a cold windy beach, trudging through the sand, in search of invisible shells. It was indeed nippy and to make matters worse my shoes had worn out to the point they felt like tacks stabbing into the back of my heals with each step. I already lost some skin to this degradation and it didn’t take long before I found myself barefootin’ again.

The beach was beautiful, filled with all sorts of bleached redwood driftwood. Still it was windy and cold. I didn’t really start to enjoy it until we found a dead something washed up. All that was left of it was the bones of it’s torso. The hips were backwards facing and the scapula was no less confusing. I theorized it to be a bird but if it was a bird it was an enormous bird. Do seals have backwards facing pelvises? I don’t know anything about marine mammals, maybe it was something like that. ***Further research revealed the bone to be that of a baby seal.

I walked farther up the beach and I was doing fairly OK until I realized my bandana had blown away and was nowhere to be found, leaving my hair to whip wildly around my face. I couldn’t see a thing any more and was getting increasingly cranky. I didn’t find any shells, only some pretty colorful rocks we pocketed and promised to deposit in a future fish tank. My purse kept falling off my shoulder and it felt heavier than usual. I threw the damn thing and screamed. I didn’t feel any better after this unusual fit. Suffice to say by the time I reached the car I was just ready to book it out of there. After a cereal bar I was once again returned to a world I could deal with. Hypoglycemia’s ever so much fun, randomly throwing me into hyper, aggressive/agitated, or weepy moods I find intensely hard to control. I think if it wasn’t for that I probably would have enjoyed that beach… it was rather like a desert island, hidden, private, and very neat.

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June 15, 2011 0

Elephant Seal Beach

After San Francisco it was back to beach combing, this time in Point Reyes. I drove through a world of cows. There were fat cows, skinny cows, spotted cows, black cows, fenced in cows, and free roaming cows. I even found an escaped cow next to a broken fence. I wasn’t sure why I was driving through this bovine bevy but I don’t ask a lot of questions to begin with. Besides the cows there were other strange sights including four huge male elk just strutting through the fields like they owned the place, carrying with them the largest antlers I had ever seen. I guess they were lucky I wasn’t a hunter! I shot them instead with my camera. Gorgeous beasties.

I was unable to find a walkable beach, however at the end of one road I did find Elephant Seal Beach Overlook. It was a ¼ of a mile walk… and I was in no mood. The wind was blowing so hard that there were flying monkeys being slammed into the rocks ahead of me. Somehow I managed to slide out of the Jeep, after changing my clothes to jeans, a sweater, and my winter trench coat. I walked down the path, barricaded by handrails which I clung to whenever the wind threatened to tip me over. At one point the gales nearly threw me off my feet and I was grateful for those handrails! I couldn’t get that close to the seals but there they were, as promised… a beach full of bloated, enormous seals with funny noses. Of course I could only distinguish this by using the fantastic zooming abilities of the camera. Binoculars probably would have been helpful, still I did see something in the wild I never would have before! I went back to the Jeep nearly frozen. The cows stared at me as I left, wondering who I was and why I was there so late.

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June 15, 2011 0

San Francisco California

After seeing all the other Californian cities before San Francisco I was a bit desensitized. Still, San Francisco was historically more interesting than the other cities, It was no LA that’s for sure! It’s quiet, its cute, and its full of 90 degree hills, it’s lovable in a 3-D sort of way.

Though I do know various tidbits of San Fransisco history I wasn’t really sure where to go myself. I knew I wanted to check out the Haight and go down Lombard street just to be the ultimate geeky tourist. I headed towards Haight-Ashbury, the former and apparently now reestablished hippie mecca. Had one of those bizarre moments when I knew I was getting near because I recognized one of the houses. Took me a couple of hours to figure out why. I think I recognized it from some old news footage in Tom Brockaw’s (spelling?) 1968 documentary. This is one of the handful of documentaries I play whenever its on, which is often…

Anyway, I knew when I hit the Haight. There was a sudden burst of psychedelic colors washing out over the windows and buildings. Murals were everywhere. So was tie-dye T-shirt shops as well as a lot of other adorable little fashion outlets. When I initially parked I wasn’t sure if I could because there was a sign on the meter that said something about construction and no parking. there was a burly hippie dude in the front of a music store and when asked if I could park here he said nothing, just approached the meter, ripped off the sign, threw it in a nearby trashcan and announced, “Is now!”

I walked into the music store. It had beautiful instruments but having no musical inclinations I had no idea about any of them. I did hit a few record stores as well which had an absolutely delicious selection of things, the most variety I’d ever seen. I didn’t look too close. I probably would have bought half the store if I could.

I stopped in at one of the artsy looking stores. There were wood carvings here that blew my mind. One piece of wood carved into two tangoing dinosaurs with exquisite detail was the first thing I saw. The second thing was an entire wall, including a bedframe with cabinets, all a conglomerate of tiny carvings. It was amazingly 3-D. Of course there was a big wooden Buddha people had left coins on and a Ganesh I couldn’t help but petting. He’s the Hindu protector of travelers after all…

Another interesting store I stopped by was some sort of freakish antiques and bad taxidermy shop. It had not just jackalopes but a squirrel riding a bunny rodeo style, several finch headed necklaces, squirrels dressed up as dolls, a fancy rat poised over a trap, and other very badly taxidermied little things that just looked dried up, twisted, and weird. If animals weren’t your thing they also had a shrunken head and the tiny severed foot of a Chinese woman from back in the days when binding was practiced. Oh and there was also a pickled tattoo of some sort… and funny enough a book about the Mutter Museum. Upstairs was a gallery of scary art and a deep purple embossed velvet child-sized casket, very Victorian looking.

All and all I left the Haight happy, happy enough to take a crack at Lombard street, which by the way is a one way street, and which our navigation at first brought us to the wrong side of. Another foil in planning when I got back to Lombard I drove it for quite awhile without seeing the characteristic eight hairpin turns lined up one after another. Back to the phone. It told me Lombard street’s crooked section was only one block and it told me where so off I went. When I first saw what the Jeep was in for I patted it’s dash and told it I was sorry. It groaned in return but made it just fine past all the turns! No one else was keeping entertained with this street as I was and the pedestrians seemed to think the Jeep was too fat for such a stunt, they looked on with an expression of delighted horror. After this three small cars appeared and followed suit.

Today was a good day for a little bit of ocean fun so I headed to Pier 37. I didn’t know what it was but it was listed as a tourist destination in the brochure I got from the Salinas campground. As it turns out Pier 37 it is a boardwalk full of fried foods, ice cream, little tourist shops, corny entertainment, street performers, and restaurants. I watched some break dancing and perused some magnet shops before making my way to the actual pier where rumor had it that there were seals. I wasn’t disappointed. There was a group of fat seals all sitting on the docks barking at each other and lazily basking in the sun. It was a nice end to this little trip to the sea front.

After leaving Pier 37 it was decided that the Full House house should be found for the appropriate shits and giggles. I looked it up and in another dorky excursion checked it out, snapping one photo to the complete befuddlement of the car behind us.

It was after this I just happened to stumble across an amazing surprise called the Fine Arts Lagoon. When I read the sign I thought of an art gallery in front of a big black body of water, possibly filled with monsters. It was nothing like that. Instead it was an enormous structure of Greek columns nestled aside a good sized lagoon, absolutely filled with red-eared sliders and big scary carp. Ducks also lined the shores and one swan watched me walk by, politely not beating me to death with its wings, as swans are prone to do. This place was gorgeous and serene, something I had never heard of, yet it was such a treasure! I walked all the way around the lagoon and through the columns, decorated with stunning Greco-Roman styled ornamentation including large vases and absolutely perfect figures of women. We read the signs, and found out this place was built in the 20’s as both a wildlife refuge and a testimonial to art itself. I had a couple Asian women take a photo in front of it.

Finally I decided to go to Golden Gate Park to get a photo in front of the Golden Gate bridge. I found another Asian family to take the photo. I was asked to get up on the wall but I yelled, through the phenomenal sound of gusting wind, “I can’t! My skirt is blowing everywhere!” This made the two Asian women in the background giggle to each other. I am glad I amused someone… I was having a Hell of a time with my ankle length, very light weight skirt. I was holding it in bunches with both hands to keep it down and I was failing. I was happy to be back in the Jeep.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

June 14, 2011 0

KOA Campground – Santinella CA

My next stop was supposed to be San Francisco but I wasn’t particularly thrilled about the idea of arriving in a large city on a Sunday so I took some time for a little R&R at a KOA campground instead. I needed a good rest and some uninterrupted sleep anyway. Waking up when the Jeep reached boiling point every morning was not really the best way to sleep. Besides I was trying to camp since Yosemite but they were full and the Big Sur grounds were just too bizarre and expensive to figure out.

The KOA campground in Santinella was expensive too, $27 a night, but they had water, electricity, full bathroom and showers, a 24 hour Laundromat, as well as some extras including a game room, wi-fi, a public porch, a communal grill, and a pool. I was due for doing some laundry and getting a shower, the rest seemed great too.

Arriving we found the park full of RVs but very very quiet. The most activity I saw were the hundreds of ground squirrels dashing for cover when I drove in. Apparently this was squirrel metropolis. The people who were around all seemed to be old and owned little yappy lap dogs. Still, since I was the only tent I found a fairly secluded spot near the Laundromat and next to a horse pasture. Pitching the tent was easy this time as I was not battling explosive bursts of wind and rain like I had on previous occasions.

I wasn’t about to let the pool go to waste. No one seemed to be using it which was odd, it’s not like it was filled with baby barracuda like that awesome little beach in Key West… No barracuda, more toes spared, it was a win win. I spent the whole day splashing to and fro and realizing just how out of shape I really was. There was no one else here. The woman working there said sometimes children would use the pool on weekends but that was the majority of the activity it saw. I didn’t end up doing our laundry or getting a shower… and I slept in until noon, so I had to renew for another day anyway… it was a pleasant place. I had a firepit and some Wal-Mart wood and cooked turkey dogs, potatoes and onions, and macaroni and cheese on it. My neighbors found me ever so cute for using the fire for macaroni and cheese but trust me, at this point Mac and Cheese was a feast for kings!!

I swam for another long stint, getting even more sunburned than the day before despite being covered in sun block. It must have been expired or something as we both got burned, of course I got much worse so. Everywhere the bathing suit wasn’t covering got lobster-red. And people wonder why I am against bikinis… in any event some good old Aloe Vera and we were back to that whole laundry and shower thing. The shower was the first hot shower I’d taken in a public place. I was intensely grateful.

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June 13, 2011 0

Big Sur California

Big Sur was weird. I though it was just a single park named Big Sur that had beautiful coastlines and redwoods. Instead I found out that Scenic Coast Route Highway 1 would bring me through six separate parks, all named something different but all considered the Big Sur area. Big Sur apparently was the river bordering each. To add to the confusion there were free beaches and scenic overlooks right off the highway about every 500 feet it seemed. So why pay for the park and where? I never figured this one out. The information center did nothing but complicate issues. Whatever, back to the beaches I went!

I took lots of photos of the rough and jagged rocky coastline being battered by angry waves. I even found my way down to a beach. It was oddly devoid of shells but it was absolutely gorgeous. I was inspired by the colorful plant life clinging to all the rocks. It was definitely different from the beaches back home as well as every other beach I’d been to. I liked it there.

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June 11, 2011 0

Yosemite California

I had already had Yosemite circled or map and was going to go there but upon getting within five miles of its entrance (at Tioga Pass) I were informed that that particular entrance was closed and I’d have to take a detour in the mountains, which would take me no less than two hours. Did I mention the mountain was owned by the military and there were all sorts of signs saying stopping at any point was prohibited? Big military Jeeps climbed up and down and soldiers with large rifles could be seen every now and then just standing aside the road keeping guard. To make matters all the more tense the farther we drove up this insanely steep mountain the more snow started to pile up on the ground. The Californians here, who must have also been on the way to Yosemite, could be seen every now and then ignoring the signs and stopping to play in the snow. Gates started to appear on an increasingly thin road, just beyond them reading “road closed” just in case the option had to be taken. By now the snow was reaching well over the height of the Jeep and I wondered just how it was plowed like that in the first place, they must have some seriously hefty equipment to do so. Luckily I made it to the top of the mountain without anything being closed but the ride down was rough. I’ve been on a lot of mountain roads since beginning the journey but this one seemed more intense, with far steeper declines on very windy roads. It would have been a bad place for anyone’s brakes to fail, that’s for sure!

When I finally got back on the road, the same road I was detoured off of, I entered the park but by this time it was getting quite late. I rushed through, trying to see all I could and stopping every now and then to snap photos. As I was told this place was full of waterfalls, all postcard pretty. I walked over a little wooden pathway going over the local marsh. I couldn’t resist splashing the water once which was bath warm. How very odd! There didn’t seem to be too much going on in the water but there were mule deer all around and people were reacting to them like they were one-eyed one-horned purple people eaters, leaning out their window and yelling, “DEER! There’s a deer right there!” At that point I was far more amused by the people than the deer. In New England deer are so common we eat them… and I don’t mean some people eat them, I mean you’d be hard up to find anyone who hasn’t at least tried venison once or twice.

Finally I ended up on the path to see the main fall, Bridal Veil. First I took a little detour to their bathrooms and I must say they had hands down the worst bathrooms I have seen on my trip. Walking in there were ten or so stalls lined up and toilet paper EVERYWHERE. Looking into the stalls I could see some of the toilets were over flowing with not only toilet paper but also pads and tampons. I am not sure where all the toilet paper was from because the dispensers were all full… with paper it absolutely refused to let go of. Nothing was clean, there was graffiti here and there but I suppose it could have been worse. I was told the graffiti in the men’s room was artfully crafted in actual human shit. I don’t get this at all! Why doesn’t such a known park, which receives so much money from visitors, not just hire a bathroom cleaner?!

But anyways, back to the falls… even though it was late there were still people walking up here. You could see the falls between the trees and take pretty photos. I passed an interesting little rock outcropping that formed a cave-like formation. At the end of the path I was able to walk right over the river at the bottom of the falls. It was wet, very wet, and no photos were possible as the camera lens was instantaneously covered with droplets of water. Still it was quite invigorating! I actually chickened out and didn’t go across the bridge. I had no idea where it led, but apparently it was a loop path. I ended up back out on the road to the Jeep in no time, stopping one last time to photograph an ancient mule deer with a completely white face. She appeared to be pregnant and was letting people get within a foot of her. She simply didn’t care. This had to be the world’s oldest pregnant deer. I don’t even know that she was with it enough to know she was a deer.

On my way out something big caught my eye but it confused me in that split second because it was too fat to be a deer, much too fat. As it turns out it was a baby grizzly bear just checking everyone out. One good look was all we got as the ranger on duty was already chasing him away before I could get the camera to focus on him. This is common practice in the area so bears don’t get accustomed to people and their food and therefore are far less likely to attack humans and get shot themselves. Still, it was neat to see a blonde baby bear after reading sign after sign reading, “Speeding kills bears. Obey the speed limit.” They even had the logo on magnets in the gift shop, just in case you needed a future reminder.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

June 10, 2011 0

Death Valley – Nevada/California

Death Valley is a weird place. It’s an inhospitable place, but absolutely beautiful. The mountains surrounding it are clearly visible and often look like they’re made of some sort of layer cake or colored powder. There’s something so food-like about them. The roads lead to one resort after another that caters to rich snobby people driving rented RVs and Mercedes. It’s a playground for the rich… a grotesque show of the power of money. “Look I can afford to vacation in the frickin’ desert! And in complete comfort!” There were even pools behind the lodges and the people? UGH. There was even some little punk-ass snot doing push ups shirtless in the middle of the salt flats of Badwater like “Lookee me! I’m all tough!” Has anyone ever been impressed with such dip-shit bravado?? It made me want to pull a switch blade just to see if he’d crap himself. But alas, that’d be unladlylike.

To make matters worse the little brats had completely graffittied a great deal of the salt flats, writing their names and little heart signs in the sand everywhere. Pissed me right off, this was such a pristine place for those obnoxious brats to ruin it for everyone else. I walked quite a ways until the graffiti nearly dried up. It was too hot to go any further. I got back to the Jeep drenched in my own sweat. I’d bathed in sun lotion so I was also greasy besides dripping with sweat.

I went to the Devil’s Golf Course. That was neat. It’s this vast expense of land with gnarled salt chunks littering the landscape and making it almost look like a coral maze. I dared some idiot to lick it to see if it was really salt. The answer was a resounding yes. It was such an odd sight… Like popcorn or something. And I didn’t have to hike anywhere to see it.

The last destination I decided to go to was Salt Creek which was home to the rare pupfish. It was a half mile round trip hike. I figured this would be another wild tortoise hunt but actually the really tiny creek was full of them. Most were so small they looked like mosquito larvae but there were a few bigger ones with beautiful stripes. They reminded me of cichlids. Cute little boiling cichlids.

I walked around and eventually found a curly tailed lizard running for its life on the hot sand. It was adorable! When it was running its tail was curled right over its back like a pug. It straightened out when it stopped and I took some photos. I must say returning home I will miss the lizards.. they have brought such joy to me watching them and seeing the many different species I never knew existed. I am happy to have experienced them.

But anyway, though I bathed in more sun block I still managed to get burned ankles, part of one arm, and pink cheeks. It’s never wise to bring someone the shade of an albino into the desert. I was surprised to find the insect life here was supersized like the fly with a fluffy mohawk that was bigger than the hummingbirds I saw at the zoo. When I got back to the car I was very ready to get out… but I stopped for a magnet… and a cold drink… and the most amazing popsicle ever. It was cold and that was all that was necessary in being the most amazing popsicle ever. Like seriously, The. Most. Amazing. Popsicle. EVER. No popsicle before or since could ever come close to that popsicle in greatness.

The most sadistic part of Death valley was the one gas station I passed. $5.50 a gallon. Basically if you aren’t loaded you aren’t getting out of here alive.

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!

June 9, 2011 0