Monday, Jan 16...
Quick stop at Pepe’s, Greg’s new favorite hardware
store (in Coachella – a lovely little spot without the 200 thousand festival attendees). The mural to the right is painted on the wall of the hardware store (sorry about the palm shadow - the only way to avoid it created a glare that was worse).
Then we followed Grapefruit Avenue (😃)
and Hwy 111 to the east side of the Salton Sea – a shallow, saline, inland lake on the San Andreas Fault. Check out www.desertuse.com/salton – it gives quite an
interesting history. Along the way we saw groves of date palms, ads for “date
shakes” (which we didn’t try, but probably should have – they’re apparently
iconic in this region), and a couple fields of grapes. Not vineyards, just
fields of rather dead-looking, grape-loaded vines. I couldn’t help wondering if this is
the poor man’s way to get raisins. (I did not sample any.)
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| Irrigated date palm grove. |
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| North End View |
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| No sand (yet), just a crushed shell beach. |
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| Dead fish also line the shore. |
We circled the lake,
detouring to Slab City (with “suburbs” of Salvation Mt, East Jesus and West
Satan). Slab City (variously described as “the last free place in America,” “an
escape for the down & out,” or simply an RV Squatters campsite) derives its
name from remaining concrete slabs that supported buildings when the area was a
Marine training camp during WW2. It is totally off-grid. East Jesus is the arts
area (arts being loosely interpreted).
It’s quite a large collection, and the individual pieces certainly reflect creative
vision, attention to detail, and commitment (to recycling, if nothing else). Our
docent – a tall, slim gentleman with short, curly graying hair, wearing a T-shirt
and a piece of fabric wrapped around his hips (to his knees) – was pleasant and
informative.
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| Note the added enhancement (Greg) |
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| I actually saw several LIBRARY signs - must be important! |
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| My personal fave. 😃 |
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| ...been thru the desert in a boat w/ no name |
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| Salvation Mountain |
BlogThoughts… When
I was about 12, I would sometimes take a random volume of World Book Encyclopedia into
the bathroom with me and read whatever caught my attention. I still enjoy
learning – which means these blogs often take longer than you might expect.
Today, for example, I wanted a quick refresher course on the Salton Sea. The
internet is today’s World Book, and
in just a couple clicks I had a great resource that explained said body of
water as “endorheic.” Endorheic? Another click and I had my
definition – and a connection of the word to both Greek (no surprise) and
German (rhein, flowing). A couple paragraphs later I bumped into equilibrate. I could figure that out on
my own, but it was still a new word for me. I don’t mind the distractions, and
I actually enjoy the research, but it does eat up time.
Ooh - dates! A date shake honestly doesn't sound that appealing (it's hard enough just to get through one or two - nonetheless the six a day that recommend when you're trying to efface your cervix), but I'd probably try it just for the experience.
ReplyDeleteRefresher course? You mean you already knew about the Salton Sea? That's more than I can say. You didn't share the definition of endorheic. (Maybe because I didn't know endo, I just missed the definition as you shared it.) George recognized rhea right away - for flowing - and endo as internal. So he's my World Book tonight. :+) I'd say the time you spend is well worth it - I'm thoroughly enjoying all the facts and tidbits you have to share - you could sell this as a book! Keep it up. :+)