Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Joshua Tree Road Trip #5


Day 7
Disneyland to Joshua Tree

On day 7 we packed up and left the Little Boy Blue Motel near Disneyland and headed towards Joshua Tree. We stopped in Riverside to get some coffee then headed further east towards warmer climate.

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It was starting to get pretty hot, it's a good thing they had all these fans out here. I can't imagine how hot it must have been before they had them put in.

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The roads were long strait stretches, we stopped off in Palm Springs to get some groceries, buy some portable fans and to fill up the cab of the truck with ice

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Of course we had to stop and check out the Romance and Sex Life of The Date

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We were there around mid day, we were really worried there wouldn't be any seats left in the theater 
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It was to bad we couldn't stay for the whole film seeing how we needed to get back on the road. It's ok though because they were selling dvd copies out front. I'm sure my sister will let me borrow it after I give it to her for her christmas. 

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The milkshake was actually really good, I still kind of wish I could have another one

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After our date overload we headed back on the road into hotter territory, it's a good thing Carmel bought these little fans. Even having the windows down was like having a blow dryer in your face

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There were palm trees everywhere, these must be what the weeds are down here 

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Then all of a sudden the Salton Sea appeared, you could actually smell it before you could see it

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All that was really out this far was dirt, the salton sea, and trains

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There were plenty of abandoned buildings

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We then found our way to beautiful Bombay Beach

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The beach was closed

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Dirt harvester or something

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Lots more abandoned buildings

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There were shoes everywhere

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Beautiful Bombay Beach, it would actually be really nice if it wasn't for the smell and all the dead fish

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Buildings long forgotten

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More shoes

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More buildings barely hanging on to what they were

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I'm sure this TV was very important to someone at one time

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More shoes

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This neighborhood has gone to hell

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I thought about taking this record home and trying to play it but it looked a bit scratched

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This house could probably still be saved, I think it's got potential

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It still had an oven inside

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There was also a fridge close by

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The back needed some work 

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I couldn't tell if this house was slowly sinking or if it was built for really short people

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The ground was a bit salty and crunchy 

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Someones hangout spot

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"Nasty and Delicious, thats life" So true

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This community even had a sculpture garden

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It's bottles filled with cigaret butts

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I did mention all the dead fish right?

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We left the beach and drove around the town a little more looking for some civilization

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We didn't check out Pirates Alley, but we did stop into the Ski Inn and got a cold beer

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We then headed back on the road and towards Joshua Tree, Carmel climbed out onto the hood of the truck to get this shot.

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Everything was hot, somethings were so hot they looked like they must have burst into flames

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We drove up around to 29 Palms, or was it 27, anyway we were headed towards the Wonderland of Rocks to camp for the night. 

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The rocks started looking pretty wonderful

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We found a campsite about 2 hours before sunset and started setting up camp between two giant boulders. There were probably only 1 or 2 other groups of people camping there that night, for the most part you felt like you were the only one out there.

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Then it started getting darker

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And darker

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And darker still

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So then we started playing with the flashlights

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The night was so quiet and still, the temperature dropped to a somewhat comfortable 70 degrees or so. We were at around 3200 feet elevation which made the stars really amazing. You could really start to see the milky way pretty good. I tried to look for some constellations but there were so many stars I became lost. The moon rose later in the night and seemed so much brighter then usual. It was really fun to sleep out under the stars. We slept fairly comfortable even though we knew that the sun would soon rise over the horizon and start baking us again in 110 degree heat.

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