A Drive To The Desert

Lance went into the desert to do some painting, and he wanted to see us, so we said, "Okay, we'll come down and see you." I asked him for the directions to a town named 29 Palms, which is evidently right by the Joshua Tree National Park, and it sounded pretty simple: take the 10 Freeway way east to Highway 62, stop when you get to 29 Palms. "It's about 50 miles east of LA, takes about an hour," said Lance.

Lance wanted to meet at the Park, and I said, Okay, how about the Ranger Station? Then we thought that that might be too difficult, so we decided to meet at his room at the Motel 6.

Darin and I had breakfast and then set off at 10, which gave us an hour and a half to get there.

We realized, 60 miles into our drive, that perhaps Lance had misjudged the distance a little.

When we then saw a sign that said "29 Palms--40 miles" we sighed heavily. Instead of an hour's drive, it's a 2 and a half hour drive. (It's 150 miles, not 50.) We called the Motel 6 from the car, but Lance wasn't there. We left a message that we'd be there in an hour.

We drove through the Morongo Valley. Some people like the desert; I am not one of them. It's vast, empty, and desolate. As Darin and I looked at the shabby houses and run-down little "towns", he said, "If you grew up here, you would do anything to get out. If you had access to the Internet, you would be Mr. Online Chat Room."

Once into the desert we noticed these cute little trees everywhere. Darin asked me what kind of trees they were. "Joshua trees," I said. "Or maybe yucca trees."

We got to 29 Palms and found the Motel 6. We were both exhausted from the drive and enjoyed stretching our legs as we walked around the three-story motel (um, isn't there a size limit at which motels become hotels?) and found Lance's room.

He wasn't there.

We looked at one another. "What do we do now?"

First things first: we went to the Pizza Hut to use the bathrooms.

Was it possible that Lance had decided to go to the Park after all and meet us there?

We saddled up and went to the Visitor Center of the Park. Lance wasn't there. We got a Park map and noticed that there were 4 or 5 entrances into the Park, including 2 fairly close to the Motel 6--the North Entrance and the Indian Cove Entrance. And there were several Ranger Stations.

We drove in the North Entrance and then decided to try the Indian Cove Entrance instead, because it led to a smaller area and had its own Ranger station. So we exited the Park to drive across 29 Palms to the Indian Cove entrance, where we did not find Lance in the Ranger Station or sketching anywhere.

I think this was roughly when we decided to give up on finding Lance and just enjoy the Park some.

We were both dehydrated and Darin needed sunglasses, so we stopped at Thrifty to water and glass up. Then we went back to the North Entrance, which was one end of a drive that went through the Park to the West Entrance, at which point we could join back up with Highway 62 and head home.

First thing I learned from the pamphlet handed out at the entrance to the Park: those trees we'd seen? Joshua trees...a type of yucca tree. So I was right on both counts. Of course, this led to the following exchange, which cracked us both up (and may give you some idea of how tired we were):

"Joshua trees?"

"Yuck...a."

The Joshua Tree National Park is pretty spectacular. The acres and acres of these strange little trees, flanked by large hills of rocks--some of them gigantic and smooth, some of them tiny and rough--were wonderful. Every so often we'd see something else that made us go, "Wow."

(I realized about 5 miles in that I'd forgotten the camera, so I cannot share the majesty of this experience with you. So go yourself already!)

One of Darin's favorite comments was: "You don't see scenery like this in [insert European country of choice]." I have no idea why he kept saying this, but it's true--you can find any type of terrain in California, from mountains to desert to rolling hills to seaside to... It's a pretty wonderful state, actually. I hope we can keep it.

Darin also commented that Joshua Tree wasn't as spectacular as Zion National Park, but still pretty impressive nonetheless. We'll go back, this time better prepared with sunscreen, hiking clothes, water, and Lance. After all, we never did see the Joshua Tree, the one from the U2 album. I think that's quite a hike off somewhere.

To give you some idea of how tiring the drive down had been, when I offered to drive back, Darin took me up on it. This never happens.

When we got back, we got a phone call from Lance. Not only had he gotten our message, but he was waiting for us at the Motel 6...except for 5 minutes when he had to dash out of the room. (Guess when we showed up?) After waiting for us for a while after that, he left a note for us in the window of the room, which of course we never saw.

What a mess-up. And we're all really bummed we didn't see one another. But we saw the Park at least. I hope Lance got some drawing and painting done.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics