Kidnapping Andy to see eccentric parts of Southern California

after a breakfast of leftover pie, we headed to cabrillo national monument to see a cool view of the city of san diego. there are heaps of things named after this cabrillo dude and if you were curious like me, he was an explorer for spain. we also were present for the sending off of the nuclear powered nimitz aircraft carrier.

leaving san diego we headed to jacumba for the desert tower and mystery caves. it was only 3.50 and i still don't think it was worth the money. scrambling on the rocks was fun, but there are loads of places to do that. there just weren't as many rock carvings as i was expecting.

we drove along the cali-mexico border and there were these weird structures made of metal or PVC pipe and if that is the fence that is keeping the illegals out, then it is pathetic. we saw tons of border patrol cars in random places, but no action. andy and i spent at least an hour discussing what we would do if we needed to cross that border. i would wear camo and cross during the day.

our next stop was the CENTER OF THE WORLD(practically in arizona)! this stop was hilarious and well worth it. felicity is the only place that is government-declared as the true center of the world (i have a certificate to prove it!) and the official center is inside a pink granite pyramid (of course). bc it is the center of the world, there are/will be monuments and tributes to world things - so far is a US Korean war monument, a tribute to the french foreign legion, the history or french aviation, and a start to the tribute to humanity. coming soon are the history of california and arizona - all carved into pink marble. interesting. they are also building a church on the top of the hill of prayer. reason unknown. still hilarious.

on the way back to el centro, we rolled around in the imperial sand dunes (they filmed some of the tattooine scenes here for star wars). we had to venture a little ways to find undisturbed sand (bc of dune buggies and things) bc i really wanted to see sand dune ripples. we of course took some photos of us dying as we crawled through the sand. andy somehow filled his pockets with sand in the process- evidenced by the piles of sand on his seat, in his phone, and in his wallet discovered over the course of the entire weekend.

we stayed the night with Assaf in El Centro. he is an Israeli working at a geothermal power plant. awesome bc i have never quite understood how they work and now i do! and for those interested there are at least four geothermal power plants in cali and the largest one in the US is in san fran. and the funny thing about the plants is that they are designed and built in israel and then shipped over, put together and fixed by israelis. but they don't have any in their own country. weird, but interesting. i liked assaf a lot and thought he was funny. he was interested in our trip to the center of the world so hopefully we will go there too.

the next morning we headed for an oasis in holtville (carrot capital of the US - no big carrot or anything to really tell - but the carrot festival is next month i think) which assaf told us was a test sight for geothermal power and really now was a pipe spraying hot water from underground. there were some old people from RV land taking a dip in the pool, but the water from the pool went to a more natural looking pool surrounded by palm trees so it really did look like an oasis.

After going through a border control check point, we drove to the shore of the salton sea to see what it looked like. it was weird. it smells just like the ocean at low tide. the shoreline sand isn't sand - it is millions of barnacle shells - which i don't understand bc the glue that barnacles use to stick to things is super-powerful. there were carcasses and skeletons of dead fish from recent fish kills. we heard later that it was formed when a river flooded the area and that it is getting deeper as more water flows into it. people are concerned that it is getting too salty to support the major bird migration through the area and all the towns around it are essentially ghost towns and resorts that used to be popular forty years ago.

Andy and I visited Joshua Tree National Park for the second time and made a few stops that we missed the last time. we went to see hidden valley, skull rock, a rock arch, and chollas in the day light. i think joshua trees are just about the coolest trees ever. i like looking at the desert, but i don't think i want to live in one.

for the evening we couchsurfed with andres and patricia in indio. patricia is originally from mexico and andres from southern cali, so they took us out for the best mexicali food in their area - which was soooo delicious. they assured us though that if we really wanted the good stuff they would take us across the border for the real thing. if only we hadn't spent all day in the car and andy had his passport. i think that if i was married and settled and had kids, i would want to be like andres and patricia bc they go adventuring every weekend. they don't always plan things out, but appreciate random stops and going out and seeing things. when we left they were on their way to poker game-motorcycle race where you pick up a card at each station (that you don't look at until you get back to your base) and whoever ends up with the best poker hand wins. they gave us map advice and places to go on our way out the door. Andres sent us to a lookout over the valley for free (not 20 each on the tram) and we saw a herd of big horn sheep up there!

we made a mandatory stop at shield's date farm to watch a video entitled 'the romance and sex lives of dates.' it was more like the history of dates in the coachella valley and of shield's date farm, but basically dates can't really self propagate, and growing dates is very labor intensive which is why they are expensive. andy and i shared a date shake which andy did like, even though he doesn't really like dates. i like dates and i tried probably half of the varieties they grow there.

Andy and I went looking for Pioneertown, built in the fifties as a backdrop for western movies. it was a ghost town for sure with nothing open and no people, though we are told it is pretty lively during festivals. since we were in yucca valley already, we went in search of the jesus park also listed in my weird southern california book, and found it surprisingly rather easily. some guy made sculptures of jesus and apostles and all sorts of other 8-foot tall renditions. the problem is that some of them were damaged in a '92 earthquake, so one of the jesus statues looked like edward scissor hands bc his hands were missing and just had pieces of rebar sticking out. other statues were missing bits as well. this a free park so all money for fixing it is from donations.

for lunch we ate the highway 62 diner slash harley davidson dealer. this was not the first weird duo andy and i had seen, although not as strange as the casino slash quick mart. the blueberry pancakes were fab, filling, and cheap, and we got a good view of what shirts they had on the working staff. in the dealership they had harley shirts from around the globe on display - but i still think my mom's collection is just as good.

Andy and I were enticed by the 59cent-pot-your-own-cactus so we had to go choose some new friends. Mine, currently named spike until i think of something better, is perfectly wedged in my cup holder awaiting the next leg of the roadtrip. they are teeny-tiny though and hopefully i wont inadvertently kill spike.

we made it back to LA for soup and boardgame night with some of Andy's friends and spent the evening playing taboo and eating corn chowder and chess pie. megan cooked them both and they were really great. i have always been curious about corn chowder but never ordered it bc if it is like creamed corn, i wont be able to eat a lot of it. but if it all like megan's, then i love it. and i have this reoccurring pie theme that i will blame on a pie-roadtrip book i finished recently. and the fact that i love pie.

so in the weekend that i kidnapped andy, we checked off around seven things in the southern california curiosities book. i am vegging today, doing laundry, and going to a fish-nerd party before finally heading to death valley tomorrow.