Thursday 12/22
Indio, CA
This town is a strange combination of poor Hispanic farm workers from the Imperial valley fields and wealthy retirees from golf course communities spilling eastward from Palm Springs. Thanx to the latter group I suppose, and the army of workers that supply/serve them, there’s a Starbucks with WIFI from which I just transmitted XMAS Blog Vol 1. The group of retired white guys in the corner soft chairs were holding their daily political discourse. Today’s subject: Is W a smart guy? I bit my toungue...
Chiriaco Summit (30 miles east of Coachella, CA)
Who knew? On Hwy 10 next to a gas station in what seems to be the middle of nowhere sits the General George S. Patton Memorial Museum. This guy ranks right up there with the famous defenders of American freedom: George Washington, Ullyses S Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, George W. Bu.. uh, no.
Sighted on the road today 13 Walmart trucks and a bumper stickerthat read “Bacon is a Vegetable”.
Ad on the radio suggested this xmas I buy myself “the gift that never needs painting: new stucco!”
Quartzite, AZ.
A brief stop to peruse the endless rows of tents filled with “Southwestern” items mostly made in China. Not to let a good selling opportunity go to waste, they also have loads of kitschy xmas lawn ornaments. Perhaps it’s to decorate the thousands of mobile homes in the multitude of trailer parks seemingly everywhere you look for miles. BTW: When is a mobile home actually mobile? Does that mean when the bank reposesses it, they cart it away?
Buckskin State Park (25 miles north of Parker, AZ.)
Pulled into a nice “developed” campground on the Colorado River and rented a space for $20 with hookups. Of course me & Brownie are a bit too primitive to use the hookup, but there is good news here. Despite sitting between 2 massive motorhomes with more square footage than my San Diego apartment, at least with the hookup for electricity, they don’t run their obnoxious generators to power the xmas lights. The crowd is mostly retired snowbirds wandering during the holidays much like me and hittin the sack early (much like me). So crickets are the loudest sound in camp tonite. BTW: Jack & Marion Pelligrue of Overland Park, KS. send season’s greetings to everyone on the list; and if you’re ever in Kansas City, be sure to look em up! Jack never met Harry Truman, but wishes he had. Me too.
Speaking of the Colorado River, I was wading in it tonite trying to remember if I’d ever touched this river before. I’d certainly seen it before at Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and from airplanes flying overhead, but had I ever actually touched it? Then it dawned on me: among the hundreds of municipalities, irrigation districts and other users in a half a dozen states who divert Colorado River water is none other than the City of San Diego. The Colorado is the main source of San Diego’s drinking water supply, and it finally reaches there after receiving along the way the discharges of 77 sewage treatment plants. So yes in fact I have touched it many times before. Incidentally, the number one selling soft drink in SD is bottled water...
Friday 12/23
Lake Havasu City, AZ.
Feedback! Thanx to all who’ve responded to my musings. I’ve received lots of encouragement, a bunch of really funny comments, and many nice messages from folks affirming their faith in christ and christmas. That’s great! My intent is to search for meaning and purpose; to learn, perhaps, more about what you know. Call me an observer, a commentator (did I rip W twice in this message?) on the landscape of life in late December 2005. I’m glad you’re with me.
Is that really the actual London Bridge over there across the parking lot from the In ‘N Out Burger? Gotta go check it out...
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