We burned rubber out of Quartzsite. Kidding. Just kidding. The tires are too good right now to do something so mean to them.
I wasn’t blow away by Joshua Tree the last time, so I hadn’t planned to spend time there again. However, there’s easy boondocking in the area and it’s a national park… one that mom isn’t likely to see for any other reason. It was also on the way. We picked a spot and made a beeline across the desert for it.
We arrived early. I found the easiest spot imaginable…. relatively flat, gravel, turn around. Yes, please. No challenges needed. We were near a van and another motorhome. It was warm but not too hot. We ate lunch and I unpacked everything from the car (a daily occurrence lately… no wonder I’m steadily seeing progress on the ‘getting in shape’ goal).
Surprisingly, it smelled wonderful. Like… really really incredible. I hadn’t expected the super bloom to be noticeable (and visually, it wasn’t). After all, we were heading to ground zero of the bloom, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. But sure enough, the modest flowering on the southern side of the park packed a big bang in the smell category. I wish I could package the smell.
There’s a great lookout in the park – you can see all the way to the Salton Sea and Palm Springs. We headed there first (not remembering the park is something like 50 miles across). We drove through almost a half a tank of gas in the car before we even started seeing the park’s namesake.
We finally got back to the Chief at dusk. While I was cooking the lady living next to us in the motorhome brought her cat out… on a leash. I know that’s a normal thing. I just can’t seem to get over it. Cats. Leashes. Do we really want a dog but don’t want the responsibility?! Is the cat really dumb enough to run away in a desert? Are the mysterious coyotes really so aggressive? It’s possible… but a cat on a leash is like being happy to see a clown: weird. (Side note: I love you Cat People VIPs… no disrespect intended.)
She called the kids over. She’s trying to “socialize” her cat (her words, not mine) and she was happy to have them play with it. Ok.
Later that night, after dinner, the lady stopped by with a slice of chocolate cake for the kids. Apparently it was the cat’s birthday. No…. I’m not making this up. Did the cat get any cake? Not likely… it was chocolate on chocolate. The kids loved it. Mom decided not to have any on account of the “pre-made frosting”…. oh the humanity. I took a bite – just in case. I feel like if the president has someone eat a bit of his food before he does, it’s the least I can do for my kids. Especially under the circumstances.
Here’s the “super bloom”. I rest my case.
