I am the Lorax and I speak for the trees…

Joshua Tree National Park :: May 17, 2013

To put a few miles under Dolores' belt and shake out anything else that she might have up her sleeve we decided to check out Joshua Tree – what a great decision! If any of you haven’t had a national park blow you away, I’d suggest adding this to the list of places you’d like to visit. 
It was like Moab, Arches, Yosemite, with a shake of Grand Canyon and Mars all melded into one – a completely unexpected dose of total awesomeness that we both needed. The Flintstone like piles of rocks were stacked perfectly throughout the park. Each pile had rocks resembling something hysterical like Homer, Tucan Sam’s beak, a perfect round ball, Clinton’s nose – it was hours of entertainment for us.

The light during sunrise and sunset is a photographers dream offering a perfect warm glow for any chosen subject. Most people that have visited the park mention the trees and how it makes you feel like you’re in a Dr. Suess book.  I can’t say enough about the trees and all the other flora and fauna that we saw.  If you know me, you know I’m especially excited by plants; I’m stoked by all the different ways photosynthesis is carried out. The way each of the plants here has evolved to exist and flourish in such hostile environments and climates: minimal water, occasional flash floods, snow,
high winds and even to the point of being reliant on one another is quite impressive.  Throw in a couple of oasis(es) with giant shady palm trees and I was pretty much in heaven.

To top it off, I saw a bobcat on my way back from the bathroom in the middle of the night.  You may ask yourself why in the world I had my camera with me in the bathroom to offer the opportunity to take this not-so-great photo. The answer is this GIANT black widow.  No one believed me that it was there so I wanted photographic proof. The real treat came in the morning when George discovered that the little kitty cat had left him a present on his washcloth.

Back to the beach, and hopefully a Mexican beach soon.

More photos from this trip can be seen over here >>

As luck would have it… Alpine, CA

There have been more than a handful of false starts for this trip, but as everyone keeps reminding me it is an adVANture.  So I guess that solves that, we’re not on a trip but an adventure and our van Dolores is calling the shots.  So far, although I’m not sure I agree with her every decision, I can’t say I question her judgment.  She has a way of showing us that awesome people exist everywhere in the world.

If we had tried desperately to find the one place in the nation we could land that could help us solve the little pickle that we’re in, I don’t think we would have found a place with this much talent, kindness and the background to help us perfectly.  The VW world is amazing, and sometimes small. The VW/Subaru motor world is even smaller, and turns out just as amazing. 

Our predicament of being towed back to San Diego with a giant paperweight and little budget to make it anything more than that, made me understand how you see VWs left in corners of fields. Prior to this I had always asked myself how you could leave such a classic vehicle to rust away? Now I fully understand – they end up there because they push you to a breaking point.

Evaluating the cost of a new engine and the serious blow it would have on our budget coupled with the lingering feeling of even if we did put another new engine in Dolores, did we have the confidence in her to drive her all the way south? Or would we need to start thinking about other options…  Could we even afford to sell the van? Could we ship it home to work on it?  Could we burn it to the ground in the Days Inn parking lot?

Our day had started at 5am for the border crossing, we didn’t want to end it with a decision that might rule out the plan that we’d worked so hard for.  We decided to sleep on it. George, unable to sleep combed the internet while sobbing softly for a solution until the wee hours of the morning.

As luck would have it the next morning George got a single phone call. The man on the other end of the phone was Steve of S&S Motors and pretty much our hero.  Not only is he arguably one of the best Subaru motor builders in the country and a super nice guy, he’s also a winner of the Baja 1000. Our hero Steve allowed us to stay on his property and work on the van. During which an important and exciting discovery was made: nothing was wrong with the motor itself. Instead, the new starter we had installed during our Denny’s breakdown a few weeks earlier was a cheap-o part; a bearing in it had failed and jammed against the flywheel making the motor seem seized.

George, being the awesome husband that he is, took one for the team. To work off our time there he got to partake in his favorite construction past time of hanging drywall on the ceiling of their new dyno test area – just a cool 1000 sq ft in 97-degree weather. 

Between that and recovering from some binge working on the van we’re taking a few days and a few miles to make sure Dolores doesn’t have any other tricks up her sleeve. San Onofre happens to be the perfect place for this; sun, waves and an awesome vibe - easily my favorite beach in California so far.

The Redwood Forest, CA, USA

Giant Redwood Trees

Straight from George picking me up at the airport we headed to the Redwood Forest. Destination: Avenue of Giants, recommended by a friend.

The drive there was stunning, rolling green hills, vineyards, happy cows and an emerald green snaking river.  The land scape changed dramatically from acres of farmland to steep hills blanketed in dense forest.

Markers showing what this tree saw in its lifetime

Our drive through the Avenue of Giants, one of the largest populations of Redwood on the planet, was quiet, cool and perhaps even a little creepy as we cruised through the winding road.  It was a sleepy place, like a breezy summer afternoon that makes you want to curl up with a good book and eventually fall into a nap.  The air is perfect; fresh and moving just enough.

It was hard not to feel like a hobbit and to not think about how our lifetime is a blink compared to the age of these monsters. Many of these trees were standing when the Vikings discovered North America. Over the years they have withstood fires, floods and humans.

I was sure the Redwood forest was going to be pretty cool, but I couldn't stop telling George how amazing and unbelievable it was.  Those of you that know me can only imagine what this was like.  I must have muttered "I love trees" a thousand times.

Total tree huger

As we were leaving George noted that they really were missing out on some marketing opportunities by not having t-shirts that said things like:
I hugged a tree today.
I love trees.
I hugged the tallest tree in the world today.
I'm a tree huger.


The rest of our photos from this leg of the trip can be seen here: http://tinyurl.com/d5wd358