Dreams, Moments, Travels
We’ve come out to Santa Barbara, California, one more time to visit with family. One of the high points of Jutta’s trips to America that I’ve noticed is how much she enjoys being so welcomed as part of the family. She’s met with our Aunt Ann and Uncle Woody so many times by now that I really do think she feels for them.
Out at Fiber Factory in Mesa, Arizona this evening Jutta and Caroline began the first night of lessons with Shari Monsam to learn how to make a Navajo rug. The first step is learning how to set up a loom, no easy task. This is Jutta’s first-class ever taken with her daughter but won’t be the last as there are another couple of workshops I set up for the mother-in-law to do while on this visit to the United States. The hardest part for Jutta was listening to the instructions in English and learning specific technical weaving terms she wasn’t familiar with.
The mother-in-law is in training and today’s exercise involves hiking up North Mountain near where we live. It’s not a long hike but it is a test to see how she feels after scaling this puny mountain. She makes it as high as the trail will let her go and is treated to a wonderfully clear view of the downtown Phoenix skyline. Jutta is in training for an attempt next month to hike into and more importantly, hike out of, the Grand Canyon.
Off the trail and on to another trail of sorts, the horse trail. It was time for another horseback riding lesson. First though we had to get my mother-in-law her first pair of blue jeans – $9 at Walmart. Caroline lent her a pair of boots, Celia supplied the hat and I offered an extra lift to get Jutta back into the saddle.
Left home early this morning to head into downtown Phoenix to the open-air market. The first stop was to stop in and say hi to Jimmy and Celia of Chile Acres, they are down here every Saturday selling eggs. As we walked around we crossed paths with the mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon. I stopped him so as to introduce my mother-in-law to our mayor. Jutta was quite surprised because had never met a mayor in all her years in Germany but come to America, and there they are just strolling through the market.
Our next stop was out in Glendale to take Jutta to her first-ever baseball game. And how else could she better appreciate America’s great past time? With a beer and hotdog, that’s how. Our seats were perfect just behind the catcher but between the three of us, we didn’t much have a clue as to what was really going on so after the third inning and enough beer and hotdogs we took off.
This wasn’t our first time soaking in the hot spring waters that emerge out of Death Valley and spill into this pool near Shoshone Inn where we were staying, but the other night under the stars, it was impossible to take photos as it was so dark and it was too cold to even consider it. Jutta was a bit apprehensive to get out of the warm car after we changed into swimsuits that night and bristled at the idea that she was going to get in a pool when it was nearly freezing outside, but as we scurried through the gate and moved fast to immerse ourselves, a sigh of relief and awe went up from the three of us, luxury.
While we weren’t staying at the swanky accommodations found at The Inn at Death Valley, we had the indulgence of these incredibly cozy, beautifully warm waters all to ourselves.
After a hot breakfast at the Crowbar Cafe with Jutta furthering the indulgence to the start of the day by having strawberry-covered pancakes, we were once again on the road and before long were crossing into Nevada to visit a place that was on Caroline’s and my bucket list.
One doesn’t drive through a yucca forest and simply admire them, one gets out of their car and communes with them.
While visiting snowcapped mountains wasn’t on the itinerary, how could we leave somewhere as extreme as Death Valley and not contrast it with images of the winter Jutta was missing by being in America with us?
We are up in the Mt. Charleston area just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Of course, we got Jutta to fall back into the snow to make snow angels with her daughter. How often are you going to convince a lady near her mid-70s to do something so silly? Just five years ago, we had Jutta out in New Mexico making sand angels; click here to check out that day.
Mt. Charleston on a perfect day.
Speaking of contrasts, here we are at the item I mentioned from our bucket list, and the last reason for us to ever visit Las Vegas again is the Liberace Museum.
Update: on October 17, 2010, the Liberace Museum closed and never reopened.
Jutta had no idea who this guy Liberace was and Caroline only knew due to her time here in the States and learning about all the cornball stuff we’ve fetishized.
Well, now we’ve been here and done that: so long, Las Vegas, we may never see you again…at least until the next time.
If you were to look back at last year’s visit to the Hoover Dam when we stopped on our way to Death Valley, you might think these were the same photos. It’ll be another month before we travel with Jutta again, which is relatively extraordinary, but we have invited her to stay 83 days with us, with most of our focus on her experiencing what our normal day-to-day kind of life is like. She arrived back on January 23rd and will be leaving on April 15 if I can handle hanging out with my mother-in-law that long.
Not much death happening around here at this corner of Death Valley.
Just a bunch of life from what we can see. This is the Devil’s Cornfield, made up of clumps of soil weathered by aeolian winds with arrow weeds growing atop of them. What are Aeolian winds? From Wikipedia, I quote: “Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind’s ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials and are effective agents in regions with sparse vegetation, a lack of soil moisture, and a large supply of unconsolidated sediments. Although water is a much more powerful eroding force than wind, aeolian processes are important in arid environments such as deserts.”
Proof that water can run pretty deep here when it does rain, or how does one explain this phenomenon?
Living in Arizona, we have come to not see names of places as literals, such as Bloody Basin, which is not full of blood, and Big Bug Creek, well, maybe the big bugs are now extinct. So when you see Salt Creek on the map in Death Valley and everything tells you that this dryest of dry places is tough on life, who would ever expect to find Salt Creek flowing with water supporting a small marsh? Salt Creek turns out to be the remnant of Lake Manly, which 12,000 years ago during the Holocene was still a real lake before the area turned to desert. Amazingly, underneath all of this scorching desert lies one of the world’s largest aquifers, the legacy of Lake Manly. At Badwater Basin, one can see signs of the aquifer in the small areas covered by a thin layer of water.
Not far from the Devil’s Cornfield, we are now visiting the Devils Golf Course.
I’d venture that these are the petrified waveforms that froze in time back when the devil was playing golf and listening to whatever kind of music a devil listens to, probably AC/DC.
How lucky we are that on this particular weekend in this most inhospitable of landscapes known as Death Valley, we would find wildflowers in bloom.
Sand, flowers, rocks, satan, and snow.
There seems to be more water flowing here in Death Valley than one would imagine.
After taking a wrong turn here at the Bennetts Long Campsite many years ago, a group of people heading for California’s gold rush area was effectively trapped due to lack of water and navigating skills. While a person did walk about 250 miles looking for help, some of the party died here, hence the naming of the place that would become known as Death Valley.
We explored a side canyon with a name that has been lost in time.
Update: In 2023, we took a hike up Golden Canyon, this is that canyon.
Does my wife have bird-like features, or is it just the weird camera angle?
The sun is getting low, and soon, we’ll be overtaken by hunger. Better head for the exit.
Tomorrow, we will take in the view from above.