Surprise! Beto e Indira!

Yay!

Que bueno es tener un chance de disfrutar a los primos y ser familia :)

Que este año hayan más oportunidades de vernos.

Besos a todos. Especialmente a Beto e Indira por la visita de último
minuto. Gracias. Y sigamos haciéndolo porque "mi casa es tu casa" ;)

MLK day = DAH DAH and ME day!

These 2 had a fun fun day!

And yes. Those are silver stars on her leggings and shirt!

2014-2015 Winter trip. The end.

We took the Harry Wade exit/salvation route in Death Valley, another
4WD excursion in a corner of the park we had not explored. And came
across a herd of 8 burros! Wild animals now that once used to be the
only mode of transportation for the gold diggers of the mid 1800s.

We also got to explore the salt flats and natural hot springs of
Tecopa. Not park land, but BLM (bureau of land management) which for
some means "do as you please land" ...

I hope we repeat this trip soon and continue to explore the secretes
of the Valley and the Sierras.

Happy New Years!

Winter trip 2015. Second half. Part 4

Random things!

We joined the family who owned the town of Tecopa at their micro brew
for a New Years party!


Stumbled upon the Gipsy Time Travelers... A castle house on wheels
where the story telling wife and her blacksmith husband put a
theatrical show including the making of horse shoes... Yes, molten
iron and hammered to shape in front of us! Miss laurel won one of
them! Lucky like her parents.

Laurel hit it off with a 5 year old girl named Viola, on vacation from
San Fran.... So much, We spent the rest of our trip with them.

Winter trip. Second half. Part 3

The desert. It does something to you. So much vastness. So much
detail in the details. So much room to expand the mind and soul. I'm
serious. It's game changing.

I also now get the Navajo prints. It's the representation of this kind of land

And this kid is too cool for school.
Singing along to all the latest indie rock songs

Winter trip second half -part 2.2

Next up? a spot we hadn't seen:

Scotty's Castle.

We learned about the fantastical stories surrounding this mid 1800
gold digger who had only stories and no gold. Scotty managed to scam
many and finally found a wealthy Chicago couple who enjoyed the desert
and his company so much they built a retreat castle with him as the
front... Sox years into building it it's found that the castle was a
mile off in its location and it was built in park land!

After wheeling and dealing... They all got to enjoy the castle. Scotty
lost fame and grace as the government turned his wealth stories upside
down... the castle belongs to the park. But Scotty never left, he is
buried on site.

Oh. And a coyote greeted all who entered the grounds!

Winter trip second half -part 2

We crashed on our first DV night on sleeping bags and cots in a tent
cabin (read basically exposed in a chilly wind storm) at Panamit
Springs.

Best thing of that night was the amazing starry sky we observed. It
was amazing.

Next morning we started our Death Valley excursion with "the dunes"
and then the red truck's first 4WD fix to the base of Titus Canyon.
Whoop!

Winter trip second half -part 1

After 3 nights in 3 Rivers with snow in the sierras / sequoia. We
drove thru farm land, oil fields and cut to the eastern side of the
sierras thru the "easiest" mountain pass at Kern River. We entered the
canyon in sunlight. Lost cell signal and excited at dusk. We made our
Death Valley first night in pitch dark. -cont ;)