I remember visiting the Getty Center around 2004 and being blown away by the gardens. Certainly, the collection of art works inside the Getty represent noteworthy landmarks in art history. Yet, the garden was such a beautiful and deliberate journey that I couldn't help but be drawn outside.
We had many reasons for packing up our truck and heading back onto the road this summer. But one particular event lured us south to wait in lines under a blistering sun: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Open House.
Lebec, California, United States
We are meticulously law abiding. When we come to communities that have banned overnight parking in Walmarts such as Galveston, TX or Glen Springs, CO, we don't throw up our hands and attempt to stealth camp. As tired as we may be, we accept that this community does not want our business and we move on. So when we got a ticket for overnight parking in Pasadena, CA, we thought it must be a mistake.
It is a maze of twilight truths. Darkened, mysterious rooms hold strange oddities that might have been picked out of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford or have been designed by an artist inspired by history and the occult. Rooms delve into ancient medical traditions, a tragic actress, trailer parks, early space travel, and a monk's studies into magnetism to explain the divine's intangible but powerful influence in the world.
We have always had greater ambitions for Dodgy than just a bed under a truck shell. You don't need a 3500 Dodge Ram truck to go camping in the redwoods. It's impressive. Maybe it might make some guys with the chromed out 1500s feel a little inadequate but that is their business, not ours.
After a delightful night in the Redwood Forest, we figured the rest of our return journey would be rather rote. It was time to dig in and get to our friend's house outside of Sacramento where we could take a break from traveling and get some work done. But little did we know what a truly beautiful remainder of a trip we had left. Well, we did rather know. I made a point to route us along the coast for a while before heading inland for a mountain pass. So I knew there would be beaches and sea side views. What I didn't expect was an elk crossing.
In keeping with our tradition of shoehorning additional stops into an already busy schedule, we extended our trip by a day to camp in Redwood National and State Parks. Parts of it are national. Parts of it are state. As far as we can determine, there aren't any drive in camping spots in the National park, so we found an ideal spot at the State Park. The site is flanked by massive redwood trees, within hearing distance of a sonorous river, and a hop skip an a jump from bathrooms that don't stink. To me, the perfect spot.
The Salton Sea is an interesting example of when humans take water away, give it back again, and then take it away, yet again. The sea was a long standing body of water until the Colorado River was redirected. When a levy failed, the redirected river returned to it's original path, replenishing the Sea for years while the levy was being rebuilt. It experienced a golden age as a recreational destination for Los Angeles's cramped denizens...until it started to sink. As more water evaporates per year than is replenished into the Sea, the Salton Sea retains little other than salt, farm runoff, and the resulting dead fish. Rent is pretty low.
While we had already enjoyed a short hike with friends while staying in Palm Springs, we decided to circle back to for a night of camping after we bid the crew adieu. After an awesome hike, we settled in to a small camp site, set up our newly acquired inflatable glamping* chairs on the roof of the van to eat Bahn Mi and drink wine, and watched the sun set. Unfortunately, we, yet again, forgot to consider the elevation we were camping at and quickly retreated into the van as soon as the light show was over.