Tag United States of America

Summer in Badwater

I can tell you that we experienced 120°F, but I don't think a numeric measurement could convey what such heat does to a human body. Each step away from a cool air conditioned car winnows away energy, drive, optimism, and curiosity. The cool car becomes a recharging station, where one regains the will and ability to strive. The car is where a cool head can set priorities: how far I can safely travel and what pictures will I take. And when one comes to a point where cool air is no longer forthcoming, how willingly one will just give up.

Lexi Goforth
June 7, 2016
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Paramount Ranch

Flanked by the Saratoga Hills, Paramount Ranch is part of an ongoing history of filmmaking. The ranch includes a full western set with the requisite general store, saloon, and sheriff's office. Yet, the location has been used in leu of San Francisco, Salem, the Pacific Islands, the Amazon, Kenya, Vietnam, Morocco, Israel, and more. Parts of The Cisco Kid, American Sniper, Planet of the Apes, and even The Flintstones were shot here.

The Center For Land Use Interpretation is part art, part research, and everything we love. I came across the site while researching one of our natural resource websites. The merging of land use and artistic analysis brings art to a realm which mostly consists of data parsing and number crunching.

Lexi Goforth
June 5, 2016

Time Travel Mart

The Mar Vista Time Travel Mart stands apart from its neighboring stores along Venice Blvd. Perhaps it is the pacifist robot in the shop window. Perhaps it is the reassuring gold window dressing reminding you that "Whenever you are, we're already then." Perhaps it is the robot toupee and dinosaur eggs for sale. Regardless, it's the place to go to outfit your pre-adults with "future adult" t-shirts with the warm knowledge that profits from this time travel themed market go to support an educational program for local children.

Lexi Goforth
June 5, 2016

The Getty

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.

Lexi Goforth
June 4, 2016

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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.

Lexi Goforth
June 4, 2016

Self Portrait

Dodgy II, traveling down the 5 through the mountainous grapevine.

Lebec, California, United States

Lexi Goforth
June 3, 2016

Pasadena Sucks

Below the street sign is a smaller sign with smaller print announcing "No parking 2 A.M. to 6 A.M. on city streets except by permit."

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.

Lexi Goforth
June 1, 2016

The Long Haul

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.

Lexi Goforth
May 12, 2016