Two Beers and a Pretzel

After my cousin Asa & Bekah’s wedding in Richmond, I flew to my Sister’s place to visit the Nieces and Nephew, then went back for what I planned to be a week in Cincy before driving my SUV back to Cali.  That’s about when life started to really suck…

I won’t get into it all, but the frustrations all revolve around coming back to find the grass in my back yard was was 2 feet tall – after I prepaid my neighbor to maintain it (which he had previously done a fairly good job of for 6 years).  Then problems with the buyer’s loan and the loan officer quitting (or being fired – not sure which).  Finally, the repairs to my old truck I had planned to put about $1000 into ended up costing me significantly more, and the first time I tried to drive home, the alternator fried in Illinois – about 40 miles from St. Louis.  After a few more trials with the car ands the house, I finally made it back to Cali on June 1st.

I was very ready to go camping, and after my 1st drive thru visit to Joshua Tree National Park, I knew I had to go back…  this time to relax and undo some stress with my buds Sreekanth and Tushar who managed to pry some time away from their cubicles and fly down from San Francisco.

Note my straw cowboy hat that my uncle Marty gave me as a gift for carting Asa’s keyboard out to Los Angeles – it did a decent job keeping me from getting sunburn.  Also note the Surf Ohio tire cover on the truck!  If you see an old red Rodeo with this tire cover in Southern California, odds are it’s me!

I picked the guys up at John Wayne airport late friday night and we arrived and setup camp around 1 AM early Saturday.  My dad gave me a tent that fit over the tailgate of the truck, and the guys were trying out a new 2 person tent from REI.  At 7 AM we got up for breakfast and ventured out to see the sights and do some hiking.

Skull Rock

We hiked a lot – even though is was near 100 degrees.

And we saw a lot of lizards, a few chipmunks, and a snake.

A rock that looked like a chocolate chip cookie:

Don’t forget the Joshua Trees!!

And the Cholla plants:

Sreekanth took over the Infra-Red Canon 10D for a day and got some really cool shots.

Joshua Tree N.P. has some of the darkest night skies in California.  On Saturday night, we saw a ranger presentation on the night skies, visited a neighbor camper with a 9″ telescope looking at Saturn, then we were able to get some sweet shots of the Milky Way using the IR camera:

… it’s hard as hell to focus that thing.

Happily, the house closed on Friday the 11th, so now I can start looking ahead to new and exciting things!