Adventure #24 - Day Seven -- Joshua Tree, CA to Wrightwood, CA

DAY SEVEN - Joshua Tree, CA - to Wrightwood, CA


Description: Wherein Marty and Heather leave Joshua Tree and visit with friend in Wrightwood.


(Marty's Report):

(Full disclosure:  I'm writing this on 1/31/15, having got busified by life.  Plus, this adventure seemed to have been inordinately long-plus-dense.  Or maybe I'm more verbose than usual ["Maximum verbosity"!  What what, Zork joke!  For my nerd-homies.])

Ok, so from Joshua Tree, we decided on going over the hill through Big Bear, a ski resort area northeast of L.A., en route to my friend Wan's house.  I've known Wan for maybe a couple years, since I was traveling to LA to participate in an Interpersonal Nerurobiology group with Dan Siegel.  Wan was in the group, and we found sympatico souls in each other, and have been meeting every few weeks by phone to do intellectual ping-pong together, which has been very rich and dense.

We were out of the High Desert Hotel by 10a, and skipped breakfast, favoring our getting out of the high desert sooner than later.  We drove through the desert--mile after mile of it--till we cut south up into the San Bernadino Mountains (wisely not taking any of the fire roads through the desert, which were tantalizingly placed there on the map as short cuts). 

As we headed up into the mountains, the terrain changed quickly, from scrub and joshua trees, then mixing in with pine forests, as the energy changed into something more life-affirming.  Apparently, the desert was starting to sap me;  I'd be a terrible one for the first Mars missions.  The terrain started feeling a lot like the Tahoe area, and the cultural terrain started feeling like the Tahoe area, but with less meth and red necks.  I liked it!  It felt open, at ease, and clean.  My body relaxed as we got into the mountains, which I could feel clearly within maybe a mile of upward travel.

We passed through Big Bear, and then headed down the other side, down into the LA area, through fog that blanketed the area (although Big Bear itself had beautiful blue skies).  We made it to Wan's new house in Wrightwood, a tiny little ski town where they relocated just a few months before.  It's up at 6000 feet, with typical high mountain houses amongst dry earth and dry pines.  They bought a place that they are refurbishing, with beautiful dark and light wood, lots of air and sun, and a funky design that was unfolded over the years by a family as it grew.  We met her carpenter as we went in, and then hung out with Wan, or toured the property, till her husband Marshall got home from his work at an art college, where he heads a research lab.  We all had dinner and talked through a wide range of topics, especially around technology.  They're a great, open hearted, big minded couple.

As it got late, though, and I calculated the driving times, we decided to leave late because we wanted to go to Martin Wheeler's Systema class in Beverley Hills the next morning, and saw that it would have been a miserably traffic-filled commute.  We said our goodbyes to them and to Mochi the dog, and drove through the blissfully open roads into South Pasadena, to get to Matt's house by 10:30p.  We visited with them a little bit before they crashed (Diemha was going to San Diego for a conference and Matt had to work in the morning).  I played with Lola and Sam, my favorite dogs in the world.  Lola looks like a capybara.