Joshua Tree, CA

Made it out of Austin and LA in one piece... kind of tired from traveling.  It was great to see Dave again after all these years!  The car is packed to the gills with everything we need (or so we think): 2 coolers, bottled water, laptop (for blogging) and cables, cameras... you get the idea.  The weather is perfect for driving, a bit overcast so not too hot in the car.  

We headed out to Joshua Tree for our first stop, and were lucky enough to check in early.  From there we went to take a look at the Integratron. Sadly, it was closed for the weekend so we couldn't go inside, but we took some photos.  When we got back to the room, we found that we didn't have the cable hookup to download photos from the camera we used.  Bummer!  

Next stop was the Joshua Tree National Park.  We've both been here many times, but went on a short nature trail through Real Hidden Valley (climber's name).  It was fun to see a lot of lizards, birds, chipmunks, quail, and even some die-hard climbers.  They must have fingers of steel to climb on the rocks in July.  Reminded me of a great climb I led there called "Sail Away", I have a picture of that one at home.  So I think Dave took some good pictures there that we'll post soon.

We only stayed in the Park for a short time and headed back to the hotel to get ready to go to Pappy & Harriet's for dinner.  It hasn't changed a bit.  The waitress, Abby, used to wait on me when I was living out there 12 years ago!  She didn't recognize me, but she's hard to forget - wears a hat like Minny Pearl, including price tag.  So funny!

I was pretty tired on Sat night and ready to get some rest... I'm not a real party animal when I'm sleepy.  Am I ever a party animal? :)