It’s been an amazing week so far. We left Soddy early on last Saturday morning and screamed across country, trying to get to Joleen before the surprise got leaked out – I was the most likely culprit to let it slip that we were on our way to see her. But – it worked! She was totally blown over that we were standing at her front door and kept smiling for the full three days. It was wonderful to see this child of mine again! A year is WAY too long and hopefully that will be the longest between visits from now on.
She took two days off work and we were able to catch up on quite a bit of nattering, late into the night. It was tremendously difficult to leave her again – the weekend was coming up and we had places we needed to get to .... it was difficult to leave her again and I started missing her as soon as she left for work again on Friday morning at some unbelievably horrible hour of the morning…..
We had been to the Painted Desert and Petrified forest and I had a good few photos from there – but the clouds closed in and the picture taking slowed down dramatically. I had also not taken many along the road at all….. interstates are just not that interesting.
Now we are in Death Valley and that has changed! Today alone, 600 photos were taken! We left the rv around 10am after thinking we might have to change sites and drove over 250 miles. We went to Scotties Castle which is simply an amazing site. After driving for hours thought the desert with awesome beauty, but start and dry and very dusty, we came around a tight corner into an amazing oasis of humongeous Palm trees, Cottonwoods and just the most beautiful greenery, and there stood this amazing castle! I did read up on it once before, but will have to do so again – it’s a totally fascinating place and quite incredible. The mosaic work on the towers is amazing, the enormous gates stunning and – well, I will post some pictures when I get the chance…….
And then we went on to the Racetrack Playa – the place of the moving stones. The little rattling road wound itself through ever-changing landscapes, we had miles of cactus – all different types, then miles and miles of Joshua Trees waving their arms around the sky. They left as abruptly as they arrived, leaving barren mountainscapes and then we saw the dried up lake that has these mysterious moving stones dotted all over them..
It was an amazing feeling to walk on that place, to see it and to feel the absolute silence there. A disappointment as we did not see the tracks from the rocks as they show on tv or internet - maybe those are a long way away but we walked for about an hour looking at stones.The surface felt.......... strange - even Frank said so. Firm, but as if it could give at any time - also, as if it was not quite level, or even the same angle of level at all times..... Frank took doglet back to the bakkie after a while - she was running loose there and having a blast... and I carried on walking and looking for a while on my own .... What an incredible feeling to walk on that lake bed totally alone - the other people had left by then. The view was awesome, the silence total and the feeling of being free incredible.
I loved the patterns that the dried mud made - little designs that went on forever. Also, when I sat down on the ground, there was no wind at all - only above waist level when standing. Weird. There were some markings where a good few of the stones had moved, but nothing really clear and nothing that the camera picked up clearly. I will look at them more closely again sometime. A lovely experience and we are both very glad we went.
Now we are back home again. Doglet is bathed – she shook herself this morning and a dust cloud the size of a great dane came from her fur! And all is peaceful. Tomorrow morning, Sunday, we leave here for Ventura, California where we will visit the Channel Islands National Park. We will probably be in that area for a few days…..
http://s223.photobucket.com/albums/dd175/lens2life/I have uploaded some photos – here is the link, you can see some of our photos… hopefully I will keep adding as we go along and might even figure out how to sort them into categories etc.For now, I have to get some sleep – tomorrow is another lovely day looming….
Love and light
Annie
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