April in Joshua Tree and Death Valley




There rarely is WiFi in the campgrounds of National and State Parks. Where we are now, WiFi is not so good. So going a month without working on this blog means I have a lot of ground to cover and risk boring you to death. So it will be mostly pictures.

 We planned the months of March and April around the Midwives For Haiti gala on April 6th in LA. But first there was Joshua Tree National Park, about the size of Rhode Island, located in Southern California. We heard it got its name from early Mormons who thought the trees looked like Joshua praying with his hands in the air. Joshua trees are not just in the park- we saw them all over southern California. Southern California is mostly desert. Here are pictures from Joshua Tree National Park. 

Large rocks in the park.



There was an old mine in the park with rusting cars nearby.

Rotting rubber tires

The old mine 

Another dead car

Water was scarce then - and now- so a well was valuable.
In the 1943 W.F. Keys shot and killed Worth Bagley over land ownership and use.
Joshua Tree was also the home of cattle thieves.


There are a lot of large rocks in Joshua Tree National Park 


I climbed one rock to get a picture.

A funny thing happened in Joshua Tree. I was getting very frustrated with the time it took laundry to get dry in our RV dryer. At the very beginning of our trip, I could not see a lint catcher in our dryer. Steve could not either, so he said, "I think it just vents straight outside so don't worry about it." And I could see the vent outside so I just used the dryer for a whole year (!!!!!!). After I finally said, "Something is really wrong with this dryer, it's taking forever for clothes to dry", Steve took another look.  At the very back of the dryer were two holes his fingers fit into nicely and he pulled out the lint filter. It was filled to the brim. We laughed and called it our lint bunny! I was grateful the dryer did not burn up and that it worked again. But because it sits high on top of the washer, I still need Steve to empty it for me so we never make a huge bunny again!

Our lint bunny.
Then off to LA! 

Parking an RV in Los Angeles is just not possible. So Steve found an RV park about an hour south of LA in Indio, CA and we planned on two nights at the hotel in LA. The Midwives For Haiti gala at The Line Hotel in LA was all we had anticipated and more. The best part was seeing so many friends from all around the country. We started with dinner the night before with whoever was there from Richmond and the BOD and 4 of our staff from Haiti. The next morning we had a dress rehearsal for most of the speeches. That got us really excited for the night to come. We love telling the story of what MFH does in Haiti and love hearing from those who have been there.

The gala was held in The Line hotel where we stayed 2 nights.

From our window in the hotel we could see the famous Hollywood sign on the hill.

BOD member Jennifer Burns made it all happen.

The flowers were amazing.

The tables were amazing.
Current ED, Jessica with husband David

Celebrity and Haitian actor Jimmy Jean Louis spoke about the needs of Haiti.
With Jessica before the gala.

More flowers

Award winning photographer Cheryl Hanna Truscott got the Volunteer Award

Jessica presenting the Sarah Taylor Volunteer award

Ricki Lake won an award for her advocacy of midwifery and women's rights.

And I had a speech before presenting the Educator of the Year award to
Limone Clerveau who could not get a Visa to come from Haiti.

A big reason the gala was possible was because Envision, a physician group, gave a large donation to help fund the gala. Because they had representatives that had been to visit our projects in Haiti, they were enthusiastic story tellers for the gala. They will continue to partner with us to give their physicians an avenue to volunteer in a very needy hospital in Haiti where we have tried for years to bring the quality of care to another level without much success.


From Indio we headed to Las Vegas and Pahrump (which is about an hour from LV) to see Steve’s sister, Lynn, brother David, and his sister-in-law. By the Monday after the gala we woke up with a cough and mine progressed to fever, chills, and general congestion. Thankfully Steve did not get as sick and was able to visit his family during the week. It was Friday until I went to Lynn’s for dinner and by Saturday I was able to visit in Las Vegas with Pam.

Relaxing with Pam in her backyard.

The next stop was a week in Death Valley. If you think there is little to see there, you are mistaken.

The RV campground at Death Valley.

Yes, it's true that much of Death Valley is just desert. And long roads.

But we drove to Artist's Palette where the colors of the mountains were varied.


And saw Devil's Golf Course- because of the acres and acres of salt rocks that made even walking difficult.

Salt rocks.

On both Monday and Tuesday, we drove a scenic route where the colors of the desert and its mountains are beautiful. Parts of the road were like driving on a roller coaster and Steve loved the drive which is why we did it a second day. We also walked to Natural Bridge.


Walking to Natural Bridge

Carved by water



The Natural Bridge of Death Valley


By Tuesday evening we met up with Steve’s son, James, with his wife, Rachel and their little ones. They were able to park next to us for two nights and it made it easy to spend time with the children. Steve went swimming with them and then they came to me in the evenings for movies and popcorn, homemade cookies, and playing with the toys I have along.


Toys

Hours of fun.

Steve with Parvati, Jameson, and Atlas

Steve and Atlas
The last day we had with them, they took their truck and we rented a Jeep and we drove up through Titus Canyon. It was a wow drive. The route took us high on the mountain around hairpin curves and scary places we could have dropped off the road into deep canyons. I closed my eyes once or twice- ha!- and was very glad Steve was driving. James and his family were in their pick-up truck which handled the dirt road just fine.
James and family in front of the Jeep we rented.

Rachel and Parvati on Titus canyon road. 

Precariously perched rocks

The road in Titus Canyon. Scary curves and drop-offs.



In Titus Canyon are several ghost towns. One had a house made of bottles.

One of the "ghosts" in a ghost town.


Friday we did a third day in a row (!) of scary roads, this time in the RV. Even Steve admitted it was scary. We drove from Death Valley to Kernville, just south of the Sequoia National Forest. Much of the road was very curvy, up and down the sides of mountains and the road sometimes pitched so much Steve was afraid the top of the RV would hit the rocks on the side of the mountain. We got to Kernville in one piece. More about our adventures in Kernville in the next blog!









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We're still fighting the Civil War

Image
A year ago I started this blog and could not finish it. It still brings up strong feelings in me and I share it just to get it out of the draft list and because some of you are struggling as I am. In S eptember of 2019- One year ago ! We traveled from Indiana - where we had the RV maintenance done an d stayed at an AirBnB on Winona  Lake, to Ohio- where we visited my brother and his wife at the home place and saw old high school friends - then we headed to Pennsylvania. The AirBnB at Winona Lake. Scenes from Indiana. Another Indiana scene.                                                            On our way back to Virginia we stopped at the Gettysburg National Park in Gettysburg, PA.   I felt weepy after we watched a video at the Visitor’s Center that included the history that led to the Civil War. There were two questions. 1) Could the new states to the west have slaves or would they have only free labor? And 2) Could the southern states secede from the union as they wished? The eco
Read more

From the city to the desert, from hubbub to stillness

Image
April 15, 2018 Ba-ba-ba Bamba…… was playing as we sat on the top of a double decker bus and toured San Antonio. We had a 3 day Mega-Pass so we could hop-on-hop-off the bus all over town. We saw the Alamo, saw an IMAX movie about the Battle of the Alamo, toured the Buckhorn Saloon to learn about the Texas Rangers and saw Bonnie and Clyde’s car full of bullet holes. We floated down the River and walked the River walk in different areas of it. We ate BLT’s at the charming Guenther house – where a German started a mill in the 1800’s and there is still Pioneer flour made nearby.   We skipped the 3 lb cinnamon roll and had peach strudel instead. I forgot to mention last week that probably our favorite thing in New Orleans was the WWII museum. We could have stayed there 2 or more days. Tickets for the Movie there sell out fast. We were reminded of the Japanese interment during the war and how many manufacturing sites stopped making appliances, etc. in order to ma
Read more

They killed Indians and we broke the bed

Image
April 29, 2018 All of our traveling through Florida, Texas, and New Mexico has reminded us of the horrible way the white settlers in the 1800’s treated the native Indians. Fort Stanton in New Mexico is a place that was established especially for helping the local   white settlers protect themselves as they took over lands that the Mescalero Apaches had lived in for thousands of years. Officer's barracks Sunday afternoon we visited Fort Stanton and found its history fascinating. First it was a military post (Kit Carson, Black Jack Pershing, Billy the Kid) -to kill the local Indians who were threatening the white settlers - and then it was a TB hospital for Maritime Marines - when the only treatment we had for TB was fresh air. Then it became a mental health facility, then a low security correctional facility for women, and finally it became a State Monument. I tried to imagine being a nurse there for TB patients. I loved seeing the nurses quarters. Aside
Read more