Oohing and awing our way through Southern California

Here are snapshots from our last few days as we drove from the Imperial Valley to Sequoia National Park and coming and going through the foothills. In only a handful of days we basked in the ups and downs of elevation. The hot dry of the Central Valley turned to the cool wet of the foothills and then the cold snow of the mountains and back to the cool wet of the foothills and then orchards. We experienced every condition. Wind. Hail. Lightening. Clouds. Clear. Rain. Snow. Sun. Cold. Hot. Wet. Dry. Calm. Wild.

The contrasts were astonishing! Ed and I oohed and awed all along the way. California's beauty as well as memory-filled destinations from my childhood played with my mind and heart.

From the Central Valley…

To our campsite at Lake Isabelle, on Highway 178…

Unfolding to the rolling foothills on Highway 155…

Leading to a campground up Highway 56 and the California Hot Springs...

Then dropping back into the valley and orchard beauty….

Before heading up in elevation again, continuing through the foothills to Sequoia…

                          


Up, up to 7,000 feet with mountain and distance views unfolding…

                           

                         

Arriving, after having our socks blown off by the drama of nature, at Azalea Campground in Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park…and the big ones...

Running from snow and another storm, we head back down the mountain from Sequoia to Horse Creek Campground on Lake Kaleah…

The beauty of California cannot be underestimated. We stuck to the smaller scenic highways, mostly avoiding freeways, while maintaining our peace and sanity.

~~~

"We can only climb the mountains because there's a valley that makes the mountain a mountain."

~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

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Anzo Borrego - Silently a Flower Blooms

~~~

"Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flower, the whole of
the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower, the truth
of the blossom:
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here."

~ Zenkei Shibayama

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California Outback

Cougars, bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes lurk. Cactus, scrub oak, manzanita and a plant called Red Shank or Ribbon Wood (Adenostema sparsifolium) dominate the landscape. Red Shank is a beautiful shrub growing uniquely in this part of California and Australia, according to literature and our host.

Quiet, beauty and peace prevail. We are camped on 40 acres belonging to clients of Brad and generous strangers to us, Karen and Mark. The property looks out over BLM lands, the PCT Trail, Anza Borrego Park, the Santa Rose Mountain Range and Idyllwild Mountain.

                        

Neighbors are visible, off in the distance, but mostly we are alone -- no phone and no internet and no one in sight. We are at the end of a very long, narrow rutted dirt road. There is a well and water so for the first time in longer than I will disclose, we are clean. Showers this morning! Not the inside kind, with hot and cold water adjustable to our personal temperature desire, but water from a hose attached to a cold water faucet, in the middle of the wide open world. Oh my, how delicious.

The temperature here on this knoll is lovely, in the low 80's with a slight breeze. Down in the valley yesterday, as we passed through, it was a windless and a very hot 100. How grateful we were for Thistle's air-conditioning. I remember trips in bygone days where the only relief from traveling through the desert was rolling down the windows and going faster. If there were creeks along the way we'd wet bandanas and wrap them around our necks. Edward Abbey, in his writings, expressed auto airconditioning as four windows down and 45 miles per hour.

While Mark was off teaching in San Diego, Karen arrived around noon with a dozen fresh eggs in hand and time to spend hanging out and showing us the land. We deepened both our friendship and our knowledge of this special place as we hiked to a canyon creek, still flowing lightly from the last rain. Oak trees were growing in the canyon, completely changing the feel from where we were camped at the top of the ridge.

A deep thank you Mark and Karen!

And as we were driving away this morning the hills were covered with poppies…

~~~

“My loyalties will not be bound by national borders, or confined in time by one nation's history, or limited in the spiritual dimension by one language and culture. I pledge my allegiance to the damned human race, and my everlasting love to the green hills of Earth, and my intimations of glory to the singing stars, to the very end of space and time.”

~ Edward Abbey, Confessions of a Barbarian

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Grateful

As we travel I ponder my blessings, my circumstances, my world. My ponderings range far and wide, taking me first to my good and full life…friends, family, community, good health, a beautiful home, travels...

I have never spent a night outside, without a shelter, except by choice. I have never missed a meal. By world standards I am wildly rich. Privileged beyond measure by the chance of my birth. I am grateful for that. I understand I don't have the power of vast wealth or a white man's body -- both would provide me with a great deal more advantage. Nevertheless, I'm close to the top of the heap in privilege-by-birth. I understand this sad truth.

The mood of the nation is, from my observations, not enough about gratitude and too much about discontent. The sounds of hate and fear ring out, loud and clear. This anger allowed a man who yelled the loudest and hardest about what is wrong with America to walk away with the key to our country. His face, in angry distortion, led his campaign with hate as he yelled, "Make America Great Again"! He lied to scare us about our failures and weaknesses. He continues, as president, to spew hate and fear. There has been no attempt by this new leader to modify his words, to see the good and kindness all around him. To soften.

We're been told by the psychologists that it is easier to motivate with hate than love and this, I fear, is what we're now living. We hear hate daily and not just from the current president, but he is the cheerleader. People spew their hate for taxes, women who don't know their place, other religions, homelessness, poverty, criminals, other drivers on the road, bicycle riders and intellectuals. Many hate the government, the other party, the weather, and politicians! And immigrants, oh the fury. Perhaps, most especially, many have hated having a black family in the White House, for crying out loud, for eight long years.

Hate and fear have become the national pastime and it is ugly. In saying this I don't mean to say for a second that there aren't people hurting as income distribution is flowing upward or jobs become obsolete. Clearly reform is needed in politics, at all levels, and policies are needed to stop the rich from taking all the gold. So I do understand the desire for reform and change, but why, I keep asking, why the deep hate, the deep anger, the deep frustration, and the deep fear?

And in the stew of ugly discontent a mad man stepped forward to feed the hate, and a leader-of-hate was born. I refuse to let my heart or mind become hate fueled. Love and kindness must prevail and I hold hope it will.

My commitment is to protest and block our new president, when ever necessary, not because my party, my principles, my philosophy lost the election but because I believe the man we have placed in the White House is unqualified in temperament and experience. In his hate and ignorance he is dangerous to the democracy we strive to achieve. I do not believe America has a road to a future of great without civility, equality, integrity and love.

I am grateful for the country of my birth and I am grateful to be able to speak freely for what I believe is right and true...

                                      

~~~

“I've seen you, the American people, in all your decency, determination, good humor, and kindness. And in your daily acts of citizenship, I've seen our future unfolding. All of us, regardless of party, should throw ourselves into that work - the joyous work of citizenship. Not just when there's an election, not just when our own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime...And when the arc of progress seems slow, remember:

America is not the project of any one person.

The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word 'We.'"

~ Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

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