The Mojave Road: Famous For Your Mud? How's Your Chinese Food?

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by Mark Stephens on Wed Feb 23, 2011 - (2) Comments

Mojave road, nissan frontier, muddy

On my way home from the Mojave National Preserve, not one, not two, but three strangers eyed my truck, slid their sunglasses down their noses, grinned in a funny way, and said, "Well, it looks like you had some fun." Each one, word for word. Must I say it? Yes. Road trips are all about weird encounters. Take the scenes in My Cousin Vinny - a New Jersey-Italian pair thrust into the American South with "mud in da tie-yuz."

So, my first stranger was at Roy's Gas & Café in the desert sneeze known as Amboy, CA (evidence: "Fill 'er up? Sure, we take Visa, cash, guns an' ammo"). The second was the chipper volunteer at the Joshua Tree fee station whose on-duty superior appeared unquestionably disgusted at the volunteer's endorsement of the bemired state of my crusty transportation. The third was at a rest area on I-10 who had a teenage son with him - the kid was thumbing some serious smack message on his phone no doubt, but looked up, paused, showed his braces, bounced his head up and down and said, "Ohhhhh, awwwwesome truck, maaaan."

If those folks only knew. My two days in the desert were marked by rain, hail, snow, 27-degree nights, and the resulting soggy roads. If you think I'm saying it was no fun, then I'm not doing my job. Try the pics instead.

barrel cactus in the mojave desert, mojave road, california

yucca, mojave desert, storm, rain, clouds, storm

lava tube, mojave desert, mojave trail, desert, man looking up

juniper tree with snow in the mojave desert preserve

yucca with snow close up of the mojave desert

muddy truck in a storm on the mojave trail, mojave desert preserve, clouds and rain

kids hiking up steep hill in mojave desert preserve

land cruiser 80 mojave trail off road in california, overlanding

camping in mojave desert preserve, low light, sunset, campfire, slow shutter

What's up with that title?  <sigh> Okay, try this:

Comments   

 
Nathan Woods
0 # Nathan Woods 2011-02-23 12:19
Nice photos of the Juniper Pines Mark! All mine came out looking like B&W images of near dead trees under a blue tinged sun :-)
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MudButt
0 # MudButt 2011-02-24 07:43
Very nice... I would love to run Mojave in the snow.
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