Tucson.."And Hell's Coming With Me!!"

That happens to be my favorite line from the Kurt Russell/Wyatt Earp movie "Tucson". It has some relevance to the general condition of the desert that stretches for hundreds of miles in every direction from California to only God knows where. The word "sere" kept coming to mind as I gazed out of the window of our Explorer. Look it up in the dictionary. Apparently, none of the rains that drenched the West coast made it over the mountains. If they did, then the desert "spring" was shortlived, for everything was brown, black and withered.
Love of the desert has to be an acquired liking. I can look at the barren landscape and find a clinical interest in it, but it doesn't touch my soul. But there is a certain existential challenge out there. One can find it in the place names that mark washes, ravines and roads. Where else can you find names like "Sore Finger Road",
or various bone-dry "ditches" tagged with names like "Ghost Ditch", or "Rubble Ditch", or "Tarantula Ditch",
or "Aztec Ditch"? I noticed that the signs marking these desert washes were not being replaced as new guardrails and barriers were installed by CalTrans......too bad.

Some observations:

The concrete dinosaurs are still visible in Cabazon....we took the boys there many years ago and actually went into the gut of the brontosaurus where a giftshop had been installed.  Everything "dinosaur" available from China was arrayed on counters and shelves. Those concrete sculptures are true landmarks, now obscured by gas stations and mini-marts....no doubt owned by the Morongo Indian tribe.

Hadley Date Shakes......The old Hadley Date Shack is still there in Cabazon. I always liked date shakes, but the date bits would block the straw from time to time. In "the old days", the Hadley store stood alone and you could see the dinosaurs  from the parking lot. Now there is a huge "outlet" mall on one side, and the Morongo casino and gas station and mini-mart, and convention center, and whatever else the tribe has erected with its gambling proceeds, dominates the whole pass. What a racket.....

Wind Turbines.......gazillions of these eyesores dominate the pass from Banning to Palm Springs and beyond.
I was reminded of "Aliens on Earth". The winds were ferocious when we came back through the pass and most of the turbines were spinning and producing current. Of all the "green" sources of energy, these have to be the ugliest and most disruptive to the landscape.

Quartzsite, Az.......I hope I don't offend anyone, but this "town" in Arizona has got to possess the largest population of "desert rats" in the nation. A "desert rat", by my definition, is a human being that has settled in the middle of nowhere, in the most desolate of surroundings, for eccentric reasons and the desire to "live cheap" while pursuing that eccentric lifestyle. I imagine most of these people are "salt of the earth" types of limited means. I also think a healthy portion of the desert rat population believes in alien abduction and a long list of conspiracy theories. In Quartzsite they all live in trailers...thousands of trailers. I was stunned at the number that I could see from the freeway....acres and acres covered by trailers. And that is what I could see with my eyes....who knows what lay beyond the hills.

Tucson, Az......I like this town, or most of it, anyway. I like the desert it is located in. Tucson is the site of the University of Arizona, home of the Wildcats and Kevin Hamrock's Alma Mater after five years of matriculation in the College of Fine Arts.

The only reason for this particular blog entry and our trip to Tucson was Kevin's graduation. I realize I have backed into this subject in an odd way.....

I am proud of Kevin for his achievement and proud of him as a young man. I know he wants to enter mainstream society as a productive and contributing member. He is one of the most sincere people I know.
He is searching for his "place" in the world. He is creative and artistic and willing to work hard.

A good number of family members showed up in Tucson for this graduation weekend. I'll just say that "What happens in Tucson, stays in Tucson!" We all had a good time eating and drinking (well, I don't drink...I just observe). The ceremony was over-long, but then I did enjoy seeing the young graduates....a very smart and creative group.  Oh, to be young again.

Kevin will be home in the next day or two and looking to get on with his life. I think he intends to help Sue with my post-op recovery from the tumor surgery. His mother has been an angel in tending to my needs for the last four weeks. At this point in time I am about 90% self-sufficient.

I understand another full-moon will be visible in the next night or two. I have always noted this event on a personal level. Its light shines down on all of us and our memories.

Steve