Guess who watched the first four episodes of the new Futurama season?!
Driving through incredible landscapes such as Joshua Tree National Park gets curious Europeans hungry. Thus, our party of three decided to have a late lunch in the village of Joshua Tree, inbetween visiting Keys View and Indian Cove. This is the most dreary and dull place I’ve seen so far. 8000 people living in a scattered, ugly village that is completely misplaced in the desert. A highway runs through it (in fact, it looks like the village evolved at the sides of the road), resulting in a ridiculously huge crossing in the middle of the village. Try to count the number of lanes in this picture!
Most of you probably know the stories about American roads that go straight forever and ever. I may now confirm, they do exist. From a (German) planning engineer’s perspective this is not a good way to build a safe road. You may have never noticed it: In Germany, roads outside of settlements are generally curved. This helps in keeping drivers alert and assists them with the estimation of distances. If interested, go and ask this guy for more information on routing. However, driving on these roads is relaxing and in no way comparable to the aggressive atmosphere (atmosfear I am tempted to say) on German Autobahns. Everyone cruises at more or less the same speed and the number of asshole drivers is fairly low. On our 500 mile trip we encountered not even a handful of said drivers, whereas in Germany you keep meeting these people every ten fucking kilometers.
Deserts are by their very nature, if not by definition, pretty dry places. But they are far from being barren wastelands. In fact, they’re full of life. Water is the limiting factor in these ecosystems and most of this life – especially plant seeds – waits for years and years to eventually receive enough precipitation to prosper. This sudden rush of blooming wildflowers is an absolutely magnificent sight, but lasts only for a very short time. One has to be lucky to get a glimpse of it – and that’s what this post is about.
Somewhat more then a week ago the deserts in eastern California had plenty of rain and burst into a colorful display of blossoms. Last weekend I was there and although some of the evanescent beauty had already perished, it was impressive nonetheless. “There” refers to Joshua Tree National Park, a protected chunk of the Californian desert close to the border to Arizona, spanning more than 3000 km², and “I” refers to SW, LB and myself. Actually, this trip was the reason for us to stay in that motel in Banning. Having gotten up at 5.30 AM we made it into the park just after sunrise and good for you, my dear readers, the others had cameras, both proper ones and cellphone models, at hand.
palm trees at Cottonwood Spring
wildflowers at Lost Palms Oasis Trail
more wildflowers, covering a hill
Highly impressive was the vast open landscape of the Pinto Basin which can only be insufficiently captured by a camera lens. The cactuses in the picture were described on signs at the site as having extremely pointy spikes with hooks that cut into human flesh upon the slightest touch and are hard to remove. The road followed a gradient of conditions, resulting in a distinct sequence of plant societies alongside the road. This beautiful plant was found in the western part of the basin. If anyone can identify it, please leave a comment.
The road led through a field of Joshua Trees (after which the park is named, as well as the famous U2 album) up to a point called Keys View from which the whole Palm Springs metro area is observable. Once again, the camera failed at capturing the incredible spirit of the place.
Our last stop was at Indian Cove where we felt as if we were walking on Mars. It was also the most active spot for us with large rocks on a steep hillside to climb. For those of you who are interested in microbiology and micro-scale ecology I took this picture showing a society of different types of lichens. Obviously the conditions for these lifeforms vary on a scale of centimeters. Feel free to enlighten other readers in the comments section about the meaning of lichens as environmental indicators.
What do Americans do if they drive to a place that’s too far for a day trip? They stay at a motel. Since SW, LB and me (no, you don’t know these people) are all new to the US and wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park on this weekend we ended up staying in the bleak town of Banning. It looks exactly like the hunreds of towns and villages which we all know from American road movies. Flat buildings housing stores, diners and motels in a long row on a wide street.
High technology is not known here. SW had booked a room via internet more than 24 hours in advance. When we arrived the clerk told us that they didn’t have any non-smoking rooms available and asked when we had made the reservation. SW told her that it was in the late evening. “Oh, we might have been closed then.” Isn’t that exactly why internet booking was invented? Anyway, we had to use a smoking room. None of us is a smoker but the smell in the room was unpleasant. Plus, it was only 20 m away from the highway.
For dinner we went to a diner next door where we had some nicely grilled meat and seafood which was quite cheap, thanks to the mighty Euro. Even more exciting than the food were the people. We spent some time watching them handling their annoying brats, chatting with the waiters and moving their clumsy bodies around the place. Ah, sweet arrogance.
Our waitress Tracy (according to her nametag), having been asked about a bar to have a couple of drinks by LB, recommended the Mystique Lounge inside the Morongo Casino. “Just get on the Freeway and drive east, only five exits.” The idea of having pubs and bars within walking distance seems to be unknown in this country. Finding it was easy, as it is visible from miles away. A high-rise building with a huge flashing display on the top in the middle of this arid wasteland. Free entrance, cheap drinks and a cool blues band made the visit worthwile. Also, the people in this place were even more fun to watch. Middle-aged white men trying to be cool, some black dudes actually being cool, young chicks screaming in annoyingly high voices and dressed-up philanderers drooling with horniness – what a crowd! There was a bouncer whom we didn’t notice when we got in. Obviously he was in charge of regulating the influx of people. When he noticed us he asked me how we got in. I honestly replied: “We went through that door over there.” He walked away swearing, only to return with flashy plastic wristlets which he attached to mine and SW’s arms (surprisingly not to LB’s). I thought this would be my next throw-out experience but with the wristlet everything was fine. The meaning of this procedure remains a riddle to me.
So with all the free live music and cheap drinks, how do they make money? It’s a casino (hence the name). The main room was filled with thousands of gambling machines and almost every one of them was occupied. We couldn’t begin to estimate how much money was being made every minute in this room. Also, I have no idea why people play these games. You invest money that you basically lose but you get nothing in return. Other than arcade games these machines don’t even feature any cheezy graphics!
Eventually we left the place with the conclusion that it was worth seeing but definitely not staying.
