Exiting Texas to the Cosmic Campground and Beyond.
Here's my first post about why I'm riding and why donating to Water Life Hope will give you Jedi powers with expired coupons.
The Cosmic Campground was so cosmic we got a rainbow on the way there. Perhaps the rainbow was in celebration of leaving Texas for New Mexico. In any case the campground was lovely, with the exception of the persistent downpour. Occasionally the clouds would break a bit and you could see stars carpeting the heavens above. There wasn't enough of a break to see the Milky Way but Carol assured me that we'd have more chances as we cross the Mojave Desert. Still, the place was in a jaw-droppingly beautiful area, and pulled us off the interstates.
This was our first foray into wild camping, and everything worked great. We have an area that we curtain off in the front of the bus in the evening
for changing clothes and using the porta potty. The only thing we didn't test was the hot water shower but we have high hopes for it.
Our next stop was just west of Phoenix and the most direct route was on blue highways that wound through red rock landscapes, desert scrub and landed the the Phoenix exurbs porting saguaro cactus. We were most often the only vehicle on the road. There were hairpin turns and tiny towns. A number of the road signs were split horizontally and hinged, presumably to handle the wind whipping through the canyons.
The days texts were cheering. Friends are praying for us (all volunteers gratefully accepted). Matt found a sign for the something called the Libra, out by the Perimeter. We believe it to be the descendent of a bar that it was in the same shopping center as our erstwhile tofu factory. The center had evolved from a place where people actually shopped to a refuge for urban enterprises in search of cheap rent. Along with our tofu factory, there were the Mellow Fellow van club, the Spirit of Atlanta drum and bugle corps, a storefront church and the Libra Lounge. Now the whole place is a charter school. As the landscape we inhabit trudges relentlessly upscale, we cheer the survival of places where we have memories attached.
We had planned our trip to go through the desert during the spring bloom. And boy is it blooming. Hillsides swim in yellow flowers. Roads are fringed with blue flowers that look illogically like Nova Scotia lupines. Carol and I will be riding through the same set of longitudes in a week or two, but considerably farther north. So we should be able to catch the bloom there as well. America is big and it is beautiful. These flowers are part of the catalog.
Returning to I-10 in Phoenix meant dealing with other vehicles. Lots of them. We navigated to the Whyld Ass Cafe for good takeout before we headed to a KOA in Salome, AZ. While we have good food available, we'll take it. Rural America, for all its virtues, sometimes lacks appreciation for plant-based diets.
The town Salome, by the way, was given its founder's wife's maiden name. It is completely unrelated to requesting the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter.
So we'll spend the night in Arizona and head for Santa Monica in the morning. The ride begins the next day at the Santa Monica Pier. Stay tuned.
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| There really is a Cosmic Campground |
The Cosmic Campground was so cosmic we got a rainbow on the way there. Perhaps the rainbow was in celebration of leaving Texas for New Mexico. In any case the campground was lovely, with the exception of the persistent downpour. Occasionally the clouds would break a bit and you could see stars carpeting the heavens above. There wasn't enough of a break to see the Milky Way but Carol assured me that we'd have more chances as we cross the Mojave Desert. Still, the place was in a jaw-droppingly beautiful area, and pulled us off the interstates.
This was our first foray into wild camping, and everything worked great. We have an area that we curtain off in the front of the bus in the evening
for changing clothes and using the porta potty. The only thing we didn't test was the hot water shower but we have high hopes for it.
 |
| No kidding, this rainbow happened on the way to the Cosmic Campground. |
The days texts were cheering. Friends are praying for us (all volunteers gratefully accepted). Matt found a sign for the something called the Libra, out by the Perimeter. We believe it to be the descendent of a bar that it was in the same shopping center as our erstwhile tofu factory. The center had evolved from a place where people actually shopped to a refuge for urban enterprises in search of cheap rent. Along with our tofu factory, there were the Mellow Fellow van club, the Spirit of Atlanta drum and bugle corps, a storefront church and the Libra Lounge. Now the whole place is a charter school. As the landscape we inhabit trudges relentlessly upscale, we cheer the survival of places where we have memories attached.
 |
| A small selection of desert flowers from a moving bus |
Returning to I-10 in Phoenix meant dealing with other vehicles. Lots of them. We navigated to the Whyld Ass Cafe for good takeout before we headed to a KOA in Salome, AZ. While we have good food available, we'll take it. Rural America, for all its virtues, sometimes lacks appreciation for plant-based diets.
The town Salome, by the way, was given its founder's wife's maiden name. It is completely unrelated to requesting the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter.
So we'll spend the night in Arizona and head for Santa Monica in the morning. The ride begins the next day at the Santa Monica Pier. Stay tuned.
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