IT'S NOT DEAD I PROMISE

So I realize that back when I first started this blog I made some predictions about how often new entries would be posted online.  My optimistic side said once every few days.  Pessimism said once per location.  Apparently my pessimism met my procrastination-happy, sleep deprived short attention span, fell in love with it, married it, and had many tiny lazy children that effectively prevented my brain from posting on this blog.

Also my computer died and spent most of this past month at the Mac doctors in LA with the Wi-Fi.

Those are the two excuses I'm throwing out there, take your pick.  ANYWAYS.

My computer and I have been joyously reunited, I am spending the next couple days in a swanky hotel with fast free internet, and it is high time for some UPDATING.  Here's how this is going to work: the pass ended as of last Wednesday (yeah, I know, pass finished, 2 blog entries.  Wow, really Mika?) but its OK because I have a sketchbook full of scribbled notes and a few days worth of high-speed to get it all online.  So, without further ado:

THE FIRST RIDICUlOUS COUNTRY-HOP

Remember that whole blurb about using the planes like buses for a month?  Well see, the first weekend of the pass sir Sam MacKinney decided to have a grand camping adventure in Joshua Tree national park for some bouldering, camping, and burning and these are all really enjoyable things so I thought hey, that's a 4ish hour trip.  That's not so bad.  Not too much worse then catching the 486 from La Puente to Glendale and planes are better because they have TVs and free soda!  It'll be just like taking the bus, only it'll be a 747 instead of the 486 and it'll be crossing the country instead of the LA valley.  DONE.

LOS ANGELES: Part 1

LA is a lot like NYC for me: a turbulent roller coaster of a relationship that can be just as skull fucking as it can be joyous with just a hint of filth and abuse but not enough to make you seriously follow through on the constant threats to leave it forever.  You know what I'm talking about, the relationship you stay in more out of familiarity and comfort than anything.  That and a deep-set love that spends half its time buried in whatever dregs of the brain you've shoved it into because it is the closest thing to a home that you've ever had.  Most of the people and places I care about most are in LA, or at least I met and got to know them there.  I spend most of my time nowadays trying to get out and found a pass that let me do just that in a really remarkable way.  The 2-3 times I found time to come back I always looked forward to it.

JOSHUA TREE: Jumbo Rocks

The name says it all.  Piles and piles of gigantic rocks spread about the desert like a quarry from hell.  The overall landscape it creates is actually pretty spectacular.  Barren stretches of desert speckled with nothing but brush, Joshua Trees, (surprising I know) and towering mountains of boulders that bring about images of crashing meteors and mushroom clouds and anything else destructive enough to make the scene in front of you.  The cool thing about Joshua Tree is that for the low low price of 5-10 dollars a car (can't remember exactly) and another equally small fee for a camping pass campers of any and all varieties can have a fantastic time.  If you are a camper of the more extreme: I'M NOT A MAN UNLESS I BUILD MY SHELTER WITH NOTHING BUT THESE PALM FRONDS, THE WOOD SLATS I JUST WHITTLED MYSELF, AND MY RAGE variety, you can just fuck off into the desert for a couple days and the rangers won't start worrying about you until a few hours after your scheduled check out date.  Think "camping" means taking your queen sized tempur pedic mattress and matching, silk covered pillows into anything that falls under the term "natural, unfiltered air"?  For a little extra money you can pay for your own neat little cluster of boulders, a flat expanse in front of them for tent etc, park tables, benches, and stove/fire pit, and even a local bathroom that doesn't scare you to a point of intentionally dehydrating yourself to minimize needs to piss.  So regardless of what kind of camper you are, you are pretty much set in Joshua Tree.  After that the sky is the limit as to activities.  Incredible bouldering/hiking/rock climbing, gorgeous sights, and good company around a roaring campfire in the dead of night are only a few of the pleasures.  So if you're itching to go somewhere even hotter and drier then LA, head out to Joshua Tree.  It's worth it, I think.

Then again I left NYC at 4am to land in LA by noon and be back on a plane for NYC by that time the following day so maybe my judgement shouldn't be all that trusted.

NEXT UP: NYC Part 2, and LA part 2.  Also maybe Washington if I am feeling particularly ambitious. Either way I'm probably going to write this in the next 12 hours so you won't have to wait terribly long.