It had fallen down/been smashed up, so we didn't have to chop any wood all night. Burning a witch's house is okay, right?
Rubbish picture alert. Last time we were there, when I didn't take a pic, this was an elaborate shack assembled with twine that even had a picket fence of sorts. Rustin peace, ominous wooden house:
I had sake once in a Wagamama's and it was fine, got pissed while eating, but I tried it from Sainsbury's recently and it tasted like the Wagamama's one had been quaffed and immediately chundered into a bottle with a dragon on it.
America is such a crazy country, they really believe they can do whatever they want.
So on Sunday, we went for a drive on the other side of the mountains.
First we go towards a Dinosaur theme park next to a highway.
We didn't go in as it was $12,- a person and the dino close to the entrance was made from rubber and people had already picked holes in it. Didn't seem to bother the other people, they all went to watch the 50+ (some robots) dinosaurs. Maybe we'll go there if my nephew visits, he might enjoy it. It's weird seeing a dinosaur surrounded by the desert and mountains in the distance though.
So we continued and went towards the Salton Sea. We've been on the West side of that before, but decided to take to road East of it this time. It's such a weird place, as it was supposed to be full of resorts, as it's one of the only inland seas, but something went wrong with the water supply.
We went there to eat our (tuna) sandwich anyway. It's hot there.
After we had lunch, we walked towards the water for a bit, it's a very crunchy beach, turns out it's basically dead fish bones you're walking on.
This is a fresher one, the beach was covered in dried out fish, and I don't get how B could get so close to take pictures, the smell was horrible and I was glad we already had our sandwich.
It's completely empty, there are still signs for campgrounds but I don't think they'll ever get used. Further down south you'll find Bombay Beach, remember watching a docu about that years ago and I wonder how life is going for the little boy that likes to wear dresses. We didn't search for him.
It's a creepy place, when we were on the West side a couple years ago, B wanted to take a picture of some boats that were still in the harbour, or whatever was left of it. He had to go through a hole in a fence with a "no trespassing" sign, and when he looked back a little kid had appeared in the streets behind us. Just standing and staring. We decided by then it was time to continue.
We continued and went towards Salvation Mountain
Some old hippie (I think) decided he needed to paint a mountain and spread the word of God and Love. If you aren't a sinner. I don't know the story behind it or what kinda man it was, but it felt a bit dubious to me. Google image search shows you enough pictures of the thing itself.
Further down the road you'll come across Slab City:
Which is basically a place where people just put a trailer in the desert and do their thing.
So you'll see stuff like this:
But also one that had solar panels all around, one that could fix your tires, a church and something that probably was a community / pub / local hang out. On the other side of the road was free internet. Seemed to be an ok place.
At the end of the road, there was a fork and you could either go to West Satan (looking there showed a huge Batman cut out and more trailers) or towards East Jesus, that was where we were headed.
Someone has brought all kinda stuff towards their piece of land, and started making art out of it.
The entrance: (I think)
If I remember correctly this is the Church of the Chocolate Martini:
And a huge wall of tv's
There's more there, a lot about dolphins and Russians and farts, in some way they are related, apparently. Also pigeons
After that it was time to return home, had to go through some border control near the border of Mexico, but that all went smoothly, Might help that our car ain't that big (and it actually has a handle in the trunk, so that you can release it from the inside, so no kidnapping for us while we're here)
I don't think this will ever get boring. People here really build whatever they want, I don't even know when it gets the most crazy, if they have loads of money or none. Hearst Castle was quite a sight as well, and apparently Winchester Mansion must be interesting too. Will probably go there once we have some more free time.
(Photo's all by B, if it hurts anyone's connection I'll either move it to the pictures thread or link to them, this was just the first one I've found and Moot also posted a picture from his weekend in outside world)