N 35 59.165
W 119 57.557

@ rest area

Gps: 36 51.733 N
120 47.011 W

A long drive

Today we drove down to Joshua Tree and took a somewhat unfortunate route (recommended by google and our GPS)

We ran into all kinds of traffic as we approached LA on 5, which basically didn't dissipate until the last 20 or so miles into J tree. We also bore the full brunt of LA traffic through Riverside, which was pretty painful. Somehow the carpool lanes don't seem to help at all. I did get a nice shot of the freeways while we were at a dead stop in traffic though.

After an eleven hour drive, we finally made it to my parents old friend Juanita's place in the desert North of the main drag in JTree, and it turned out to be a really cool place. More on this in the next post. We arrived just in time to insinuate ourselves into a dinner that Juanita was making for one of her former students. Her student was planning on applying to the MFA program at the Chicago Art Institute and Juanita was looking over her portfolio. Strangely enough, we walked in just as Juanita was showing her a picture of a Peter Voulkos piece, and the place where we currently live is a former Voulkos studio, superintended by one of his proteges. Dinner was great, as it always is when Juanita is cooking, and chloe and I had a hero moment when juanita's student's husband mentioned that he had always wanted to try kiteboarding, and we casually mentioned that we both kite basically every waking moment (ok we didn't say that).