baby road trip lessons learned

1)avoid driving in LA at all costs
2)try to drive in less populated areas -- getting off the road in the middle of a city takes *forever* compared to pulling over and changing the baby on a country road
3)we need some kind of travel swing. We're thinking about this, but I'm not sure if our car seat is compatible.
4)Stop as often as your schedule permits and keep the baby awake or you will be in for a bad night.
5)Budget whatever time it would take you sans bebe, and add 30-50%
6)Bring a whole lot of spare clothes
7)Take the Subaru whenever any kind of mountain is involved -- the Prius feels like driving a concrete sledge pulled by hamsters on the Grapevine.
8)Denny's has crappy food, but is very child friendly -- they have changing tables in the bathrooms and even have high chairs that infant car seats fit into!

The road home

after another great breakfast by Juanita

We hit the road, this time with a more sensible route back home (247-15-58-223-5) which was also a lot more scenic. There were high winds most of the way

We passed Edwards AFB along 58, and the AFRL test area along Leuman ridge. From wiki:

The Air Force Research Laboratory maintains a rocket engine testing site on and around Leuhman Ridge, just east of Rogers Lake. Initially constructed for use in the Apollo Program, the test site now has 12 facilities for testing full-size rocket engines, engine components, and liquid and solid propellants. The Edwards Research Site has tested booster rockets for ICBMs and the Space Shuttle. The site has recently benefited from an $18.5 million upgrade completed in 2003. The facility now boasts multiple test stands, and the only U.S. Government test stand capable of holding 1 million pounds-force (4.5 MN) of static thrust.

One other fun thing: apparently Edwards has the largest compass rose in the world
View Larger Map


I wonder if they discourage people from driving out onto it and doing donuts and fishtails?


We also passed the 165 megawatt solar thermal facility at Kramer junction.

View Larger Map


Links here and here. Very cool.

Next, I saw a sign for the Hyundai/Kia California Proving grounds -- a $50 million facility in the middle of nowhere:

View Larger Map

Finally, we passed the Mojave Air and Space Port, which looks like a traffic jam of jumbos!


View Larger Map

There is so much cool stuff in the desert!

As we made our way through the mountains leading to Tehachapi



I noticed boulders along the side of the road -- which looked like limestone! I also saw a cliff band off in the distance. The exit was "sand canyon/Monolith". hmmm. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We stopped as often as we could, tickling Zoe's toes to keep her awake. I5 was filled with bastards in minivans holding up the fast lane, as usual. It only took us 9:15 this time though.

Joshua Tree, Day 2

After another kick ass breakfast by Juanita (did I mention she used to have a catering business ?!) we headed into the park again

to check out the Roadside boulders, near the Hemingway buttress. I watched a guy on this route:
which I think is only 5.9, but looks STOUT for the grade. We busied ourselves with a somewhat cranky little baby and the V-easy problems near the base



Then moved on to another set of roadside boulders, where I got shut down by warmups again

but was happy to send "La Migra"... a super fun problem



We then wandered around with an increasingly irritated Zoe (the temperature was great during the day -- low to mid 50's, but dropped rapidly around 3 pm)




and finally left when it looked like the little one was going to core meltdown.




We had another fabulous dinner prepared by Juanita and watched "The Departed". Jack Nicholson has become kind of a caricature IMO.

Joshua tree with the little one

we had a great day of bouldering with little zoe today

Joshua Tree, Day 1

I got up a earliesh to walk around Juanitas compound and take come pictures. Heres a quick and dirty panorama (click for a larger version)


She had bought this place several years ago with the intention of eventually retiring here and spent a sabbatical year warring with inept contractors trying to get her vision for it realized. To hear her talk about it, it sounds like it was not an easy process, but the result is pretty stunning. The property is up on a hill with expansive views of the desert and is surrounded by a steel fence which has oxidized to a pretty orange color.

The fence also makes low booming noises as the panels heat up in the morning sun. At the NorthEast corner, she has built a 2500 sft prefab studio with a great bathroom, two kilns (she is a ceramicist) and a forklift, among other things.









It is seriously cool, and has given us some ideas for something similar up in alta. The only problem I can think of is its stability under snow -- particularly the fiberglass windows. I can't remember who sold the kit, but it had the word "steel" in it and the pieces were made in Canada. I found a few other companies that do similar things here here here and here

Inside the main house, she has a full professional kitchen and windows facing south which let light in all day long.

After breakfast we headed into the park, which now costs $15 to get into. We bought a national parks pass for $80 to try to motivate ourselves to go on more trips in the next year.

We hadn't been to Joshua Tree since grad school, and it felt good to be back. There's something about that place which makes you feel like you are barely even on Earth anymore.

We headed for the boulders near Real Hidden Valley, and man or man did I get shut down. Happily, chloe did really well and it looks like her recovery is going to be fast! Here we are staring down some problems




The hardest thing I managed to drag my fat ass up was the Yabo Roof, so it looks like its time to start cutting some serious weight, or take up sumo.

Zoe slept the entire time, with a few breaks for diaper changes and scoring some milk from Milkmaster 2000 (jut kidding CZ!!!).

After finishing bouldering, I scrambled up one of the chosspiles to take in the beauty of roads that have been widened to accomodate giant RVs, SUVs and Hummers -- our tax dollars at work!


We left the park with sore backs, creaking fingers and aching feet and stopped at the Mad Rock tent sale that was being held across from Nomad. I got a few weird looks as I perused the gear with ZZN in full bunnysuit regalia thrown over my back. From Nomad, we headed back to Juanita's for another amazing meal. I wandered around and snapped a few more shots of the compound

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).

money crushing

this is the card my parents made me for xmas. Things of note:
1)Thats me at the bottom apparently suffering from money induced hyperthyroidism
2)They had saved stationary from their stay at the hotel Empress zoe in Istanbul, more than a decade ago!

Zoe after unwrapping gifts

orchids

My parents friend dropped off a beautiful orchid today

Xmas eve

a sushi dinner for xmas eve

Zoe cuteness attack!

sling

it turns out zoe is not a big fan of the sling yet