More Cactus Dave's Excellent Desert Adventure

THOUSAND PALMS OASIS PRESERVE (Feb. 27) — Here’s a challenging setting for shutterbugs with the desert peaking through the huge palm trees.  If you come from Minnesota, any kind of palm tree is a treat but these are unbelievably massive.

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK (March 4) —  Look familiar?  It’s the iconic cowboy movie setting where the battle of wits between the Road Runner and Wylie Coyote ensued.  We were wearing cutoffs here when when  it was about 60.  In the nearby town, a very young James Dean lived in 1951.

CACTUS DAVE'S DUSTY DESERT ADVENTURE

DESERT HOT SPRINGS (Feb. 28) — “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name.  It felt good to be out of the rain.”  Torrential downpour best described DHS this day.  The sculpture here, “Two Faced White Man,” was done by Native American artist Semu and resides in the dungeon like Pueblo museum of desert eccentric Cabot Yerxa.  Semu makes a statement on the white man’s duplicity with treaty making.  This tourist attraction was built in the ‘40s by Yerxa, a whimsical former Minnesotan who entertained artistic aspirations and studied painting in Paris in the ‘20s when Picasso and Hemingway were on the scene.  

INDIO  (Feb. 27) — Be cool in the desert so we were in this retro iconic bad boy Dodge Challenger hybrid (it burns gas and rubber).  The Challenger is a commanding presence on the I-10 or at Joshua Tree National Park.  The Dodge Brothers knew their cars.

Greta Garbo's La Quinta Desert Retreat

“I vant to be alone,” moaned Greta Garbo so she repaired to this apartment at LaQuinta Resort where she no doubt made John Gilbert Swedish meat balls and lefske.  Pass the lingonberry jam.