Into the desert

So back to that crazy adventure day a couple weeks ago. Early in the day, we walked around an abandoned hotel on the odiferous Salton Sea, with many compelling artifacts, like this aforementioned skateboarder's paradise of a swimming pool.



We snuck around inside the hotel, avoiding a very intimidating bunch of birds that had taken up residence. And then we went to this beach where a community had basically been given the boot by the sea. Salton Sea is extremely salty, and will do a real number on your car if you just leave it lying around nearby for a few years.

Frank and I took pictures of each other.





While Patrick took pictures of the windy sea.



And then we marched off to Salvation Mountain.



Where Frank and I climbed to the top — and that mountain is about three stories, enough to inspire some high anxiety. I really didn't want to fall on my butt and roll down over the bumpy, painted clay letters of LOVE to my death.



A lot of paint goes into this guy's project.



Tons of people visit it every year, and the mountain and Slab City, which the mountain is like a gateway to, were recently featured in the movie Into the Wild. I was 100%, so fully a tourist there. Being out in the desert, totally dependent on a car, I gotta say, it's amazing I wasn't BUGGIN'. I mean, of course I was buggin', but I wasn't like, BUGGIN'-buggin'.