Life in the Desert

I don't have any good pictures yet but they will come. As I was driving through the baren landscape of the Mojave Desert I kept asking my self "Who in the hell would want to live out here." Every once and awhile you see a splash of green in a panorama of gray and an occasional house or mobile home. Yet you find folks out here who think nothing of driving a 100 miles to go to a birthday party or a demonstation of what life was like here around the turn of the last century.
You see these folks who are scattered all over the desert come together and share food friendship and laughter. Despite the distance these folks are closer to one another than those who live in suburbia where many don't even know the neighbor 3 doors down.
It maybe the harshness of the landscape the the hard reality of what it takes to live out here that draws them together. When we pull up to a parking lot at the Ash Meadows national wildlife refuge that holds about 6 cars and start unloading stuff pretty much in the middle of no where I said to myself "Who the hell is going to show up here?" About 80 folks young and old and they all had a great time.
You pull up to a funky vibrantly painted building that has a small sign outside that says "Pastel Bistro" expecting burgers and fries as the top thing on the menu and instead find 6 entree offerings that are all hard to choose from and all excellent. The conversations range from the prices charged for camping, to world politics, environmental concerns, to local history, to secret canyons. This place is amazing. I have been enjoying my stay here immensely so far and I'm sure it will just keep getting better.