Don and John - part II

When I left off from my prior post Karina, John, Don and I were in a restaurant in Indio, Ca. It was during the evening rush and the poor waitress had just spent 10 minutes running back and forth to the kitchen to find out exactly how the "tuna melt" was made only to have Karina (without hesitation) order a turkey sandwich... Well - the waitress somehow managed to control her temper - we had our dinner - and Don and John left a really big tip :-)

As we were heading south out of town looking for a place to camp we spotted a grove of trees between the road and the train tracks so we pulled over to check it out. It looked like an ideal spot to spend the night - there was a fire pit and everything... But about 20 minutes after we got there a police car pulled up... We were like "Oh crap! What did we do now???"
The officer just wanted to make us aware that our "ideal camping spot" was frequented by transients in the middle of the night and we might get beaten and robbed if we stayed there. We thanked him profusely, packed up and headed south on Hwy 111 down the east shore of the Salton Sea. By that point it was totally dark so we pulled off on a side road and found another camping spot next to a rock face...
BTW - I'm pretty sure that rock face was the San Andreas Fault. I realized that when I checked a map after we got back... :-)
As we were pulling off the road John's Mustang (towing the dune buggy) got stuck. Don and I were pushing on the back of the car and it simply wouldn't budge - and every time the tires spun we got sand blasted. After a number of minutes I said "Screw this - I'm going to push on the back of trailer!" Don joined me and we were surprised to discover that a light push on the trailer was all it took to "unstick" the car (probably added downforce to the hitch). So I filed that datum away for future reference: "If car pulling trailer gets stuck - then push on trailer - not car". I don't recall ever needing that info again - but it's still there with all my other irreleventia :-)

We finally got settled in - drank a bunch more Red Mountain wine and conked out for the night. I know Karina and I slept in the back in the van - not sure about Don and John (I think they were in sleeping bags outside)...
When we woke up the next morning I had a raging hangover. Luckily there was still plenty of Red Mountain left - "hair of the dog" you know :-) It was freaking cold and my allergies were in overdrive. I blew my nose in a small towel repeatedly until it was totally polluted. I didn't know the sinuses could hold that much - the towel was unceremoniously disposed of :-)

I've grabbed some excerpts from the 8mm movie of the trip:
The guy at the beginning with the "6-pack abs" is John. I'm the one in the black dashiki and Don is in a t-shirt. I'm a bit embarrassed at how pasty white and out of shape I am later on.
A couple of other things to note:
The dune buggy was built by someone a lot shorter that Don. That's why he drives with one hand on the roll cage in front of him - so he doesn't whack his head on the crossbar (again). He modified it after this trip.
And that final shot is Karina - just having emerged from the van that morning wrapped in a blanket on account of the cold...



So after getting packed up we headed south down the shoreline and had brunch in Brawley (without incident) before heading west on hwy 78 to Ocotillo Wells (in the Anza-Borrego desert).

We untrailered the buggy and did a bit more environmental damage... Then some sort of weirdness ensued between Karina, John and Don... She ended up heading off to the van with one of them - I know longer remember who (maybe Don)? Frankly - I tried to not pay attention to her dalliances... It was just too damn confusing...
But at some point everyone but me ended up passed out in the van... So I sat outside for hours in the afternoon heat drinking Red Mountain waiting for signs of life from within... At one point the wind kicked up - there was sand blowing everywhere. It hurt quite a bit - but it did break up the monotony :-) Yeah - I was tired and ready to head home...

Sometime late in the afternoon I finally woke John up (he seemed like the most responsible one of the bunch) and told him it was probably time to get on the road.
So we finally got everyone awake, loaded up and headed up through Ramona back to Escondido... I rode with John in the Mustang on the way back. Like I said - he and Karina were usually "an item" but there was something weird going on with Don at that moment. I figured the less I knew the better :-)
I do distinctly recall how effortlessly the Mustang pulled the trailer up the 4000 ft. climb from the desert into the Cuyamaca Mountains. Quite impressive... And I remember talking about cars with John as we were driving through the mountains into the setting sun...

I'm not sure why I remember that particular trip so well... I guess it was just one of those "rite of passage" things... I was only 15 at the time but I was much more comfortable with people in their early 20's... And it was one of the first times I recall being treated more or less as an equal by people that age rather than a annoying kid...

But I was still happy to get home....