December 20, 2004 I had a kick ass weekend! Except for the having to work on Saturday part. But even that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

After I finally finished work Sat., Eloise and I drove up to Santa Ana to see David Allen Coe and Shooter Jennings. If you don't know who David Allen Coe is you need to do your homework. His name belongs right up there with Willie, Waylon, Cash, etc. (He was just too much of a bad ass to be accepted by mainstream radio). You've DEFINITELY heard his songs before though. And speaking of Waylon...Shooter is Waylon Jennings son. I won't blame you if you've never heard of him, but you should check him out...the boy's got a little of his daddy in him for sure!

Anyway...the show fucking rocked! We met up with Ozzy and Francyne(my old roommates) for the show, but they headed back to Hollywood afterwards. We being tired, drunk and far from S.D. decided to get a hotel for the night. The next morning, instead of going STRAIGHT back to S.D., we decided to make a little road trip of it and went up to I-10 and went East. We stopped along the way to see the the Dinosaur's of Cabazon. It's quite sad. They're still a nice distraction from the windmill farms and white lines of the I-10 freeway, but they've changed a LOT since the first time I was there. Now they're surrounded by fast food restaurants and gas stations. I guess it was only a matter of time:(

After that we got to the REAL reason we went so far out of the way to get back home... The Salton Sea. Not only is it the title of a Val Kilmer movie, but it's also just about the saltiest, most polluted body of water on the planet. OK... I have no science to back up those claims, but it IS 25% saltier than the ocean and ridiculously polluted by the runoff from the surrounding farmlands. This place used to be a tourist hotspot. Developers touted it as the new Palm Springs, only with water! And it was for a while. You can tell by the numerous abandoned hotels scattered along the edge of the sea. I FINALLY found a place I've looked for on numerous trips through the area. If I'd really tried hard I'm sure it wouldn't have been too hard, but I always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere else. There's an old sign sticking out of the ground right at the waters edge that says(or said) Texaco Marina. The Salton Sea is a favorite spot for photographers so you've probably seen it many times as well and never knew it. Anyway...I found it, took pictures of it and hauled ass to that "somewhere else" I'm always headed. Salvation Mountain!

Salvation Mountain is without a doubt the best "roadside attraction" I've ever come across in my many miles of driving. It's not so much a mountain as it is a BIG hill, but when you consider that ONE man (Leonard Knight) did all of this over the pat 20 years it looks more like a mountain than a hill. There's a definite theme to Leonard's mountain. Bible verses are painted from one side to the other and a cross sits at the top of the mountain with a HUGE "God Is Love" painted under it. But don't expect to hear a sermon when you go there. Leonard tends to let his mountain speak for itself. He's more likely to tell you about how many visitors he's had that day or what the latest publication or TV show he's been in is. Leonard tends to do most of his work in the mornings and the spend the rest of his day giving tours of the place.

I've been there MANY times. It's been a couple of years since my last visit though so I was very surprised to see that Leonard had started a HUGE addition to his mountain. With donations of hundreds of bails of hay from local farmers he has started building what he calls a museum. What exactly it will house is beyond me, but whatever it is I'm sure it will pale in comparison to the structure Leonard has(or IS) building. Below is a picture of Eloise from the top of the mountain. Behind her you can see a long dome shaped structure. That entire thing is made of hay bails. It's reinforced in the center by "trees" that he has made from old tractor tires and old branches. And of course it is ALL painted in typical Leonard fashion.

If you EVER get within a few hours of Niland, CA I can't express to you what a great thing this is to see. Not only because of how amazing the whole thing is but in huge part to what a great guy Leonard is. If there were more people in the world like him it would be a much more beautiful place!

And THEN we made it home.

Enjoy the pictures!