ALMOST ARIZONA~~~~ARIZONA!

Holtville Hot Springs, a BLM Long Term Visitors Area, right next to a freeway, not exactly nirvana, but definitely an unexpected oasis where you'll find winter crops and roosting snowbirds planted side by side. One can warm up in the pools or cool down in the pond.  Or both.  A cadre of volunteers, mostly Canadian, pump out and scrub down the pools weekly.

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I love "roadside geology," and, as you'll discover later, I'm fascinated with road cuts!  This distinctive formation (part of the Basin and Range Province, I THINK) is a common sight all along Southern California's Highway 8...

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and then it reappears along Highway 10 in SE Arizona.  The formation in Arizona is locally known as the Little Dragoon Mountains, and that's the "Cochise Stronghold" in the background.

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And nestled in the Little Dragoons is the Amerind Foundation, a working research facility and museum for Native American studies -- anthropology, archeology, art.  Following the lecture on the day I attended, visitors were treated to a goosebump-rising Apache song/chant/blessing of love, compassion and celebration by an Apache docent. Interior photographs are not allowed.  If you have any interest at all in Native American culture, you owe it to yourself to visit this unique museum if you're in the area.

LEAVING THE LEFT COAST ~~~ but not without a few more essential stops.

Just a little more beach music at Silver Strand, then it's so long Arnie!  Be SURE to take that stimulus moolah -- your roads need lots of improvement!

If anyone out there can identify this curious phenomenon, I'd love to hear from you. Several of these appeared submerged in the moist sand at the tide line. I was afraid to poke it. Not very "uppity" of me, eh?!

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Lazy Daze's go-to-fixit-guy, Vince Vasquez, you da man.  They should put your name in lights and throw money at you!

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Such fun to drop in on a raucous Louisiana family's wedding reception....especially when John and Jack are doing the cooking.

Aaron and Marina, congratulations!

Mother of the groom.  A remarkable, uppity woman and cancer survivor who looks like she just stepped off the pages of a William Faulkner novel.  Ilene, honey chil', yes, we do love your curls!

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Another amazing cancer survivor, this one with just two speeds:  Mach 5 and Flat Out.  Her cats prefer her "flat out" so they can play in her hair.  Suzie, your optimism and generous spirit energize the sluggards among us!

Not your grandmother's ukulele!  No "Tiny Bubbles" or "Little Grass Shack" for this Sunset Strummer.  If you want to hear his group bang out tunes like "Chinese Laundry Blues," "House of the Rising Sun" or "Boot Scootin' Boogie," check out the Sunset Strummers next time you visit Carlsbad, CA.  (BTW, notice the Gonzalez tooth gap?  Yup, we're cousins!!)

Winter on the California Coast is its best-kept secret.

SEPARATION ANXIETY

Making sure my roaming home is roadworthy.  

Thanks Larry Wade!

And these are some of the cherished folks who see to it my journey carries warm thoughts of "home," ensuring my return before the snow falls.

Is the photographer (a) Reaching for her second glass of wine?  (b) Shaking with laughter? (c) Deranged and unfocused?  (d)  All of the above?  (Hint:  Barbara isn't at all fuzzy in real life!)

I love you Man!  Your smile comforts me wherever I go, whatever I do.