We've crossed the Southwest and made it to the great state of California.
Upon entering the state, after descending through the car commercial-worthy twists and turns of the Sparr mountain range in SW Arizona, we came to an agricultural checkpoint where our car was inspected for illicit fruits and/or vegetables.
We handed over our (inferior) Texan oranges and proceded on our way to Joshua Tree. We didn't get in until about 11:30-- J Tree is not very well marked-out in terms of where to go/how to get there, and our map was lacking in specificity. We drove around until we saw something we recognized, and deduced how to get to the campground we wanted to stay at-- Jumbo Rocks. Jumbo Rocks was, unfortunately, closed for business. More on this later.
We ended up heading down the road a ways to a site that had a sign up saying, "Reservations Required." Having neither reservation nor the desire/energy to continue searching, we set up shop in Sheep Pass, pitched our tent, drank a couple beers, and went to bed fairly quickly. The star visibility in Joshua Tree is great. We might be close enough to LA (definitely are) that the light pollution has an effect, but relative to Houston, it was surreal. You could see that stars are dusted across the sky, and the ribbons of the milky way and all that... definitely beat the shit out of the dozen or so points of light visible through the lights of Houston. I also saw the brightest meteorite of my life.
Next day we woke up early, decided to hit the road to avoid a Ranger encounter and possible ticket. On the way out, tried to do some boulder photographing. I was setting up the tripod for another shot of a rock when I heard Drake say, "Uh, hey man, we gotta get out of here. The car is surrounded by bees." I looked back and saw that he wasn't kidding. We jumped into the car, rolled down the windows (which had been partially down and, thus, had admitted many bees) and sped off. The bees gave chase, but Rolling Thunder used all of Her power to evade their wrath.
According to this article, we're lucky to be alive.
This video was clearly planned and scripted. If you replay the opening seconds, you can hear the camera-man saying, "go" before Bryan begins speaking. Also notice that he isn't caught midway in a fit of hysteria, as somebody who was ACTUALLY being attacked by bees would be.
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