Festivus Part Deux

The trip to Joshua tree was interesting, as any trip in the toaster. After we set sail from LAX it was smooth sailing, mostly. Being in LA during rush hour, which is really like, every hour, we decide to kill some time and go shopping for supplies. We load up on champagne and juice, straws, chips and dip, various kinds of liquor, beef jerky, hummus and veggies, the usual festival shopping list and make our way, chatting, and getting to know each other, straining to hear the music. We get to a pocket of traffic and the RV stalls out in the middle of the highway. Now normally it does this after being off all night, and if I’m going up a hill, or stopped at a red light. But this was on the highway at like 5:45PM on a Friday going like 10mph. This was weird. Thank god it started, otherwise, I would have been a very unpopular girl in LA. So we drive a bit more until we see a SUPERtarget and decide to give the RV a break and go shop for some speakers. When we go to leave, the RV doesn’t start. Weird. So we call AAA as, they are on my favorites list, I call them about once a month. They come out and try to jump it, nothing. Salah has the bright idea to ‘jiggle the wire’ yes, that’s right, I said it. That magically did the trick and we were on our way again. We arrive at night and just set up wherever we choose…with hookups. The winds out in the desert were so crazy, it felt like we would blow away. And in the morning we are told to vacate because we did not pay for an RV spot. But we were here and alive, so its all good, we don't need your stinking hookups anyway! 

I was to work at the Coffee Jojo, making frozen coffees 4 hours each day of the festival. I met so many awesome people, heard some great music, watched a solar eclipse in the Joshua Tree incredible “desertness” and think I actually broke even on tips from the coffee job! We made friends with a whole burner community, and they kind of adopted Salah and I the whole weekend. The boy child, we’ll call K, developed a crush on Miss Masha. Little did he know I was more excited about being friends with his mom, Wendy. But it was so great to be loved by their whole crew that I didn't mind.

After the festival we decide to drive into the desert to check out the national park. It was stupid hot out there and by the time we got to about 3000 level elevation, Big Bessy wasn’t doing so good. It was making a weird gurgling noise, so we pulled over and turned it off…and the gurgling noise continued. It turned out to be the coolant, boiling out. Ya, it got THAT hot. We walked around a little, saw some jack rabbits and then turned the RV around and coasted back down.

I take Salah to Redlands and carried myself on to Crestline to see a friend, for what I thought was only going to be a day. But as I climbed that mountain, the RV started to putter out at 3000ft elevation, again. I pulled off the road to a call box only to see that my coolant was doing the same thing it did in the desert. While I’m on the phone with the dispatch, the sweetest old man, pulls over to try to help me, sees that I’m alone and refuses to leave until AAA or my friends arrive, saying that his daughter was attacked once when her car broke down and he couldn’t let that happen to me. I must have a giant sign on my head that says “help me, I’m a dump little girl that bought this thing cause it was silver”. If I don't, maybe I should, because people always want to come to my rescue. And believe me, its much appreciated, because I am a dumb little girl that bought this thing because it was silver.

My friends finally came to rescue me, and I could relieve the good samaritan of his duties. Then AAA tows me up the rest of the mountain. Hey, at least I saved on gas! The next day I was supposed to drive to LA and then Santa Barbara and then to Irvine for Lightning in a Bottle. Now that’s just crazy-talk. That’s a lot of driving in a normal car, let alone my hoop-tee. So I take a much needed rest for a few days in the mountains and decompress from festy #2.                                   

The way back down the mountain was breathtaking. I basically coasted the whole way down jaw open taking in the mountains and all their magesty. All I was missing was my little Gatita on the dash looking out the window. I got into town for a bit to eat and I while I was sitting there, chewing on a burger, killing time, I get a phone call from my friend Blayne who informs me that his friend Adam has a house in Irvine (20 min away from where I’m sitting). Perfect!!! There's that weird universe thing again. I call him, meet up and get a hot shower and some much needed rest before LIB. Oh, and Adam turned out to be pretty cool too.

We get to the gates at like 9:30am, before the ticket gates are on sale, before anyone is allowed to get in, just volunteers and eager hippies chilling in a parking lot. So we do what any festival goers would do and start decorating, painting, getting costumes together and of course having a few mimosas.

LIB was incredible. Like being home after being away in a different country for a year…kind of exactly like that actually! Beautiful faces, excellent music, dancing and merrymaking. But then, just like that, it was all over and it was time to go home and back to reality.