Vanishing Point

A few weeks ago, I went to the dissolution ceremony for a sand mandala in Pasadena. When I was there, I was approached by a journalist and asked some questions. My interview didn't make it into his video, but at the 2:03 mark of this video https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/news/2019/02/01/sand-mandala-dissolution# , you can see me between the shoulders of the two people in the foreground (the young guy and the white-haired woman). Don't blink or you'll miss me, but there I am. This is my second time in the background of something on TV, but I don't have proof of the first one with me. Perhaps I'll add it as a P.S. post after I'm back home. What is a sand mandala? Watching that video is a good introduction. This is a photo of the center of the one I saw: However, the real thing that brought the "what are the odds?" title to mind is an experience I had a motel recently. The TV was doing this weird thing. Every few minutes it would display a se

I usually don't like horror movies that actually scare me, but I do sometimes enjoy horror movies that I think are funny because I'm not scared by the stuff that's supposed to be scary. Some of my favorites from my younger years: "The Car" with James Brolin "Crack In The World" with Dana Andrews "The Exorcist" with Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn "Night of the Lepus" with Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, and DeForest Kelley Never heard of "Night of the Lepus?" No big surprise there. Does the photo accompanying this post give you any clues about what's supposed to be scary on that fateful night? The photo is of a prominent mural in Ajo, Arizona. The movie was filmed in Ajo, and a few other locations in Arizona. I'm so glad that I came back to Ajo so that I could see that mural and learn the role of Ajo in one of my favorite not-scary movies! I stayed an extra night in Ajo to avoid some wind and to give my ea

I went to Willcox, Arizona for a rest from traveling. I needed to do laundry, and I noticed that I was getting grumpy in the mornings when I was preparing to hit the road. Time for a break. I stayed over one night in Willcox last year, at a pretty cheap motel that I really liked, especially at that price. There's a cool looking old motel right across the street from the one where I stayed in Willcox. The only thing is, it's clearly not open for business and it needs a lot of work. I noticed it last year, and halfway expected it to be gone by this year. Instead, I saw the guy who owns the one where I stayed walking back from that property, and signs of construction going on over there. I asked him if he's renovating it and he said that he is, slowly. I told him I was happy to hear it because it's got a lot of personality. He seemed pleased that someone noticed. It's a mid-century modern kind of a thing. Here's a photo: The paint on it is peeling. I wonder

Sometimes recommendations from locals are great and sometimes they're not so great and sometimes they're a bit of each. If I'm feeling adventurous, I ask. Last year, I had a really enjoyable conversation with a woman working in a roadside tourist trap in Bowie, Arizona. I told her how intrigued I was by the huge rocks by the side of the road near the Dragoon exit off I-10 in Arizona, and she told me I had to go see the Chiricahuas, and while I'm down that way, I should visit the ruins of Fort Bowie. It's more than a mile hike from the parking lot to the ruins at Fort Bowie, but she said that there is handicapped access. Today is the day I checked out the advice of that woman from last year. She was right about Chiricahua National Monument -- it is pretty spectacular. Once again, the photos don't do it justice, because the size of the formations is part of what makes them spectacular, and that just doesn't come across in the photos. For example in this

If you have not seen that movie, put it on your to-do list. Directed by Robert Redford, with Sonia Braga, Ruben Blades, John Heard, and with small parts played by Freddie Fender, Christopher Walken, and Melanie Griffith. Not one of the greatest movies ever made, but one of my favorites. Charming, beautifully filmed, and with plenty of interesting characters. It is set in a small fictional town in New Mexico and filmed mostly in Truchas, NM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truchas,_New_Mexico . Ajo, Arizona reminds me of Milagro. Some beautiful old buildings are pristinely maintained and some beautiful old buildings are crumbling. Driving into Ajo, I get the sense of a people who have lived here for generations in a very isolated way. Even though they are the closest town with motels to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument -- not one of the most famous members of the National Park System, but still it does attract tourists from many places. In that way it also reminds me of Kingman, Arizo

Beauty continues to abound, and one day recently I followed the road and scenery up to Kingman, Arizona. (You remember the lyric from "Route 66," that goes "Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino?") It is stunningly beautiful country up that way, and the air was still crystal clear. It was cold that day in Southern Arizona, so what did it matter if I headed somewhere even colder? It got down to 24 degrees that night in Kingman, which seemed a bit incompatible with palm trees to me. I took this photo from near my van (was it evening or morning? I don't remember) and I didn't even touch up the color at all. The light was that good. (I don't always touch up the photos I post here, but I do if the colors I see in person aren't captured by the photo. This one looks like what happens when I push touching up too far and then back it off a bit, but this is just how it was.) Rather than continue wondering about palm trees and sub-freezing temperatures, I google

I may backtrack and cover more at some point, but I want to share about recent stuff today. I have seen such beauty in the last few weeks! The photos I took don't begin to capture the beauty of wide open spaces and mountain range after mountain range that I can see off in the distance, and the whole sense of wonder I get from the enormous scale of geologic features in the Southwest. I've enjoyed amazingly clear air so that I could see all the variety of mountains in the Los Angeles area. I could see forever on the drive from Needles to Barstow, and then again on the drive from Barstow to Twentynine Palms, and then again through Joshua Tree National Park, and then again down to Yuma. I'm including a couple of photos, but they are sorely insufficient. I stayed at a Wigwam Motel on Historic Route 66. While you take in the photo of the Wigwam Motel at sunset, you might want to listen to Nat King Cole sing about Route 66:  https://www.youtube.com/watc