49 Palms Oasis

12 Feb 2007 - Another last minute trip was to a true oasis in the desert in Joshua Tree NP by the name of 49 Palms Oasis. I did not actually count the palms but it is just about a miracle to walk over a dry, rocky hill to find a pool of water and all these trees. About 1 1/2 miles walk each way (both up hill) but well worth the walk.

29 Palm Murals

26 February 2007 - Becky and I were very impressed with the murals from 29 Palms.

Desert Life Mural

26 February 2007 - In order to allow more detail to be seen, I have taken 4 photos to capture this beautiful and detailed mural. Hopefully you can read the descriptions along the bottom of the various things depicted. I will also upload the murals to our site at
http://community.webshots.com/user/skylane182m where they will be easier to read.

Murals of 29 Palms

26 February 2007 - We have been in 29 Palms for almost 5 months all together now and have enjoyed all the murals they have throughout the town but I never took time to capture them. Knowing our time here was drawing close to ending, I decided to see what I could do about correcting that little deficiency. On this and the following blog(s) I will share a few of them.
Being the home of the USMC training center there are several depicting our soldiers and the rest are related to the town's history in some fashion. The town is the location of one of the old 'water holes' in the desert that dates back to pre-Indian times as best they can tell and continued on into the early 1900's. The original 'oasis' is now mostly dry but several of the original California Palm trees remain as a reminder of what brought people to the area originally.
The 'unfinished' mural is much more striking than I captured here as the bull and the sidewalk he is standing on truly appear to be 3 dimensional as you drive by it. It is intended to be 'unfinished' in case you were wondering.

On The Road Again

March 13, 2007 - Becky and I are finally on to our next destination (wherever that is)! March 13 was our 'getaway' day from southern California and my sister in 29 Palms. It was a difficult parting for us all but it was time for us to go. Dot has shown much improvement and we are sure she will continue on her road to recovering more of her motor skills. Teresa is a real trooper and her house remodeling is nearing completion so they will have a choice of where to go when Dot's house sales.
I have several photos I took while we were in 29 Palms but did not get on the blog so I will try to catch up over the next week or so!!
We now look forward to our next stops on our way to Florida to see Lori and Dave and be there for Dave's Masters in Education graduation the last of April!!