I was awoken as I started to roll down the back of the tent and down the hill, I caught myself to keep from going further. I could hear the wind howling and and see the top of the tent flexing from the power of it. As i braced myself against the front of the tent and laid there to keep it from blowing away i thought about that can. was it still there, resting perfectly as i was struggling to keep my tent from becoming Mary Poppins. While the wind howled i could hear a sound of a donkey every so often and thought "you fucking ass." Morning Came fairly quickly but not quick enough for i was tired of holding the tent in place, when I vacated the the Tent, NoBs, K-dot and crash were already up, NoBS stated how he saw the dust storm roll in past the tress and how they then vanished, he then said "I thought you and your tent blew away." something about the night of donkeys being assholes and the wind attempting to dismount me from my spot made me wake up in more of a Fuck it mood than usual. We Load up, get the early dose of drugs(coffee) they deflate the tires for easier navigation along the "Tricky Part" of the pass and we set off...
NoBs Passes Crash and lets the raptor be a raptor as we haul ass down this dirt road with dips and a few turns, we make it out to the main dirt road in no time, it took a fraction of the time making it back than going to. Crash maneuvers the 4-Runner back in front of us and he is fucking gone and the Raptor with us in it follows suit, a well built machine it was/is designed for this shit, I look up at the speedometer to see 80 mphs down this dirt road then it happened.. .A dip with another dip and uno mas which launched us into the air, it seemed for as we were in the air things slowed rapidly the thoughts, why did it just get so quiet, are we not on land, this is fun." the we land the Raptor absorbs everything perfectly... and we continue to haul ass down the road like "FUCK IT!" I forgot to mention that Crash and NoBs Have walkies to communicate for cellular devices are fucking pointless where we were and come to think of it, they are fucking pointless at almost every campsite i have ever been to.. We come to the next road which would lead us to the LippinCott Pass and Death on the left if memory serves me right. He stops the Off-Road People mover so i can take a photo... Then we proceed to haul ass yet again. We reach the pass, and the entrance is tight(haaa) and has a tricky angle to it. Crash goes through and instructs NoBs to follow his path, he didn't but I am here typing so it worked out, and while we were going through this I was in the back seat with no seatbelt on, struggling to pull it, but it kept locking, so i looked at the side where shit could go sideways and once again said "fuck it! If i die, i die." and i thought to myself if this shit rolls over i will position my head to where it gets crushed, a quick death, just accepting the fact that it could end at that moment. All this with in two hours of being awake. A quote i heard which is very true to me "sometimes, Do Not Die, should be on the to do list" Let's me know i am actually living one day i may cross that line but at least I'll be doing what i want. I mean we're all going to die anyways.. We head up a few more switchbacks climbing in elevation Then we hear the voice of crash come through the radio, "I call this part Death on the left" which was a fucking good name if you asked me, the focus one has to have while driving this path has to be draining, for if you make the slightest of mistakes you're fucked. While going through Death On The left I climbed over to the left side of the truck so i could look at death which this time was dressed in a lovely damn near vertical drop into a valley. I held my arm and head out the window while recording it, it was quite the sight to see. After we round the next corner Crash comes through the radio again mentioning mines on the opposite side of the valley, right as i looked across again I thought of a reflection of a scope of a rifle trained on us. This time i say something, and we have a convo " Checkers says "hit the deck" and we chuckle, but at the position we were in, we would have been pretty fucked if that were the case, and depending who was behind the trigger. I doze off as we head towards the Race Track.
I awaken as we pull up to Tea Kettle Junction where Racetrack Valley rd meets another which i do not know the name of. The stood a wooden sign with the obvious the words "Tea Kettle Junction" where about fourteen tea kettles hung and one pot which read "where i'm from this is a tea kettle" and i agreed and laughed. The sign gained a kettle that day as Crash and K-dot left one behind. I snapped a few photos then we set off for the The Race Track. I honestly had no fucking clue what Crash was speaking off when he mentioned the racetrack i was just down to experience and see as much as i could. As we got to the Race Track i could see it was flat as fuck, and i got a feeling as if i had been there before, it reminded me of the dream with how it was. I had seen photos on reddit ages ago about the Race Track about the moving rocks and nobody knows why they move. Crash said the ground freezes and the wind blows the rocks across. The rocks are not small either, but i say the rocks move because they chose to go on an adventure. We walked out onto the playa and I thought this would be a nice place to enjoy some mushrooms. It was a magical place one i hope to venture back to with said mushrooms and do yoga naked on the playa as the rocks continue on their adventure through the galaxy in which they know as, well i do not know what the rock would call the playa for i did not ask it, so rude of me to assume. I get photographs and take a video of the the Racetrack, i should mention the wind was blowing fairly hard kicking dust but none of us seem to give a fuck. i would say we were there for about ten to fifteen minutes before we loaded back into the Off-road people movers.
Next stop was to see the Ubehebe Crater. We drive then we hit pavement and i was a little bit irritated for I liked being on the unpaved path, Crash said "that's how you see Death Valley!" he was fuckin right! His voice comes across the radio once again and he said over those hills off in the distance is the crater. I looked at the black hills in the distance, i was not impressed but i was not disappointed with the view either, i was just taking it all in, we go around a curve in the road then that is when i saw it, I believe i actually said "wow" aloud, and not many things make me say that, seeing Half Dome at Yosemite i said it, a womans smile at a mic in LA.. but this crater, it actually fucked with my head for a second, for the hills were not that big but there were hiding this huge hole with was just there. I didn't even say wow when i saw the Grand Canyon I just looked at it then got distracted by all the fucks taking selfies so i took a nap on the edge. We parked and got out, the wind was blowing even harder at the crater, I attempted to walk up to the edge and was pushed back immediately, but again none of us were to be denied shit (except desert titties and mushrooms)... i walk down a ways and lay on the black volcanic sands as the sun warmed me and the wind massaged me. I could've laid there for hours. I wanted to walk down to the bottom to get that perspective but that will be another trip i do that. We Load up again and head off, we stop not to far from the crater so the tires can be aired back up for road travel. i ventured off over the hill to take a piss and i found a little tree, shrub... plant life which again spoke to me, some of my pee got on it for i was pissing into the wind but this plant... I used the last shot i had on the 35mm on it, and snapped a few more with the nikon before heading down and getting photos of the gang while they weren't paying attention. But one person i was not able to get in the photos was K-dot for she was elusive at the moment and she got a photo of me laying in the middle of the road which i will frame one day and hang so she gets a painting.
We end up at Forty Niner Cafe for a proper feast, we talk share the footage we got and enjoy the overly priced burgers, but i'm not bitch for they were good. This is when we parted ways, Crash and K-dot ventured off to see more and we were to head back to civilization... people... on the way back we stopped on the side to refuel (jerry cans are useful, invest) and down the stretch the Raptor stretched its legs and hit triple digits and before we left NoBs's place he mentioned hitting 100 in Death Valley, mark that off the list. On the way back we were all more talkative, I mean if you go to the middle of nowhere and death could be around any switchback, or getting air and you don't land flush shit could end, you form a bond with people. People I could call friends, i hope they would consider me the same. One topic of conversation was HitchHiker's Guild to the Galaxy which was a DAMN GOOD BOOK! The Movie not so much for me although it was good. We get back to Victorville and each of us orders a Pizza for ourselves and feast while watch Prometheus. Checkers and myself got a chance to talk, and i hand him my one of my sketchbooks to look at. We get back on the topic of Hitchhiker's Guide and he "says maybe you didn't like the movie for it wasn't up to your expectations of your imagination." and I just sat there and let that steep into my mind for a bit. We then went to see Logan but i ran to my car to eat a small very small piece of edible first... cause WHY NOT!?! Movie was alright i suppose( i was in my head questioning myself for the first thirty minutes), on the way back NoBs said "Thank you guys for being calm on those trails, it helped me stay focused." which sparked me to set off into a short monologue "Panicking would not have solved shit man, there is no time to be afraid of shit when shit is on the line, there is no time for fear, i figured if we died well that was it." There is NO TIME FOR FEAR! we go back to his place and i have a few more slices left and i feast. I watch a few clips of us getting air that NoBs captured on the go-pro(i need to invest in one) and the i passed out.
Back to L.A... back to the horns and people running around doing it is what people do but who am I? I'm just an Observer that partakes in whatever i choose to partake in, I feel i have a slight problem for if it isn't dangerous or the risk of failure or death is not there i do not really want to partake in it. Good thing Rock Climbing and surfing are now on my list of to do... along with do not become bear food and to get a photograph of a mountain lion on the Canon... so i'll have to be fairly close to it, if it were to attack we'll see what happens. I do not enjoy city life, I enjoy the quite of the country to where the city is an hour drive is perfect, I miss my woman back in Oklahoma the silence of the country with dogs barking and the occasional coyote yelling off in the distance the gravel drive way up to her house... the purple walls of her bedroom. But she isn't mine for you can never own anyone...
I went back to Death Valley I'll write about that in a weeks time. Enjoy the photos.
There Is No Time for Fear
or what I like to Tell
Myself
"Don't Be A Bitch!"
