Jacob Lake, Arizona, United StatesFrom the North Rim we headed to Hoover Dam.
We stayed just a few miles from the Dam in Boulder City and we had a
marvelous time!! We
pulled in on Thursday in time to head to a local sports bar to catch the Packer
game. Besides a Packers win we met Cheri
& Jim. Cheri told us about a great
duo that was playing the next night right there at the sports bar! Sounded like a good time!
Since we
were there to see Hoover Dam we thought we best get that done. So, Friday we spent the day at the Dam. We drove over it right away…very cool!!
Lucky us, it
was the 2nd day of the tours running again. They had been shut down due to elevator
issues for the three previous weeks!!!
We hopped on the first tour and went way, way down to see the generators. What a marvel! All that electricity with no pollution of any
kind!!
Once back up on top, we studied
the dam from the visitors deck and then, of course, went to have lunch!! Tracy as still nursing a bad knee and it had
gotten pretty hot so we decided to leave the walk across the Mike
O’Callaghen/Pat Tillman memorial bridge until the next day.
Glad we did as it’s a little bit of a hike up
but so worth it!! The view of the dam
and the lake was great!
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Friday night
we did go back to the bar to listen to some fantastic music and even have a
dance or two, well, I did, see previous mention of Tracy’s knee!! What a friendly, friendly group of people!!
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From Boulder
City we headed to Joshua Tree National Park in … you guessed it…Joshua Tree,
CA.
We stayed at
Joshua Tree Lake Campground. A very interesting place. It has a pond where folks bring kids to
“catch and release” fish, in the middle of this dry dessert campground. A true Oasis!! Also, spring and fall they host a music
festival. The fall festival happened to
be going on the next weekend and volunteers were already coming in to help set
the place up. We wondered why they had
so many tent sights and these permanent structures that looked like
booths. They advertise the tent camping
as “communal”, you are guaranteed a 12X12 space for your tent! Very fun,
hippy-like place!!
The day we
checked in another camper told us to be sure to go to Pappy & Harriet’s up
at a place called Pioneertown, just north of town. What the heck, we lounged around our first
morning and decided to start our day with lunch, at Pappy & Harriet’s.
The place was full so we took a beer outside
and started up a conversation with other folks hanging at the picnic
tables. They were locals and began to
tell us about Pappy’s and the area.
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First off
Pioneertown.
The town started as a live-in Old West motion-picture set, built in the
1940s. The set was designed to provide a place for the actors to live while
using their homes in the movie.[1] A number of Westerns and early
television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid and Edgar Buchanan's Judge Roy Bean Wikipedia
When we
pulled up there was a reenactment of a shoot out across from Pappy’s in one of
those stage areas, we could not see it but sure could hear it! So, really, besides the movie set and Pappy’s
there isn’t much more to Pioneertown.
Pappy and
Harriet’s.
The
bar/restaurant is in the cantina of the filmset that had been built in the
40’s. The first ten years, 1972 – 1982
it was a “biker burrito bar”, I got nothin, have no clue what a biker burrito bar was. It was owned and operated by Harriet’s mother. It had been shut down when Harriet and her
husband “Pappy” bought in and brought less bikers and more music to the
place. The current owners have been
running it since 2003.
Enter Robyn Celia and Linda Krantz,
two New Yorkers who loved P&H and wanted to see it returned to it’s glory
days. The girls bought the club in 2003 and have done just that. Musicians from
Robert Plant to Vampire Weekend to Leon Russell to Sean Lennon and many more
have graced the P&H stage. http://www.pappyandharriets.com/history/
Paul
McCartney had done a show for about 300 people a few months earlier. Unique place with AWESOME mac and
cheese!! Well worth the drive.
When asked
what we should not miss in the area, our P&H local friends told us we
really should see the Integratron…the Integra what???
The Integratron is a 38 ft tall cupola structure with a diametre of
55 ft designed by Ufologist and Contactee George
Van Tassel. Tassel claimed the Integratron was capable of rejuvenation, anti-gravity
and time
travel. He built the structure in Landers, California (near Joshua Tree), supposedly following
instructions provided by visitors from the planet Venus. The
Integratron machine was started in 1957, the structure erected in 1959.[1]
It was financed predominantly by donations, including funds from Howard
Hughes.[2]Wikipedia
People pay
$30 for an hour of sitting in the structure while sound is being transmitted by
bowls of water, like the sound when you run your finger around a crystal glass,
since it has perfect pitch is supposed to “rejuvenate” you. The lady at the campground says she does feel
better after doing a “sound session” but it has become so busy it’s hard for a
local to get in. The day we stopped, the next available appointment was 5 days
out. Why, oh why, would beings from
Venus care about humans getting better?
Do you think they get a cut? Cuz it surely is a money maker now!! Ah…what the desert does to the soul (and
brain cells!).
Joshua Tree
National Park. The reason for being in
the area!!
We had no
idea what a Joshua Tree was when we entered the park. Well, what an interesting tree. I tried to take get as many pics as possible
to show you how different they are from each other.
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We used a new,
to us, audio guide. It’s called Just
Ahead (https://www.justahead.com/). Even though
it’s not as good as GyPSy Guide we still enjoyed it and will use it again.
There is a
wilderness walk within the park. You go
through this narrow passage and end up in an area surrounded by high cliffs,
this means there is more moisture, thus, a different group of plants. Pretty cool to walk through this “rock
opening” and see flowers, trees with leaves and even a grass or two, like a
whole different world.
We were not
able to get to the southern part where there is a garden. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a 45
minute drive through the park. We had no
water or food…dah, us. It was a great
park with a minimum of 3-4 hours required!! Nice, nice park!
What started
out to be a way to waste a few days on the way to our nephews wedding ended up
being a wonderful, wonderful stop!! As a
matter of fact, from the park our thirsty and hungry self’s went to lunch at the The Joshua Tree
Tavern (where there is a picture of John Wayne with Tato, from Fantasy Island,
hanging out together at the place) the bartender asked what we did during our
stay and when we told him, he declared “you did all…way to go!!!”.
We left
Joshua Tree and headed to Lake Elsinore, CA. for “the wedding”. Catch up with you after that!!
Thanks for
coming along!
Debby Dear
2017-10-17
I am so enjoying being along with you in your travels. Looks like fun!
Smettsio
2017-10-18
Dam good review !
Susie
2017-10-20
I enjoy our trips so much..thank you for taking me and Murf along... what a Beautiful Country we have...love ya