(Hey I forgot to tell you in the last blog post when we looked for a restaurant that we went to Andrew's Place from our GPS and it was a patch of dirt. Also, from Play Day, we went to a taco beach Cali deal with salsa dips and good fish tacos, and painted Woody's on the walls. Good food. It was called Baja Grill. But just telling you some minor details from the last two blog posts.)
The day was the 3rd of March, Saturday.
It started less than outlandish. We got up fairly early in the morning, and took showers and got ready to go. A lady last night at a pizzaria had told us about these three things, and I will share the history and science or culture of each strange stuff when I get to it. We were leaving the strong and safe and luxury of the resort, finally doing a touristy kind of thing. But before we did some people allowed us to go in there lot, the Pete and Donna people. We saw their dog swim in their pool too. Cute golden retriever. Nice granite bar area too. I only had one red book where three small animals were going to a volcano to get a badger to help them win a battle against the wildcats and their minions, except for the good one who's name I forget. Martin, Goff, the mole, and Log-a-log went along. This was the most action packed part of the book so far, and I was excited to read the end. I would supposedly finish it that day and do the Ireland book next. We went off in the jeep, leaving plush and proper and going into desert and dusty, over some bumpy roads. It was just south of Palm Springs and Indio and all the other Palm towns, and also just south of normal. Brown mountains and green sagebrush, all with flat cacti in a bunch...all were introduced to us once more from their leave of absence at Quartzite. This would be our view for much of the driving section to the things, the beige dust raising up around us like the toads did in the book as they went to these swamps. Their pursuers, two weasels, died by a swan. I loved reading that book.
After about an hour we hit off the interstate among bumpy roads, where we saw a gas station that hit the dust...almost literally. There was chipped off blue paint, a knocked out sign, and a single pump that was worn from age. It looked pitiful. Graffiti signs on the little building were gross and unruly words and symbols. But anyway, done with that road, we saw some water breaking in the horizon, as we made our way down another road going right and then up another hill. This was the first of the SSS. It's blue florescent waters, light and airy to the touch,, the water glittering on the first.... was very pretty. Many rocks around it, and dirt. We came up to a building with some picnic tables beside. It had red rectangular bricks sections on each side, and glass areas in between. On top was a weird roof with white fiberglass going up and slanted, like a lightning strike. Beside it was a granite sign saying: SALTON SEA STATE PARK AND RECREATION AREA. We parked in the small parking lot, and walked to the sign that told of the building being from the State Park of CA. What was so strange about this lake in Cali? Well, I'll tell you once we get inside.
To the left of this Salton Sea (such a strange name...Hmmm... S is the first letter of each word...incidental) building, was a little gift shop with a few items, and panels along the walls with stuff about science, how this inland sea was created, all that with the fish and environment. There was also a carton full of books you could switch out, an exchange. Then on the right, more panels and charts and graphs, with farther on the right in the back a table with a guy talking to two biologists. In the middle, a counter with a screen flashing behind them. The nice lady told us of a movie in fifteen minutes we could watch, which would explain how the Salton Sea was made. After seeing some things and looking at the books, and going to the restroom, we went into the little dark room with projector and some benches. The movie started.
It wasn't a high definition Ken Burne's production, that was for sure. The screen was fuzzy and some colors, fat lines, flashed on the bulky T.V. A park ranger was interviewed and it was very amateur, with weird old maps and pictures of men, and white captions. Here's what it said: millions of years ago there was water an inland sea, rushing out and coming in, with the change of climate and different world geographic and geological events. In the early, early 1900's some business men (who's names they listed but I now forget) decided to convert the fierce waters of the Colorado river into farming fields in South California, the Imperial Valley. What's weird is it was already called Salton, the town, before the lake. So what's so weird about this lake? Well, it happened by accident.
The bone dry lake was replenished when snow melt and and a lot of rain falling down made the Colorado rapids rush through the Alamo canal. It had been set up in Mexico and the people knew they had created a monster. It wasn't the salt from the sea that had come in making the town totally submerged in 1905-6, 7 time period, and the water can't flow out of the little sea, so the water evaporates leaving behind salt and other minerals. Fish were introduced to Salton Sea, and all managed to die because they were freshwater in salt water, except for the tilapia which in the summer and spring constantly dies. Well, the video dragged on for a while and then it ended. We had learned a lot about the sea, and it was very informational. After the movie, we talked a little to the scientists and I looked at some books while we went to the restroom, besides me. None of the books look good, but I might've changed the book I was almost done with if I could finish it quickly, but I wasn't THAT close to the ending. Well, one SS done now and two to go. Actually...not exactly. We drove behind the building to some picnic pavilions and took pictures. Rebecca and I jumped on all of the white big rocks, trying not to fall. And then....I saw it.
The lady last night had told Dad it smelled terrible in the summer because of all the fish deaths, and now I saw the most gruesome part of the day. Dried up fish, white and brittle, with some their mouths open, lay about the shore. Tons and tons of dead sea creatures were ample in their amounts. One was stuck up too me, like it was trying one last plea of help before it died, or coming out to attack the living.... I can promise you I'm not making this up. Fish tails and grey scales were found around the large grey rocks, a testament to the vast graveyard we were stepping in. The blue lake was not only a fun recreational spot, but a death wish, all the salt. We saw their eyes, their horrible brown eyes, contorted was their shape as they laid together. It was like they were roasted tan from the sun, years and months of basking in the rays. Hay was by them. One's body was bended, hay in mouth, sticking up at you... this was the true stuff in the world that gave you nightmares. The teeth on the brown eyed one, I could count them, the grey scales, the.... I'm not gonna describe it anymore. I do not want to get nightmares. I wasn't actually that SCARED on that day, just creeped out and such. Rebecca and I jumped on the shore while Dad stayed in the car and Mom talked to some annoying-voiced people who said Joshua Tree, a national park nearby, would be good to go to. But it was a long way away.
So spoke the people. Blogs and facebook given out, the whole deal, and then we left for the next SS, which Rebecca was very excited about. This had been scientifically weird, a strange bag of facts we hadn't heard before. So, we continued to go fast along the south of Salton Sea, and I read my book in all the desert around me. I found myself moving along in the desert with a big hill making an impression in the horizon. There was something colorful on it. What was that? And how did I see this big glob of different colors and designs? I could vaguely make anything out though. As we rounded the hill to the right and slowly got more closer, and then got on the same ground that it was on, I saw the next weirdest thing of the day. And it was a lot weirder than the lake, but still not as freaky and science like. It was actually quite the opposite. It was spiritual and bright. There was a white cross on the top, and it shone bright in the blue sky behind it. Then there were all kinds of paintings and designs on this sloping hill thing, with bumps and breaks in all the rolling. Many blue and white lines coming down vertically, with words and green trees and little spots. It looked like a storybook rhyme and all good and child like things. Salvation Mountain.
There was a blue old suburban like car, with painted letters on it with SALVATION, and Bible verses galore. Whoever made this, he was a true Christian and loved God a lot, to make this "shrine" or some kind of artistic church, if you will, to Southern California. It also had symbols on it too, and bizarre as it is, a little house with ladder and jail bars with a slated roof, all decorated with different colors. Did the person sleep here?
And then there was a building only to the right of this Church Hill, or Salvation Mountain, as the lady had said it was called last night. It looked like it was almost made out of dirt, with some bars and then no roof, and it was barely visible from where we parked on the dirt. I took a picture of the hood of the car having UNIVERSAL LOVE in a red circle, and other things. There was also a trailer by the dirt house, if I can call it that. We got out of the car, phones, cameras, and my video camera in hand. The lady had informed us that we could walk and play and slide down it, which could be fun. But at the same time, we would be playing on this artistic church, which a man built to honor God. I don't know really. But Rebecca sprang forward and started climbing up, as I stepped over some stuff and looked in that truck/trailer/house. I saw a bed, some candles, that kind of thing. I took long pictures of the peculiar vehicle before moving along. I went up a little yellow painted walkway, and felt the material. It was hard and dried, and chipped off in many places, probably from either the weather or the visitors that came to the Mountain. On my left was some painted flat flowers, of green stems and different colors, not very good drawings but they were fine. I can't do better. I continued up the field of blue stripes.
In the middle of this relatively small mountain was a cross, under which was in red GOD IS LOVE, with a heart of white trim and letters, all else red, with Sinner's Prayer, you know the whole God come into my heart I'm a sinner verse. It's the primary self converting prayer for modern day Christians. But anyway, so I followed the road, heeding the sign which said to stay on it. I wanted this mountain honoring God to stay up and not erode away. Well, as I went up, I wondered how this was made, over how long it was made, and if it was just a homely homeless man who was idle with his time and destroyed his boredom by this project. I saw Mom and Dad taking pictures below. Dad didn't venture the little climb up, but Mom eventually followed up to us with her camera. I looked at the green background and white LOVE words, and the little GOD IS above, with a red Holy Bible and black under. It was all bright, wonderful, and uplifting, with real plants actually sticking up from the paint and parts chipped off, which revealed the truth that no, we were not on another planet and yes, this was truly real, not a dream. It made the day in a sense brighter, the sun shone brighter than it did at Salton Sea, the sky bluer, the clouds less frequent and farther apart. Salvation Mountain.
I stepped up on the peak, beneath the white cross, and above the red dry paint which made up God is. It was a decent view from up there. I looked over some farm fields, which we had seen earlier with some grapes and other things while passing by some Latino farmers with a gun (forgot to mention that) and the Salton Sea. Although I wasn't THAT high. For instance, I could see Dad's watch as he was talking to a few men, and some motorcycle people with bandannas. Rebecca slid down the blue and white part, which I don't think was very nice to do, and stuck her head out of the O in GOD. Was she disrespecting the place? Well, I'm not sure on that one, because I did attempt the slide later. It might or might not matter. I mean, why would they make a little yellow sidewalk if you couldn't go up? A lady talked on the phone as I looked down to my right. And I saw something rather odd when I saw it. There were sides of it, it looked like sand and dirt and hay sides, colored on their outsides. Wooden beams stuck up in there too. All the compacted materials were colored in some way. There was no roof, just a jumbling of junk like in Spencer's basement. You really need to clean that up, man.
Rebecca told me to go the opposite way, and so I followed her. We went down the ledge to the right, balancing along the rim of this mountain on the top, and went along the colorful trail. Was this in a book or some kind of kid movie? Because we were walking over a rainbow hill with painted flowers and designs all around. But we passed the cross and then went down into an alcove area, passing by hay on the other side. Here was some more art and a lot of scripture verses, for people to come and maybe even be converted. Whoever made this, I think Mom said it was a man, had a great idea and certainly loved the Lord. There was in black pop out letters with white background and maroon small flowers below. It said John 3:16, -FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. Such a great verse. And one everyone knows.
By it was a word web, a red tree with all these things in the middle, the virtues of Jesus probably: Meekness (which I don't think he had but we associate him with it, he also could yell at people who disobeyed the Lord) Faith, Love, Goodness, Long Suffering, Gentleness, Temperance. More colored flowers and roses, and all around in black all of the verses, blue and white in the background. This man had to of had a vision and a plan, or maybe he just took all the paint and over a white painted it over stuff. It was an artist's stronghold, for sure. Dad ventured in as I looked at a smaller version of the middle and main part of the mountain, down in the alcove. Well, after that, we sort of went on. It was a really cool and unique place, and there was no doubt about that. Rebecca, excited about the Christian art, wanted to go into the no roofed area. We followed a loud Mom and her young toddlers, the same woman who was on the phone. She had a white hat, blonde hair, and had gotten in every single one of my pictures. They made a lot of noise as I stood in the main area of this strange house, the little blue trailer in front. To my left was a hole or little dirt room, like something in Mossflower that the animals would make. It had tons of small colorful squares, little painted flowers, crosses, along with a dirt floor. Was this an Indian residence? There were also letters and flowers, and in one area of the room to the far center some trophies. Reading them, they all went to a Leo or Leonard, from baseball and different times like that. Was this the artist's room for prayer, thought, or something like that? It looked like he was sick, for there were get better letters and stuff. I felt like I was intruding on this man's space, and it was very creepy to look at his personal items, not in a museum. There was a ledge for sitting on. Who was this man?
There was one a little bit more down, an adobe structure also, and it looked rather the same. The other one was probably the bedroom or the trophy room, with this one the shrine. Painted crosses and Jesus painting, plus a picture of a grey haired shaved head, was also there. So what was this place? Oh, wait.... I got it. Sorry for ruining the mystery and illusion but I just found out on their website that it is a hogan, an abode building for deflecting the hot sun. Although the artist lives in the truck. Anyway, let's move on to the next part of the Salvation Mountain.
Everything was so colored with doves and rock and brick... very pretty. We stepped on the gravel and sand and went on. There were little booklets and Bibles and uprooted trees there too. And pictures of Jesus. Well, we drifted out into the open once more as Rebecca wondered what was his last name, saying Leonardo Di Caprio. We went under a shaded area, very dark in there, and there were painted, rocky and bumpy and not quite right, sides and columns. Rebecca said that he was dead but I told her about Inception which was made recently and he was in it. As we continued down, I saw some white buckets and shovels. It was dark but had bright painted flowers that were 3D and were puffed out with some kind of material behind them. We found ourselves in a hallway of some sort with other stuff on the sides, and Holy Bible in black and white like the ones on the monument. Then I looked up. Cross-patch were the branches that made up the roof, the rays of sunlight breaking in, and they were very pretty. They were very painted and they seemed like something out of a fantasy. As we walked farther down in the dimly lit area, Dad in the car, Mom ahead of us, we saw painted large trees, their boughs colorful unlike their real counterparts. No leaves on them. Was I in Alice in Wonderland? Because it was so odd and crazy and I was wondering at every moment.
The building, with the shrines and this area, was all colorful, which was almost everything in the entire property. I looked at a bio of Leonard Knight, on a little piece of paper, about him being born in Vermont and going to Korea ten days before the war ended, wanting to travel, becoming a mechanic and going to Cali to see his sister...when he was made a Christian in his van, alone, just reciting the sinner's prayer. He tried to get his message across by a hot air balloon, which failed. He became a painter of cars and worked several jobs, and then after a trip with his boss where he worked in Quartzsite doing stuff with tires, he liked the climate and made a little monument, which he called Salvation Mountain. That same small monument became what it is today, although once it totally collapsed. It was only made out of sand, cement, hay and other stuff. Then the county, wishing to make a campground and fee all these people in...well I'll tell you later, thought the whole religious thing would make people sue, so they ordered a specialist to test some samples for contaminants. It had a lot. They were going to demolish it, but people from an area said no and petitioned, and they went to San Diego to an independent lab which said their actually wasn't that much contaminants. So Salvation Mountain...stayed.
In 2002 a female senator called it a national treasure, and campaigns have been made to make it a national monument. We got some of this latter info from an assistant or informer there, a lady, blonde haired, with a boulder hat, tight jeans, and a purple shirt. She gave us a post card with it on there after talking about the next thing we were going to see, which I will tell you what it is later. She also told us Knight was in a nursing home, well told two girls who had come to Salvation Mountain from a local school to interview Knight and ask him specific questions. That's sad they didn't get to interview him, and sadder he was in a nursing home. Nice person. Well, we left and then drove off, away from the stellar Salvation Mountain. It was really unique and awesome, and cool to learn about Leonard Knight, the artist who made this wonderful monument to God. We talked to some men who said they always asked if they were Knight because he had a beard. Pretty funny. Alright, so we drove to the next SS, which was supposed to be the most outrageous and queer of all of the things that day. We went by the farms again, and then saw a small booth, with all this graffiti and inside some gross pictures. What was this place? It looked so odd and very strange, as we went in.
As it neared toward four o'clock, we saw we were at Slab City. And I will never forget that place.
Some more history here: Slab City was not a city but a military fort, an area General Patton in WWII used for training troops going into Africa. During budget cuts the government land was left and the slabs of the buildings still there, but not the buildings. Snowbirds from cold states and Canada come down in the winter and stay in trailers and R.V.'s, as well as hippies and people just trying to live somewhere, no taxes at all. On a sign as we entered we actually saw: Last Free Place on Earth" in big letters. Well, let me describe this INTERESTING (to say the least) place. Desert dirt and sagebrush was frequent, as was cottonwood trees spread out around the area. There were mostly pull-behind trailers, worn with nasty decorations, lazy boy chairs in a shaded area, fridges, campfires, and yellow couches with cushions that looked like they have been assaulted by a pit bull, a frightening animal we would see a lot throughout. Some of them protected their precious privacy, with barbed wire connected to large truck tires and spiked metal frames, anything of scrap metal that these renegade people could salvage. There were two by each other, and makeshift porches out of rotten wood, just waiting for the right time to crack under the force of them. Beer bottles were on tree branches, and people with bloodshot eyes and scraggly hair stared us down as we passed by.
THUNK! We locked the doors to the car.
We all talked about this strange place, and the amount of trailers and the none amount of houses was amazing. It got more wacky by the second. We saw a truck in front of a trailer, as if it was made only this way for the jaw dropping of tourists and the snap of cameras, with all this junk right on it. Everything from tennis rackets to tires to red lunch boxes were on the blue truck. It was totally crazy. But it got more bizarre as we entered the realm of this eccentric race. On top of little hills were total camping sites, on square slabs of concrete, chairs, tents, and the unimaginable things you could NEVER make up or fabricate in a book or film. The photos can only fully describe this amazingly strange place. We saw a thirteen year old emerge from a forest, barefoot and without shirt, with black hair and a fit appearance go by. You could probably just about get away with anything out there at Slab City. I don't mean to insult the people who live there... but... dang!
On the back of that truck was some rusty gas cylinders, and a trailer with a silver figure, cylinder too, and boat rotors and some other things. It was so just.... off the wall. Everything in this hippie commune was. We passed by a large stage where wooden tables and a building behind with yellow sign said THE RANGE. There was a stage area above the deck, so was it a concert area or something like that? Hmmm. Well, so we made it to a three sided area with some rotten toys out front, a school bus in the middle and then on either side was a trailer, white and fiberglass. There were tables with some abstract paintings, slate-like. We stopped in front and we went to a scraggly old lady with blonde/white hair named Sandy. She had red skin and was skinny. She came out as I looked at the toys, Buzz Lightyear and others, worn and torn. Mom started a conversation with the lady, who would become the only person we would meet at Slab City. She was nice enough and showed us inside where I saw some cool stuff. She also showed us a school bus, truck with some cats in it. She was a little freaky and eccentric, but nice. Rebecca got a few paintings Sandy made of Slab City, and Mom asked her about living there.
A school bus came every morning, not the one she lived in but one for kids. They dry camp for the most part but electricity is provided in some places, and a honey truck comes for all the junk and doodoo.They have a performing thing called the Range, which we saw earlier, and they help each other out by giving supplies away and have a community, but it's mostly every person for himself. They get their mail from a post office up the road, and if someone does something disgraceful they don't turn them into the police but they shun them and don't talk to them. A newsletter comes out every week and is a lady's sole means of income. It had a lot of history on it, Sandy said, and Mom asked me to go across the street, where the lady's trailer was, and see if she was there to get the newsletter. Timidly and with only a plastic holster and video camera in the car with Dad, I moved slowly to the trailer with a big tree and some junk. Why did she make me go out here and do this? What if she comes out with a shotgun? I saw and thought I heard a short haired lady go into a car or trailer, and looked in all the hidden brush. I heard a tug at a silver chain, and then footsteps. I then began as scared as Piglet from Winnie the Pooh.
RUFF! RUFF!
A white stout pit bull rushed forward and barked terribly, making me jump and step back. I tried to look left as it chased that way, and I still looked for the lady. Then I gave up, keeping my distance and not risking it to go and knock on the door, the pit bull blocked the way between me and the lady. Plus, I didn't want to be mauled. I went back to Mom and told her about the dog, and she let me stay and Sandy was nice enough to give us her copy. It actually had no history at all, which was weird why Sandy lied to us....
But anyway, we bid her goodbye and went on longer. I couldn't take my eyes off the window as I looked at all this quirky stuff. There was a young film crew, complete with mikes and large cameras. They were below and behind one of the oddest parts of the day. It was a wooden structure, with different levels and cardboard drawings, and confetti. A chair was hanging off the side of the four beamed pinnacle. Around it was statues of ducks and swans, white and brown and black. Then you had tires half lodged in the grounds making a barrier. These people obviously had a lot of time on their hands.
At another part though were nice motorhomes that were dry-camping, Class A's that had probably heard about it and were delighted to be here among all these weirdos. There were some Canadians watching a game in lawn chairs. They might be snow birds.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Well, it was finally time to go after stopping at times and taking a lot of pictures. We left the property and retraced our steps among a little canal, where we saw a man pass by on a horse. Crazy.
Then we went by the Salton Sea after Salvation Mountain and by that gas station. Martin the mouse killed the lady wildcat at that moment and I pretty much ended the book. It was great and descriptive. We again entered safety and the upper class in Motorcoach R.V. Resort. I am so glad that we went out though, it was informational, bizarre, strange, and crazy out there. Everyone of those three was odd in it's own special way. Salton Sea was scientific and unusual,Salvation Mountain was bright, colorful, unique, and artistic, and Slab City was strange, peculiar, and had a lot of crazy and weird people. The sad thing about these is that Salton Sea's water is evaporating and California's budget cuts might make the building go away... Knight is very old and the future of Salvation Mountain is unclear... Slab City is getting drug cartels and might be shut down by the police.... so all these things might not be there for much longer.
Goodbye for now.
What's funny is they all start with S, Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain, Slab City. Salton Salvation Slabs! Eh, probably not,
Andrew. k
No comments:
Post a Comment