A friend of mine from college came down to San Diego for work and we decided to take a trip out of town on Saturday to go see Joshua Tree National Park. I have been several times but Dave had never been there. We left about 11 and headed out. It has been kind of moist around San Diego recently and we hoped for some good weather on our way up there.
This trip was the first time I have been up there with clouds and a bot of rain. My first trip to Joshua Tree was last winter, and I have been there throughout the spring and summer months. Never a cloud before. This time we saw lots of rainbows and plenty of big rain drops. It was actually kind of neat and presented a completely different perspective on the desert. Made me think about flash floods as we drove through areas labeled as "wash", too! It all went fine, though.
We hiked out to Barker Dam, a place I had visited before when it had more water in it. This time, at the end of summer, it was nearly empty. We also saw a little rattle snake that Dave almost stepped on. Neither of us saw it before, but both of us were looking much more closely after that!
We drove back to San Diego through Julian, stopped at my favorite pizza joint along the way, and got back around 9 pm. Great day.
Now I am heading off to sea for a couple of months. I get a break around Thanksgiving and get to see the family when they come down. My next real time in port is at Christmas. My detailer tells me that I will be relieved in August. No idea where we will head next, yet. Hopefully, Jeannette and I will find out sometime in January.
