The Mayune 2017 Joshua Tree Tortoise Telegraph

these are the times that fry men’s soles S

ummer’s here. Whether it has arrived formally or not, make no mistake, it’s here. Temperatures climb, all those beautiful, photogenic wildflowers turn brown as wildflower season gives way to wildfire season, the event schedule slows down, traffic eases up, and we hunker down.

Shakti Fest was a delightful celebration this year, such a positive festival, filled with joy and peace. As you can see from the photo to the right, attendees got into the spirit, enjoying the hi-desert’s open spaces, natural beauty, and a sense of freedom. Jai Uttal, the Grammynominated kirtan performer we profiled earlier this year, didn’t disappoint, delivering an incredibly powerful performance from the main stage. All in all, there were numerous performances, talks, yoga sessions, and great vendors at Shakti. We can’t wait until Bhakti arrives this fall!

We didn’t make it to Contact in the Desert this year. Last year’s visit was a bit of a mixed bag of experiences, ranging from a fantastic time listening to Graham Hancock (he can talk as long as he wants—he’s fascinating and brilliant), to being refused entry by the festival organizer to a workshop (we wanted to see what workshops were like so we could know whether to recommend them to our readers since they cost an additional fee to attend).

Now, our social calendar opens up a little bit, but fall, and season, will be returning soon enough. For more Shakti photos, see jttortoisetelegraph.com.

A new creative wind blows into Flamingo Heights... page 2

In this issue: shakti fest wows and no contact with contact a new creative wind blows into flamingo heights

artist snake jagger continues his true life story in the next installment of becoming snake jagger a musical night with encelia at the hi-desert nature museum go deeper in the desert - take a tour with us this fall on route 66 or to death valley events to read about while you’re sweating Keep it real: help stop vandalism and theft in our national parks - put the NPS tipline# in your cell phone: 888-653-0009

check out our new palm springs newspaper, the palm canyon paradise: palmcanyonparadise.com

there’s more Tortoise online! www.jttortoisetelegraph.com 1

Tales from the tortoise

Moon Wind

new creative life blows into flamingo heights

by Steve Brown

A

nyone who has been paying attention out here in the hi-desert and who hasn’t been entirely baked yet, knows that our little slice of the Mojave has been seeing a lot of changes lately.

Some of the changes, like every other home being rented on Airbnb, or folks not being able to get to their homes because of the miles-long lines to get into Joshua Tree National Park (it’s a national park, not a monument, so all of you who are trying to sound like you’ve been here forever can dispense with calling it “the monument,” we can tell you’re new here), have been mixed blessings. But some changes, including many of our new residents, who are bringing a little of their own magic with them, are truly welcome additions.

Yes, recently, we’ve had some LA migrants who let their egos run amok, insisting that there was little here prior to their arrival, and we should all be grateful they have arrived to rescue us with their talents, but that just showed how little they know about the hi-desert, or keeping their egos in check. But there are some sincere, talented, and innovative new residents who are investing in our communities, and who bring with them some wonderful gifts that make for fine additions to our hi-desert home.

Mieka May and Prescott McCarthy are two of our newer residents who really are bringing something to the area, and they’re industrious, imaginative, and are building a life for themselves here. Their home, the Hi-lo Homestead, is out in Landers, and they’ve recently opened up a shop and base for Mieka’s clothing design and making work, out in Flamingo Heights, called Moon Wind, right across from the ugly Dollar Store, and just down Old Woman Springs Road a piece from La Copine.

I wanted to get to know our new neighbors a little bit, and spent a little time with Mieka to see how they’re doing, in an area that has traditionally been a little bit outof-sight, out-of-mind for many people in the hi-desert, and learn a bit about how they arrived at arriving here, and what their plans are. It turns out that they bring with them some new ideas, and as an old guy, I think it’s encouraging.

“This store has been a long time coming,” May tells me. “It is created with the intention to create better consumption. I don’t like mass produced consumption, or things from China, or plastic, or all the things that are wrong with the world right now, like those bottles of water worst of all of them. Things like that.”

She looks somewhat disdainfully at my water bottle that I purchased on my way there so I wouldn’t die during the interview. Yes, I know I can bring a reusable bottle with me, but I also know it may begin boiling at some point during my day, and a cool bottle of water seemed so enticing.....

“This store has things mainly made out of reused, repurposed material. So a lot of the clothing I make is out of tablecloths and blankets, depending on the season.

In summer and spring I do things a lot lighter our of laces and stuff like that, and in the winter I use very thick wools, wool blankets, that kind of thing.

“There’s also natural beauty care, because that’s another thing to conquer.

Everything that is wild crafted and made out of 100 percent natural ingredients that are good for you.”

The shop Mieka and Prescott have put together, Moon Wind, has a mix of clothing, home decor, artwork, jewelry, and beauty and health products that all reflect their priorities. You are a very, very long way from Walmart when you come here. And it feels wonderful. But I’m interested in how the two got here.

“I started designing clothing when I was very young,” May explains, appearing very young. “I was about seven years old and I did so because I loved Barbie and I wanted to dress up Barbie all the time. My Dad was like, ‘You can’t always go buy Barbie clothes, that’s not something you can do, it’s not ethical. So you can make Barbie clothes.’ He was the one who had to spend a fortune buying me all these Barbie clothes so I could play endless dress up.

“He taught me how to sew by hand. He taught me how to make Barbie a leather jacket out of a little leather scrap. So that was how I started sewing. And then when I turned 10, my uncle bought me a sewing machine and my Dad had to figure out how to use it so he could teach me how to use it, and he ended up falling in love with it and became a quilter and took over my sewing machine.

“So, I kind of put it on hold, and he made these epic quilts, and then in high school, I grew up in a very wealthy area, but I wasn’t wealthy, and so the girls, just like the Barbie clothes, they were just buying clothes all the time and always wearing the cool new thing, and I couldn’t afford to do it, so I would make my own stuff. I would take my Grandma’s slips and stuff like that, and turn them into super cool dresses, or sew weird patches onto my stuff that was messed up with holes, or something like that. So that’s what really started me making things—high school.

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Mieka went to four different high schools, starting in LA, moving to Utah, then returning to LA, which then became home.

“I grew up in west LA, and then I slowly moved farther and farther east, and I ended up in Eagle Rock, into this magical place, the Oak Grove Manor,” she tells me. “It borders the Los Angeles National Forest, and that’s where my studio has been for the last three years.

“It’s just covered in oak trees, with hummingbirds, a succulent garden. It’s really cool. We kept our place in LA, it’s kind of too magical a location to give up, and I do like to go back there to service sewing machines, or pick up thread, needles, all kinds of supplies I might need. A lot of my friends are artists there I can go visit with.”

She and Prescott wound up, pulled into the hi-desert vortex we locals refer to as “Landers.” And, at least from my own personal experiences with the area, they have had what I would refer to as “a typical Landers experience.”

“My boyfriend and I travel a lot, and we do a lot of event production as well as just crafting our own handcrafts,” she explains. “So we’re always traveling from place to place.

“We were ready to kind of wind down and find sort of a new lifestyle. A bit too much traveling. We wanted to narrow down our festival-going to just two events per year, and put our energy towards a long term project so we could really start growing roots and putting our energy in the right place. We think this is probably the time we’ll have the most energy, so we’d better utilize it right.

“We were looking around for where should we go. We took a trip to New Mexico.

We’ve taken trips through Utah and we’re from Utah originally too, so we ended up here in Landers, and we were visiting my friend Dino on Dusty Mile Road, and we were like, what are we doing here, I don’t really know, but we ended up falling in love with the place. We were spending a lot of time at Garth’s Boulder Gardens, helping do infrastructure there, and this amazing property turned up for sale in Landers, so we bought it and it’s a big clean up project, so we’re cleaning it up and remodeling the house and doing all those things. Landers was the place. We’ve landed in Landers, officially. We were just pulled in.”

I share how our Landers property seemed to grow endless crops of garbage coming up from the sands and ask if that’s what she means.

“Yeah, pretty much. It’s endless.”

But that does not dismay the 28 year old heroine of this story, nor her stalwart boyfriend who is, as we talk, somewhere making a bell tower for Lightning in a Bottle.

“The bell tower will come back to live on our property at the Hi-lo Homestead and eventually we will host meditations in the bell tower amongst other fun tea ceremonies and things,” May tells me. Prescott’s copper jewelry is featured in the shop, and it seems a little typical desert synchronicity injected itself into how the couple wound up with their new business.

“We just drove by every day,” she says. “We were dumping two tons of trash a day. We were always going to the hardware store. We always would drive down this road.”

I ask did they feel like they’re getting the full Landers experience.

“Oh yeah, to the fullest extent. It’s been a year.

“We just kept driving by and it was for rent. My birthday was coming, I was turning 28, this was in November, and I kept seeing this store in my head. I’m always making things, creating things, and I have a store in Utah, but it’s not really fully mine, I share it with a few other people, so my full vision could never come to fruition, and I just kept having these visions. I was telling Prescott, you know, I think we want to be in the Old Western Coffee Pot. Let’s go look at it.

“So we came and we looked, and it was perfect. The size is perfect, there’s a back space for a studio, we can host community gatherings here. And then it turned out our best friends Thor and Linus, who also have property in town, are opening a coffee shop next door. So while we were barbecuing we were chatting and it turned out we’re all doing the same thing with the same idea at the same time in the same place. So that was even more exciting, and another confirmation that we should definitely do it.”

I may be getting older, but it has to be the coolest thing ever to have friends named Thor and Linus. I can’t wait to see what they do with the coffee shop next to Moon Wind. I’m betting it’s going to be great. I ask about what influences her clothing design now.

“The grandma culture influences me the most,” May explains. “As in your grandma. She was old fashioned, she spent a lot of time doing things, she could sit and crochet all day and do these beautiful pieces and they were just usually used as tablecloths or curtains and so I love taking grandma’s tablecloth and turning it into a dress. I think it was made for the body. You look at the lace pattern on the body, and of course, why didn’t grandma do it? That is one of my big inspirations. It’s just this old fashioned way of thinking that things were just built to last, they were made out of natural fibers, it was just much better. So, just kind of going back to that.

“Plus some maybe psychedelic hippie stuff too. Like grandma with a psychedelic twist. Grandma goes to Woodstock. Exactly.”

In addition to using vintage tablecloths and such, Mieka takes fabric hunting trips into LA’s Fashion District, where she picks from the dead stock.

“If it’s not a vintage material, then I got it in downtown LA from the dead stock fabrics,” she tells me. “A lot of these companies, they buy hundreds of yards and many, many bolts of fabric, and there’s this one bolt of fabric left that doesn’t have enough for them to do whatever they’re going to do. So it goes to these outskirts warehouses that buy up all the dead stock stuff. So on occasion, I’ll go there and check it out, see what they have. They do a lot of large scale fabric stuff too—shade structure, stage design, just kind of weird large scale fabric stuff. That’s when I’ll go to those places, to go get different fabrics for big stuff. And then when I’m there, obviously, I let my eyes wander, and I’m like, I’m thinking about the project, but I see you, and I’m going to get this one.

“I really love fabric stores. They’re amazing. But I prefer the dead stock ones. It’s like going to a bargain bin. You have to dig through stuff to find it. You have to really dig through these warehouses. Nothing is organized. It’s always a mystery.

“You kind of have an idea of what you want to find. You can almost manifest what you’re looking for too. Before you go in. When I’m working with a team, I’m like, OK team, focus, we’re looking for this. Everyone imagine this, so we all picture this, and boom—one of us finds it. You just got to pull it out.”

As is the case with young folk, these two have brought their dreams with them.

I ask about how the Hi-lo Homestead got its name.

“Because Prescott is high and I am low on basically every level,” she notes. “We’re complete opposites on the Zodiac, we’re totally yin-yang. He’s like 6’4” and I’m 5’2”.

“It’s a work in progress to be renovated, but we’re going to do a full-on artist’s retreat. It’ll be a place where artists can come and we’ll do craftiness and workshops and host events based around creation.

I ask her where she thinks they’ll be in five years, and she replies, “Maybe in Landers.”

I joke, “Unless you’re abducted by aliens.”

“Been there, done that,” she responds. “They’re my friends. That’s a whole different interview. Those are very long stories. A few times. I have some alien friends.

They’re cool. You know. They’re very clear.”

I’m not worried about these two. They’ll fit in just fine.

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Tales from the tortoise

becoming snake jagger By Snake Jagger

T

by way of introduction

he desert produces some fascinating creative spirits, and often, they have stories as interesting and varied as themselves and their work. Whenever possible, we like to share those stories with our readers to give you a deeper look down the tortoise hole, into the minds and souls of our friends and hi-desert neighbors.

I’ve known Snake Jagger for quite a few years now, and his artwork has been featured on the cover of our sister publication, The Sun Runner. He’s featured in our Morongo Valley episode of our TV series, Southwest Stories, doing lip-ups and talking about Frank Sinatra and his Dad, lip synching competively, and being a pirate, something we share (it’s a long story).

Snake is a uniquely talented desert artist with a penchant for creating desert scenes of orderly, sometimes raked, desert landscapes, with the occasional UFO, doorway, or even a rake, included. It’s what he calls whimsical surrealism, and the name fits. He has a playful painting style that is a perfect match for his personality.

But don’t just listen to me. Read Snake’s story in his own words. I’ve done minimal editing because I like to let people tell their story their way. He’s working on a book, so the Tortoise Telegraph is serializing his story in this, and upcoming, issues. It’s a great way to get to know Snake, and it’s a hell of a ride.

You can also peruse Snake’s online gallery and shop online at www. snakejagger.com. And yes, that’s one of his works in our masthead. – Steve Brown

S

Chapter 8 Return to the Desert

o now I was a married man. Or boy, if you wanted to look at it that way. I was all of 19 years old. Kay and I got jobs at the health food store on Indian Avenue. We made the sandwiches and carrot and orange juices that so many people wanted to have fresh. I cooked the vegetarian chili beans in the back room.

One of the most popular items on the menu there was the Flying Carpet, an opened-faced avocado sandwich made with an Akmak cracker with cheese and sliced tomato and piled high with fresh alfalfa sprouts. Sprinkle some Bragg’s liquid aminos on top and you were good to go. Life was good then.

We were going door to door as Witnesses do, and being good Christians.

Kay and I had found a little studio apartment just down the street from the botanical gardens on South Palm Canyon. I was dabbling in my art when we were home. I painted this little scene at that apartment, which represented what I thought the new world would look like after Armageddon. I still love that idea.

But soon we wanted to move back to Maui. The tropical paradise environment appealed more to us than the dry hot desert did. So we worked, and saved again. After a few months we were back on our way to the islands. By now Kay had become pregnant with our son, Gino.

Going back to Maui was going to be a challenge because we didn’t have a place to stay when we got there. I had talked Kay into the idea that we could find a place to camp in the jungle in Iao Valley, upriver from Pino’s restaurant where I had worked the year before. I had a large two person tent that we could stand up in, so it would be like our tiny studio apartment in Palm Springs, only we would be deep in a tropical jungle instead. Oh, and there would be no bathroom or electricity. And lots of mosquitoes. But we would be in paradise again. I had called Mr. Pino before we left the desert and asked if I could get my busboy job back again, and he said, "Yes, Dougie." So we had that going for us coming in. No reason not to go.

When we arrived back in Maui, we made our way up into Iao Valley with our tent, and a couple of backpacks. It just so happened that on the same day we arrived on the island, there had been a triple murder committed somewhere

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in Wailuku, which was just below the valley. This kind of thing never happened on Maui, and it was big news at the time. Kay and I were unaware of it until we got to the edge of the jungle.

We were just starting to make our way into the deep forest, when along comes these three big guys moving towards us with serious intent, and they had badges! We were not expecting that at all. It really got us nervous. They asked us where we were going, and I made up the excuse that we were just heading up into the jungle to camp for the night. That’s when they explained that there had been a murder in town, and they thought the guy had run up into the jungle to avoid prosecution and we would be advised to leave there immediately. We agreed, with no argument. That was just too scary and we didn’t want to run into anybody there anyway, since it probably wasn’t really kosher for us to be camping there.

There was nothing we could do but head out of the jungle. Luckily for us, Mr. Pino had a small hotel attached to the restaurant so he let us stay in a room for a couple nights until the authorities caught the person responsible for the murders. Now that the coast was clear we went back into the jungle. You had to cross a metal bridge of sorts to get to the other side of the river that runs down the valley. Whenever it rained the river would swell dangerously, and turn a red color, like blood, that came from the mud and lava flows back up in the valley.

There was a legend that whenever it rained the river ran red with the blood of the warriors who fought against King Kamehameha.

Kay and I found a good spot to pitch our tent and new home, deep in the jungle of Iao Valley. I found and transplanted banana trees around the tent to camouflage it from foraging locals, who would sometimes venture into the jungle looking for tea leaves to cook with. We would keep quiet and watch them go by, not noticing our home behind the banana trees. It was nice as long as you stayed inside the tent. The second you got out, the mosquitoes would attack, relentlessly. At night you could hear them trying to find a way inside through the mesh that covered the windows in the tent. They didn’t bother us at all down by the river, which was about a hundred yards away.

We had to set up on a bluff that was high enough that we would not be swept away at night when it rained buckets and the river swelled to a dangerous level. We made it as comfortable as we could. We even adopted a kitty from a kid who had a few in a box, down valley, to keep us company, and hopefully catch any centipedes that might get in.

We would bathe in the river, as long as it wasn’t raining, using Dr. Bronner’s peppermint oil soap, so as not to pollute the river. The water smelled of wild ginger and guavas. There were wild guava trees all over the place, which I took advantage of regularly. I spent a lot of time in that river. I never felt more like Tarzan than I did when we lived in that jungle. I even read the original book of Tarzan the ape man, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, while we were there. I can remember it like it was yesterday. That magical feeling of living free and so close to nature. I can see the river running down from the thick jungle and the ever present clouds parting occasionally and letting in the warm rays of light that danced and undulated on the surface of the cool crisp water. I would sit on a rock and eat mangos and revel in the fortune of my youth.

This was paradise, plain and simple.

Check out more of Snake Jagger’s artwork at: www.snakejagger.com

Tales from the tortoise

A Night with encelia

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t’s no secret we’re big fans of the Hi-Desert Nature Museum, Yucca Valley’s little gem. The museum, despite budget cuts and being continuously under appreciated and maybe even taken for granted by town bureaucracy, keeps on not only operating a sweet little natural history style museum, complete with snakes and the occasional bug, but also produces a prodigious number of family oriented events throughout the year with its enormous staff of two.

We recently attended Chamber Music at the Museum, a museum fundraiser that featured the local musical groups, the Encelia Chamber Ensemble and the Encelia Minors. It was a toasty Saturday night, made all the lovelier by our friends on stage and in the audience.

Now, Yucca Valley and classical music are not usually found in the same sentence very often. Don’t get us wrong, we love Yucca Valley, but high brow culture and the town, well, it’s more likely you’ll get a country tribute band or classic rock during the town’s summer concert series. And, well, the Hi-Desert Nature Museum’s not quite Carnegie Hall. But it has its own hi-desert charm.

Where else will you see a chamber music performance with a backdrop of stuffed (real) coyotes and posters about scorpion reproduction? I’m thinking this is probably a one-of-a-kind setting. But that makes it all the more endearing.

The evening began with the Adagio from Solo Sonata No. 1 by Johann Sebastian Bach, a lively piece which got our attention. Selections from Bartok, Mendelssohn, Bach, Handel, and other composers followed, often accompanied to the soft hum of the air conditioning that was keeping us, and the musicians on stage, alive.

All in all, it was a fine performance, not perfect, but capably and engagingly delivered, in a comfortable, informal setting. It was an entirely lovely and delightful evening, followed by a wine and cheese reception that allowed a little mingling among the art of the Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle exhibit (which was great, by the way) just before that exhibit came down to make way for Conservation Quest, a youth exhibit about energy and conservation that provides a base for much of the museum’s summer programming, including the museum’s Youth Summer Camp, which begins June 13. Designed for children from age six to 12, the summer camp is only $20 per week, and is sure to help keep your children mentally and creatively engaged during June and July. For more information on the camp and other museum programs: hidesertnaturemuseum.org.

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Tortoise picks Theatre 29 Students from seven to 17 are invited to enroll and participate in Theatre 29’s Summer Youth Theatre Program. The program runs Monday through Friday, June 26 – July 30 (with July 4 off ), culminating in two performances of Disney’s Little Mermaid Jr., set for July 28-30.

The program is broken into two age groups of 30 students each, and will teach a variety of theatrical skills, including auditioning, acting, singing for musical theater, choreography, costuming, make up, backstage skills, set construction, lighting, sound, visual arts, and box office management. Applications are available at the Theatre 29 website, the Twentynine Palms Park and Recreation offices, the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce, and the Z107.7 studios in Joshua Tree. Applications are due June 12.

73637 Sullivan Road, Twentynine Palms Information is available at www.theatre29.org, or call (760)361-4151.

Groves Cabin Theatre The Owl and the Pussycat, through June 25. Directed by Abe Daniels.

The Groves Cabin Theatre has a GoFundMe campaign underway to raise funds to renovate the hi-desert’s most unique live theatre venue (and possibly, the most award winning as well). This historic theatre is in need of updates to its electrical system and lighting, interior and exterior. If you can help, please visit: gofundme.com/renovate-thegroves-cabin-theater. Thank you!

8758 Desert Willow Trail, Morongo Valley (760)365-4523, www.grovescabintheatre.org

Advertising perfect for hi-desert businesses Restaurants Retail Events Professional Services Real Estate

Run a promotion or coupon!

Reach 100,000 hi-desert locals and 2.5+ million visitors!

Advertise in The Joshua Tree Tortoise Telegraph the only independent newspaper in the hi-desert! publisher@sunrunnersw.com 760-820-1222 (voice or text)

29 Palms Visitor Center & Gallery Spring Renewal, through June 30. Call for art for Summer Nights art show. Desert artists are invited to submit an original piece of art for possible inclusion in the group exhibition.

Artwork will be received at the visitor center gallery on Friday, June 30, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Artists requiring an alternate delivery time may call 760-367-3445 any weekday prior to June 30. The Summer Nights exhibit runs from July 7 to September 30. An opening reception is planned for 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., July 7, with live music and refreshments.

73484 29 Palms Hwy, Twentynine Palms Gallery 62 The Body Eclectic, curated by Kat Johnson. Opening reception, June 10, 6 - 8 p.m.

61607 29 Palms Hwy., Suite H, Joshua Tree gallery62.org JTAG (Joshua Tree Art Gallery) The Drawing Show, June 10 - July 2. Opening reception, June 10, 6 p.m.

61607 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree (760)366-3636, www.joshuatreeartgallery.com 29 Palms Inn 73950 Inn Avenue, Twentynine Palms (760)367-3505, www.29palmsinn.com Desert art on the restaurant walls, and live music nightly. Usually scheduled: Beverly Derby & Bill Church, Saturdays; Bob Garcia, Sundays; The Luminators, Mondays; Daniel Horn, Wednesdays; Bobby Furgo and company, Thursdays. The Wonder People usually play first Friday monthly. Catch Bill & Bob, from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m., June 23 for some rearranged and original blue-infused Americana. Very cool. Tuesdays in June are Locals Nights at the 29 Palms Inn. From 5 to 9 p.m., locals get half-price well drinks and appetizers. Just show your ID and enjoy! Don’t forget – there’s live music every night too.

Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown (760)365-5956, www.pappyandharriets.com Upcoming: Rose’s Pawn Shop, $10-$12, June 16; The Kenneth Brian Band, June 17; the Brosquitos, June 22; Nick Waterhouse, $15, June 23; the Black Lips, $20, June 24. Regularly scheduled: Open mic on Mondays with guest hosts, The Shadow Mountain Band opening for other acts most Saturdays, The Sunday Band, most Sundays,. For complete calendar: www.pappyandharriets.com.

Hi-Desert Nature Museum Youth Summer Camp “Conservation Quest.” Camp is open to children from six to 12 years old in age appropriate sessions. Programs run Tuesdays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. - noon.

Registration is $20 per week, June 13 through July 7.

Brown Bag Lunch Lecture, noon, June 15, $5. Living with Desert Widlife: How to Help Native Species, with Emma Baldwin, primary wildlife rehab keeper at The Living Desert.

Yucca Valley Community Center, 57116 29 Palms Hwy., Yucca Valley (760)369-7212, www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org Tortoise Rock Casino Live at the Rock, 8 p.m., Friday nights, free. June 9: Rod Stewart tribute; June 16: Santana tribute; June 23: Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute; June 30: Woodie & the Longboard.

73829 Base Line Road, Twentynine Palms www.tortoiserockcasino.com Want to be included in our Tortoise Picks? Send your event info to us at: publisher@ sunrunnersw.com.

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Take a tour with us and go deeper into the desert

W

e’re hosting a number of three day/two night extended weekend tours this fall that offer incredible opportunities to get out and experience your desert.

These tours will deepen your connection with the desert, its history, its people, and its natural beauty, while taking you places you may not have ever been before.

In September, we’re offering Route 66 Through the Mojave, a tour from Victorville’s California Route 66 Museum, through Barstow, the new Mojave Trails National Monument, Amboy, Goffs, Needles, Kingman, the Grand Canyon Caverns, and Seligman, Arizona. Along the way, we’ll meet some icons of America’s Mother Road, enjoy talks from Route 66 authors, tour hundreds of feet below ground in the Grand Canyon Caverns, and, of course, sample the desert’s finest rums.

Our hosts and guides for Route 66 Through the Mojave are Jim Conkle, one of the world’s leading guides for Route 66, and Steve Brown, publisher of this fine newspaper and The Sun Runner magazine, as well as host and writer of Southwest Stories, our regional travel television series produced for KVCR PBS TV. Jim has traveled the full length of Route 66 more than 300 times, and has received honors for his work to preserve and protect the road from the Smithsonian magazine and the White House. The tour follows the route that has been at the heart of Steve and Jim’s popular presentations on Route 66 through the Mojave at the Old Schoolhouse Museum, the Palm Springs Library, and elsewhere.

This past January, a desert cultural legend, Marta Becket, died at her home in Death Valley Junction. The nonprofit organization that managed Becket’s magical Amargosa Opera House, and the rest of Death Valley Junction, was in a bit of disarray, with its future in question.

We’re happy to say that the nonprofit has sorted things out and is hosting a celebratory event to commemorate Marta’s legacy this October. We’re offering our Amargosa Dreams tour that will attend all the special events at the Amargosa Opera House, with special reserved seating, and will explore some of our favorite Death Valley East destinations, from China Ranch Date Farm, to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Shoshone, and more. We’ll also return through Death Valley National Park, pay a visit to the living ghost town of Randsburg, and much more.

We have special pricing through June for both tours, and there will be a pickup/drop-off location in Yucca Valley for our readers’ convenience (as well as locations in Fontana and Victorville for our other attendees).

We are considering a December tour to Yuma, Arizona, Felicity and The Museum of History in Granite, as well as Algodones, Mexico, that will include the Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain, and more.

Dates for Route 66 Through the Mojave are September 9 - 11. Dates for Amargosa Dreams are October 21 - 23. Information on the tours and registration is available at www.sunrunnersw.com/events. More information is on the next page of this issue.

Questions regarding the tours should be sent to publisher@sunrunnersw.com.

We hope you can join us on these incredible road trip tours through our magnificent desert lands, and we hope these tours will inspire you to return to these areas again for further exploration! See you on the road!

www.palmcanyonparadise.com

Jim Conkle and Steve Brown at the end of Route 66.

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published by the sun runner, po box 2171, joshua tree, ca 92252 (760)820-1222 publisher@sunrunnersw.com www.jttortoisetelegraph.com www.facebook.com/jttortoisetelegraph www.instagram.com/jttortoisetelegraph published monthly. distributed free of charge in the hi-desert.

Editor/Publisher/telegraph operator: Steve Brown Assistant to the editor: Juliett, the cat Photos by: Steve Brown, chris brewster, autumn mckinsey Distribution: eventually by tortoise, of coursus Submit story ideas, photos for consideration, dining/shopping/lodging/favorite places and event photos to: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com advertising inquiries: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com or 760-820-1222 (voice or text) see the advertising page at www.jttortoisetelegraph.com for pricing and specs. remember – support your local independent media and it will support your community! distribution inquiries: tortoisetelegraph@gmail.com join the tortoise telegraph online at: www.jttortoisetelegraph.com, on facebook at: www.facebook.com/jttortoisetelegraph on instagram at: www.instagram.com/jttortoisetelegraph join the sun runner, the journal of the real desert, online at: www.sunrunnersw.com on facebook at: www.facebook.com/TheSunRunner join southwest stories with steve brown online at: www.southweststories.us on facebook at: www.facebook.com/RealDesert

Get your smile on with quality dental care at low prices at: www.sunrunnersmiles.com

thanks for joining us!

Keep it real!

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