It is quiet in the Joshua Tree campground this morning. The weekend rock climbing groups left on Sunday along with several Boy Scout troops. There are only a handful of us here now and we are hearing the birds sing (not the children screaming). Again we awoke to a crystal clear blue sky with not even a trace of a cloud. Today is David's birthday and he will pick out the trails for our later morning hike(s).
After one of Paul's "special" breakfasts we headed out to hike. We went to the northern entrance into the park and hiked a trail called the West Side Loop, which is relatively new and not in any of the guide books. It was five miles of up and down and in sandy walking conditions about 1/4th of the time. When we finished we were really ready to be done hiking for the day. Althought the hike was only five miles, it seemed longer! There were some great views along the way which made this a really wonderful hike.
After we finished our hike we managed to get our laundry done after about a week. This was a big accomplishment. Then it was on to a very late lunch/early dinner to celebrate David's 73rd birthday. The ranger at the Black Rock Canyon - Joshua Tree - entrance was a wealth of information about where we might want to eat in the village/town of Joshua Tree. We settled on a place called Sam's Indian Restaurant. And even though it doesn't seem quite logical that they would also offer pizza, subs, and burgers we went in.
We finished our day with a wonderful campfire and conversation before agreeding that even though it was barely 7:00 pm, we were all really ready to just chill out in our campers. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we head to a campground in Los Padres National Forest near Santa Barbara.
We have to tell you that the Indian food was great. It was really better than great. What a surprise to us that here in the middle of nowhere (really) that we would find a place where the Indian food was so authentic that both David and Marty agreed it was as good as anything they had eaten in Nepal.
One thing that did surprise us in the restaurant was the sign on the bottom left. We'll let you think whatever you want on that one.
Paul and David have been in the habit of riding in the back of Paul's pickup, going from campgrounds to various hiking areas. Here in California, we've found that there are those who look down on such joyful and frivolous activity. Two times now, we've had motorists pull alongside and tell us that it is illegal to do that in California. We were tempted to reply that we were from New Hampshire, where we were encouraged to "Live Free or Die", but our Maine license plate would have given us away as just being foolhardy Mainers.
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