Just outside of Death Valley is Emigrant. A ten parcel town whose inhabitants change daily for the most part. Me...I stayed for 8 days. The 8 day stay this year...different than other years. Less old codgers, more young long distance bicycle people. Much more international too.
Soft lisped Canadian. We talked of hot springs and being an emigrant in his country in the 70's.
Coffee made on the almost too beautiful Svea 123. The brass shows it's age.
Drank from chrome.
There seemed to be two campground romances going on. One brand new, the participants meeting each other for the first time in Emigrant. She from Nevada, attentive dog with her. He, I overheard him telling the old guy, was on his way to Missoula. Sweet to watch the innocence of it all.
The other romance, to me, seemed to be maybe winding down. Maybe. Right next to me I couldn't help to be part of their life. Maybe winding down because although their talk was of ending it, their interactions suggested otherwise. Theatrical almost to watch and listen. Physically....Crackled, popped, snapped with energy but the talk, their conversations was of over, the end, can't go on. Maybe.
Tents do nothing to muffle voices. I heard her say......"What if we.....
I wrote it down the next morning. Thought about it in a bigger context. Pictured what that might be like to think everything was just a dream..
In the desert, away from the tent town of temporaries. It was different. Patterns took on more meaning. The crows beaks and wings talked to me. Star fields seen in cactus. Heart tattoos on forearms. Golden blue white black rock sand stick....always always with shadows. Always shadows.
ShadowRock
Trona...California. Trona was a state of mind.
The ballons announce Santa's visit at the Senior Center. I buy fudge and my mother's peanut brittle.
The Elks Club. The bar covered in these.
The ceiling covered with this.
The town cemetery. Town kids visiting and playing in on and around their brother and cousins graves. So refreshing to see how death was not such a foreign concept to this group.
