Little Sister Adventures

Now we're really getting going! The idea of Poppy came forth to realize this trip, a mega road trip to see the total eclipse of the sun on April 8, 2024.

Background: Little Sister Adventurer and her friend and travel buddy Trish had made the trek to Wyoming in August, 2017 to experience that total eclipse. After that experience, we immediately looked at the calendar for the next total eclipse visible in the United States. What seemed like a very far-off seven years is suddenly upon us!

You can see photos and videos of that adventure here.

Poppy and I left home on Monday, March 25 to embark on our several-weeks-long journey. Our first stop: Escondido, California, home of Little Sister Adventure's big brother and his husband. These nights, Poppy stayed parked unoccupied while we enjoyed the wonders of the area. Two zoos and Old Town San Diego!

We had yummy pizza at Pizza 22 and a California sunset on Night One.

Tuesday we made the drive to The Living Desert in Palm Desert, California. It's a wonderful zoo, full of desert critters from all continents.

Cheetah!

Painted dogs

Bighorn Ram

Mexican Wolf

It's Springtime! Mongoose love.

Naked mole rats

Barn Owl

Prairie Dawg

Burrowing owl

Wednesday morning we headed to San Diego's Old Town State Park, where we shopped before heading to the famous El Indio for lunch.

Jerry with a delicious lunch from El Indio

On Wednesday afternoon, we visited San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Charles doing what he does best.

Charles's subject: Bek, the male Matschie's Tree Kangaroo (my photo, not one of Charles's excellent shots)

Below, one of Charles's excellent captures of Bek!

Photo by Charles

A non-official Park resident!

Winston, the elderly silverback

Thanks for a wonderful visit, Charles and Jerry! (Darn it that we didn't get a selfie!)

Joshua Tree is one of my favorite spots. It is just so darn cool!

I made reservations at a campsite and loaded up Poppy and took off mid-morning, planning to get there by 2pm and time for an explore before settling in for the long winter's night.

My "don't overplan" mentality (in this case, "don't plan, period") bit me in the ass.

I made the drive up to Twentynine Palms and the north entrance, only to realize upon getting my map that my campsite was in the Cottonwood Campground, allll the wayyyyy downnnnn on the southern end of the park.

Dang. It.

It was another 51 miles and 90 minutes' drive. I would make it to my campsite just at sunset, and I didn't want to arrive in the complete dark.

So much for an afternoon hike.

BUT! the bright side is that Joshua Tree is so gosh-darn beautiful, east to west and north to freakin' south. I enjoyed the beautiful geology and flora on my drive down.

Cottonwood Campground

The next day, I drove back up to see the sights in the Mojave Desert part of the park: Arch Rock, Heart Rock, Jumbo Rocks. Skull Rock. Had a few jaunts and scrambles. It was all good.

Life finds a way

By that time I was stressing about fuel and calculating if I'd have enough to get back down to the freeway when it came time to leave. So, I decided to visit the Oasis of Mara, which is in the town of Twentynine Palms, and fuel up.

Again, I got back to camp at about sunset.

Read, wrote, and watched the moonrise before hitting the hay.

On Thursday I awoke early and headed out to a hike to Cottonwood Spring and Mastodon Peak, just off the campground.

Nice couple of days!