{"id":9036,"date":"2019-05-13T05:58:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-13T12:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/?p=9036"},"modified":"2021-09-30T02:52:12","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T09:52:12","slug":"the-joshua-tree-homestead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mywalkabout.net\/?p=9036","title":{"rendered":"The Joshua Tree Homestead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was the end of October, maybe the first part of November (I can’t really recall) that I find myself driving along the Interstate. I have the beautiful desert surrounding me as I return to the Joshua Tree area. This is the start of an annual pilgrimage I’ll be making as long as I am able. Each year I’ll be bringing a small piece of remembrance of my dead sister and leaving it out here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The homestead<\/a> that will be my base camp of the next few days is a simple one room cabin built out of reclaimed and weathered wood. Everything about this place screams “off the grid”, including the toilet that is an outdoor open air outhouse, with a bucket and sawdust to keep away the flies and the odor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have no modern distractions, only perfect weather to sit in a rickety wooden chair to drink and smoke while thinking about her as time passes by. I wander through the desert aimlessly, sometimes on my bike, other times on foot, until I find the perfect place to leave the remembrances that I’ve brought with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the days after she died, we go through your room to decide who wants what you’ve left behind. I find a pile of coins from the few countries you were able to visit while alive. Australia and Costa Rica, as well as some rare USA coins. I stack them in a pile and leave them in an abandoned homestead. They may get taken by another, but that’s ok with me. The point is to let things go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point is to move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I feel so close to you out here. As I watch the night unfold before me, the twinkling stars and brilliant moon, I can not help but think they all shine a little brighter due to your influence, your light, your goodness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I find it so cathartic out here that I even get a glimpse of my former self, happy and free in a dinosaur costume. I roam the desert, knowing how you would have just laughed and laughed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No one else would have gotten it, but I don’t care. As long as it makes you smile. I look forward to leaving more pieces of you out here in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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