Days Seventy-Three through Seventy-Seven

Kudzu and I gave up on finding blue sky in San Diego and headed back towards the Mojave National Preserve where we plan to volunteer until the end of March. This will give us a chance to sit out the winter in a place that should be relatively warm while conserving our funds. We'll also have the opportunity to experience the desert and help the National Park Service.

Snow in the Mojave.

We intended to camp until our assignment starts on January 12th, but snow the first night and torrential rains with mud flows the second night drove us to check into the Bun Boy Motel in Baker, CA for the last three nights. Yes, you read it right, the Bun Boy Motel! For $34.99 per night desperate travelers get a poorly lit room last remodeled in 1973. The poor lighting very prudently prevents guests from noticing the many creatures likely hiding in the blue shag carpeting, the cigarette burns on the furniture and tub, and the missing patches of plaster on soundproofless walls. Believe it or not, the Bun Boy is filled most nights with sleepy gamblers on their way to and from Las Vegas. In addition to the above mentioned amenities, the Bun Boy is conveniently located within walking distance of the Bun Boy Restaurant, the Mad Greek Restaurant (self-proclaimed as world famous), and the world's tallest thermometer. Entertainment options consist of the usual cable television channels or a detailed lecture by the Bun Boy desk clerk on how to win at high stakes poker in Las Vegas. My assumption is that despite his success at the poker tables, the desk clerk works, in a memorably sweat-stained undershirt, at a third-rate motel in a Southern California backwater town merely as a diversion or possibly as a means of collecting material for a future crime novel.

World's Tallest Thermometer