We rallied from Atlanta to Palm Springs. In total we visited 18 states over 4,397 miles and went Track-to-Track. We not only raised awareness, but money, food and over 1,000,000 meals for Feeding America. Our time together may have been short, but our memories are long. We will always remember the fun and friends had on MINI TAKES THE STATES 2016. Thank you for helping to make the 10th Anniversary MTTS rally so sensational. Keep Motoring!
And that's what we will do: Keep Motoring! - first out here in the West, and then making our way back home to Highlands. We gather for one final photograph and then take to our Minis again.
I notice for the second time in Palm Springs a haze in the background, like we see in the Appalachian Mountains and after which the Great Smoky Mountains is named, but of course there is no humidity out here; I discover it is a sandstorm. We take to the track a final time, this time led out in groups of five by a professional driver because the configuration of the track is very unusual, and he is really flying on the straightaways! And then we exit the track, driving through big nurseries of palm trees and then other crops; this desert is green wherever there is irrigation. Migrant workers are out in some of the fields wearing big hats in the 100-degree heat and carrying baskets at their hips.
Now we are on our own, but we continue to see Minis everywhere as they, too, make their way home. Some of them have the same idea and visit the same places. Our first stop is the Aerial Tramway in Palm Springs, and the parking lot is already filling up with Minis. This tramway has been around for over 50 years and is the largest rotating tramway in the world; we climb to the top of the mountain and do a couple of rotations on the way, from 2643 feet to 8516 feet, passing through several different zones. At the top, we are in Mount San Jacinto State Park.
I have to say that this tramway dwarfs the one we took at Stone Mountain 15 days earlier. And there are no Confederate Generals here, either, only tenacious vegetation all along the way, and a beautiful, cool mountain up top, pungent with conifers - our own Surprise and Delight!
The views are tremendous from the summit. We reluctantly descend to the desert again and immediately we are in 100-degree plus temperatures. Now there are windmills everywhere, turning in the same wind that is creating the haze of sandstorms.
Joshua Tree National Park is only an hour or so from Palm Springs, and we have plenty of time to drive up into the park before spending the night at the High Desert Motel. The Joshua Tree is a type of yucca that resembles a tree, supposedly named by Mormon settlers because its shape reminded them of Joshua reaching his arms up to the sky to pray, in another desert, in another world.
In some parts of the park there are so many of these otherworldly trees that it looks like they are planted in a grove. And there are big piles of peculiarly rounded stones, as if they have been stacked in weird towers and crumbling walls.
We climb to the top of the road where there is a parking lot and an overlook and some other Minis parked there. As we walk up the short path we hear a child screaming in pain - he has been stung by bees, and when we come down the trail we see why. There is a big cluster of bees everywhere there is moisture; they are gathered in dark little masses on the puddles coming out from auto air conditioners, and swarming all around our car. Without thinking, I leap into the car, slam the door, and drive to the other end of the parking lot to pick up Martha, thankful to escape unscathed. How desperately these desert creatures are for water! Then as now.
At the High Desert Motel, we keep the air conditioning on high all night. As it has been for many days now.
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