completely dead deserted El Paso, it was on to Joshua Tree National Park...arrived at sunset, pitched our tent, and watched classic Disney cartoons on my laptop into the night--5 dollars for 40 hours of cartoons on DVD from Walmart, one of the great 5 dollar purchases, one of the great ones.The next day we set out mid-morning for a 10+ mile round-trip hike through the desert to "Lost Palms Oasis."
There's something magical about this scorched place. We walked along in awe of the rock formations, rounded out over millions of years into the most artistic, voluptuous, curious, often comical shapes. Despite the heat and scarcity of water, there was quite a variety of vegetation and animal life. To our surprise, we saw a rabbit and experienced a continuous flow of lizard traffic on our path. 
After 3 hours or so we arrived at the "oasis" under the scorching heat of the noonday sun to find that our sun stroked dream for some kind of lush green watery palm tree oasis in the desert was nothing more than a lush green watery mirage of the mind. 
By then we were pretty much out of water as we descended into the ancient gully of melted rock, down to the base from where grew the palms, taking refuge on the sand under the shade of a giant bolder, graciously wedged just enough above the ground to provide a bit of shelter from the fireball above. I, Alan, shed the shoes and climbed on the rocky cliffs for the next 3 hours as Alyssa lost consciousness under the rock. Barefoot, I was soon reminded that most desert plants have thorns. 
I remember clinging with my whole body to a giant rock over the side of the gully for about an hour listening, and I remember free-falling feet first down a crevasse, stopped only by a giant cactus bush. 
The sun was taking its toll. Later I returned legs covered in blood to a heat-stroked Alyssa. She did the best she could to dress my cuts with her mini safety-kit as the flies drank from my wounds. Laying below the rock I had a vision of a smiling female cactus spirit, then later felt a strong lizard presence. Staring at Alyssa her face split in two, the left side was death, decay, disease; the right side was timeless knowing divine alive beauty, ancient and sacred. We waited and tried to regain our strength while the heat of the day dissipated. Growing quite delirious from the heat, Alyssa became convinced we would not make it back alive, her wide pupils reflecting sheer certainty of death.
When the sun was low enough we began our journey back to the campsite, surviving on just a few sips of water and juice from a jar of mandarin oranges. By sundown we had made it back to the camp alive. Rejoicing in the discovery of a water spicket, we threw ourselves under it as if it were a shower. After another cold desert night in our tent we were off to Monterey...
Joshua Tree Pictures
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As your mother, this was painful to read....
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