desert weekend

Stephen's co-worker had told him about the wild flowers blooming in Anza Borrego and described it to him as though it was Alice's wonderland. I personally wouldn't call it a wonderland, but it is indeed pleasant. I have been there twice during the spring and all the flowers are a nice change to the otherwise barren desert it is most of the year. So, during Stephen's Friday afternoon lunch break, we decided that we would go to Anza for the weekend. We also brought up the great idea of visiting Salvation Mountain. A man by the name of Leonard Knight had been building an artificial mountain out of adobe and clay and sharing what he believes to be the most important things in life.

To shorten our trip a bit, I called my friend David to see if we could stay with him for the night. He lives in Menifee which is about an hour away from Anza Borrego. We could at least drive half of it Friday night so as to avoid those dreaded early morning. With our other roommate John and his friend Mitchell, we were off.

Randomly bumped into Erick and his family at Anza. I was delighted to see them.

Leonard Knight has been building this for over twenty years now! Some people say that he is crazy but I was more appreciative. He was a man who wasn't constrained by what society thought he should do. Perhaps some people might see this as irresponsible but others might see it as freeing. I guess it's just how you look at it. But I do know that he's brought a lot of happiness and hope to people through this massive project.

Salvation mountain was one of the places that was featured in the film "Into the Wild." I really enjoyed it but it's one of those movies that gets a lot of mixed reviews. Many people tell me that the book is even better. Nonetheless, I would still recommend it because for some reason the story really resonated with me.