Desert Decay

We wanted to head back over in the general direction of the old dump in 29 Palms.  We were looking for old bottles, desert glass, cans, and anything else of interest!  Before leaving, a roadrunner dropped by the house for a visit.  They are usually really skittish and hard to photograph, but this guy was hanging around.

During our travels, we stopped at an old homestead cabin site.  I like this location because it is so isolated... nothing but wide open space and big vistas.  It's relaxing on the eye!

I guess prior to opening up the 'official' dump, people used to just dump their trash in this area.  Unfortunately, things do not decay in the desert.

The beautiful sky and desert vista just doesn't fit with all the old cans and bottles left behind over the years. But it does make for interesting photography!

My wife took the photo below of me in my Jeep... really nice reflection of the clouds and blue sky on the hood.  Not sure how she managed to do this... my Jeep is a dusty mess!

On the drive back home, we stopped by an old motel. Probably really nice back in the day (early 50's), but it clearly has been vacant for many, many years.  Here's a photo of an old window-mounted AC unit.  You absolutely would not want to pump air through this thing into your motel room!!  Yikes!

OK, this is my last shot... I promise.  Last stop on the way home was the Harmony Motel, made famous by the rock band U-2 who stayed there (perhaps during their Joshua Tree album period??).  Anyway, it was late in the day, nice sunset, I grabbed my tripod and camera to take a pic of the sign.  Next thing I know, I hear a woman's voice addressing me saying 'this is private property' and 'no photos allowed unless you stay here'.  Seriously??  I asked for her name but she wouldn't tell me.  I may have led her to believe that I was taking photos for an article, and this seemed to get her really riled up!  Perhaps I shouldn't have done this, but I couldn't resist.  Evidently, things are not all that harmonious at the Harmony!