Given the heat and strong sun that has pervaded this trip, we lounged around for most of the day, rotating out to the pool and back into air conditioning. At one point during the heat of the day, lesser-known celebrity couple, Bran, went to Home Depot and Lowe’s to look at refrigerators. That’s so Bran, am I right?!
It is sometimes nice to sit around and do nothing, though my sleep patterns have been interrupted by some youths who are used to being two time zones to the east and are active beginning at 6am . . .and sometimes earlier. Sometimes sitting is about all I can muster. I often find it difficult to extricate myself from chairs. Lethargy is the prevailing feeling amongst Bricole, everyone’s favorite celebrity couple. We are also the only members of the Palm Springs sojourn that are on Pacific time zone, which has been rather disadvantageous, as we are unable to go to bed at 9pm like many of the others.
Nevertheless, our focus of the day/night was a star-gazing experience in Joshua Tree National Park that would take place from 730-930pm. It took a little over an hour to reach the park gates. We made a brief stop at a pull off in the waning light to catch our last glimpses of the Joshua trees before they completely transformed to dark silhouettes.
We drove another ten minutes down the road to our designated star-gazing point. We were at higher elevation than Palm Springs, so the temperature was a bit cooler. Chairs were set up for us ahead of time and we were each given a set of binoculars by Caitlin, our stargazing guide for the evening. She also had two high-powered telescopes for viewing objects that were farther away. One was really more of a fancy long exposure camera that captured images of distant nebulas or galaxies.
I had brought two cameras of my own to do some timelapse and long exposure work. Success with this was varied, as my attentions were diverted between the guide, a laser pointing at different constellations, and a generous table full of snacks. The latter was perhaps the highlight of the evening for the two youths. Though the stars in the night sky were somewhat eroded by a half-lit moon, we were able to see some of the rock formations illuminated by this moonlight which added a nice touch.
A lot of wandering ensued for the second hour and I think perhaps attention spans were waning — especially amongst the youths. Salt, everyone’s favorite senior travel couple did not want to miss out on all the goodies at the snack table either and much rustling could be heard along with an occasional belch. Bricole, no stranger to craft services, kept our distance and allowed the other members of the group to experience this kind of snack bounty for the first time.
As our time waned, we collected the limp, lifeless bodies that were once inhabited by E and A and embarked on our 1 hour and 15 minute journey back to Palm Springs, during which only a few stifled burps and coughing fits were heard. With members of the group having been asleep since 930pm, Bricole were somewhat apprehensive about our sleep prospects. Everyone knows that as a celebrity couple, there are certain expectations about our appearance, and sleep is a crucial element to maintaining this facade. We are just one yawn away at any given time from an unflattering paparazzi photo of us taking out the trash or holding a Dunkin Donuts coffee with disdain. Pray you don’t wake up and find us in the National Enquirer, or some other equally trashy publication like Newsmax.
passports & pepto bismol 