Well you guys this was a fun diversion to read through this bump. Now I get the Donkeys reference! My father had two gold claims in the Mojave Desert (the area NorthEast of Los Angeles)which he prospected just enough to keep the claims open for many years. I grew up camping and exploring the deserts, and while I enjoy the mountains, it is the vast empty solitude of the desert that I find most relaxing and renewing. My friends even refer to it as "desert time" as in sit down and relax for a minute, you act like your still on 'city time', you got to get on 'desert time'.

I have mostly made due with two wheel drive as it was available and with skill could get through most places. When I was 11 my parents and sister and I wandered into a canyon near the Calico ghost town in the Mojave Desert. Calico was a ghost town, but is a thriving tourist attraction owned by Knotts Berry Farm now. Anyway, my Dad wanted to 'look around' and followed a ridge of promising quartz up a canyon until we came to a sign that said, " stop do not enter..Four Wheel Drive Only". My Dad insisted the sign applied only to the right hand road, (at a fork in the road) and he headed up the left fork. My sister and I began to whimper in the back seat that we would all surely die in the desert. Even my Mom had her doubts. The canyon was so narrow that the car doors could not be opened. There were no real steep climbs, but there were some drop offs that the car fairly slithered down, with all manner of undercarridge dragging on the rocks. I scampered back and forth, first leaning over the seat, head in front of my Dad's face pleading for him to give it up, then climbing to the very most remote corner of the rear package shelf looking out the rear window, hoping to be the first to spy the telltale puddle of oil or gas that would surely confirm our fate.

We went on for over an hour until we creaked and groaned out of the canyon, only to find we had come full circle on a jeep trail, although we went backwards, avoiding the most difficult climbs, by turning them into drops, slides and slithers. Did I mention his choice for off roading? A blue 1962, FOUR DOOR Ford Galaxie! In retrospect it was a pivotal experience. As long as I had a shovel and rope, (and someone with a 4x4!) I was never afraid to venture into dumb places. Never in a dam Galaxie, but often with a Pick up that had only 2 wheel drive.


I can't get any new pictures into Putfile past our office firewall and I am darn sure not gonna be the one to let the firewall down. (not again anyway). I'll load a couple of pictures of the back canyon country of the awesome Death Valley and offer to meet any of you with a 4X4 (or a good truck with shovel and rope). I will show you a place where you can sit with a good book and a cup of coffee and feel closer to God than any Cathedral in Europe. The solitude is as close to travel in outer space as you can achieve on Earth.

Paul my first jeep, (and first 4x4) was an M170. Do you know what that is? Like a long version of an M38A1?

Best Regards, Martin

Last edited by DocMartin; 05/01/2008 3:58 AM.
Martin T. Sechrist, D.O.
Striving for the "Outcome Oriented Medical Record".