Sim City
We spent the better part of an hour heading east from Palmdale along a busy, two-lane road through landscape that seems kind of haggard to me, then rolled through the increasing heat into the town of Victorville, population 122,000. Even small cities in California are large. What I know of Victorville stems from vague memories of news coverage of a grisly murder that had taken place here the last time we were in California, but the details slip my mind. Victorville appears to be growing quickly. A Sim City subdivision block has popped up at the edge of the desert, where they're paving over the joshua trees.
Now, I'm going to say something controversial. in the past, my take on the California desert has ticked off some of the people I know who live in California, but I can't help that. (At least a few of those I ticked off in 2013 don't come around here anymore anyway.) I just think this part of the Mojave Desert on the east side of the coastal California ranges is ugly as all getout, and I don't understand why people live here. I don't feel this way about all deserts, or even all of this desert. I've seen parts of the Mojave I find really attractive. I'll post some pictures here in a minute, in fact. But this part of the Mojave is a sad, bedraggled land of sun-seared dirt reflecting solar energy directly into your eyes and burning out your retinas, and I don't like it very much.
Sim City
We spent the better part of an hour heading east from Palmdale along a busy, two-lane road through landscape that seems kind of haggard to me, then rolled through the increasing heat into the town of Victorville, population 122,000. Even small cities in California are large. What I know of Victorville stems from vague memories of news coverage of a grisly murder that had taken place here the last time we were in California, but the details slip my mind. Victorville appears to be growing quickly. A Sim City subdivision block has popped up at the edge of the desert, where they're paving over the joshua trees.
Now, I'm going to say something controversial. in the past, my take on the California desert has ticked off some of the people I know who live in California, but I can't help that. (At least a few of those I ticked off in 2013 don't come around here anymore anyway.) I just think this part of the Mojave Desert on the east side of the coastal California ranges is ugly as all getout, and I don't understand why people live here. I don't feel this way about all deserts, or even all of this desert. I've seen parts of the Mojave I find really attractive. I'll post some pictures here in a minute, in fact. But this part of the Mojave is a sad, bedraggled land of sun-seared dirt reflecting solar energy directly into your eyes and burning out your retinas, and I don't like it very much.