You can take Margaret off Mercer Island but you can't take the Mercer Island...

Casa Verde was Margaret's last stop after visiting an aunt in Los Angeles and son Mark at the University of Redlands.  There really was no way to prepare her for the shocking contrast.

Bearing Very Welcome Gifts

So we immediately threw her into the water with the Lions Club Bar-B-Que Dinner and Variety Show at the Lake Tamarisk Community Hall.

Violin Variety

Second Hand Rose Variety

Margaret didn't sleep well that night.  I'm not certain if it was the chocolates we devoured after the show or the show itself.  But she's a good sport and I convinced her that her stay wouldn't be complete without a drive through Box Canyon, and a stop at The Slabs and, of course, Salvation Mountain.  As Margaret pointed out, Box Canyon was misnamed, so we renamed it "Not a Box but a Drive-through Canyon."  Her reaction to the Salton Sea is best described in these pictures:

Our next stop was the "Ski Inn" in Bombay.  I'd read that a stuffed corvina, a highly prized fish of the Salton Sea, was mounted over the bar and we were ready for a beer.  The corvina was gone but our bartender told how JD had reclaimed the trophey (earned by merely owning the boat in which it was caught) when it looked like the bar would finally sell, but the deal fell through because the buyer was a felon, and were we interested in buying the "Ski Inn" ourselves?!? (Without the stuffed fish, of course.)

I figure that he'd appraised our appraiser friend for a perfect mark when she'd asked if he had any local specialty beers on tap.  Ah, Margaret!  You can remove a lady from Mercer Island but you can't immerse her in desert rat custom in two days. There ain't no specialty breweries at the Salton Sea because the majority of tourists, discounting Nancy and her friends, are destitute hippies, destitute desert rats, and destitute hippie rats, and the locals don't care what they drink as long as they can do it often and out of the heat in a lightless bar.

Fortunately, Margaret felt quite at home when we arrived at The Slabs and Salvation Mountain.  This was folk art at, if not it's finest, most certainly it's most audacious.

I know I have to replace the Saab, but will this give the right impression?

Or this?

Both The Slabs and Salvation Mountain are featured in the Sean Penn directed movie of Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild."  That night we watched the DVD in the Casa Verde theatre.  It left all three of us a bit depressed so we passed the Oh! Chocolates and the mini-keg of Hangar 24 Craft Brew from the Redlands.  Both gifts, several times.  We all slept well that night, even Margaret.  She woke refreshed in the knowledge that she would be back home that evening and I woke refreshed knowing that we hadn't finished off the beer and chocolates.  DB woke looking forward to another sunny day with golf to play. Sevi, well, she always wakes refreshed- several times a day.