I WASN'T BIT BY EVEN ONE SNAKE

Which if you ask me, is something of a miracle. There are days when I go into our backyard and expect to be struck by ferocious rattlers. So two days wandering the wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park is really taking my life into my own hands.

As usual, you can click on any of the following photos and they will blow up.

There were reptiles.But none of the sort that bother me. (My pal Colin Cotterill currently claims to have a nine-foot monitor lizard inhabiting the swampy area next to his house in Thailand. That would bother me. A lot.)

The Marine base at Twenty-Nine Palms, nearby, is the world's largest. The Marines have far better, more important, things to do than to bother me. There are a dozen, or more, tattoo parlors in the area. I noticed five massage parlors. There's plenty of fast food and knick knack shops. And barbers:
And there was a hot rod show:And some of the Marines have families and live in a neighborhood that marches in perfect formation:
And, well, there was more than a fair share of natural beauty, too:










Finally, while I did a bit of rock scrambling and edging along narrow ledges and other such things, I didn't do anything like this: