The High Desert

One of the changes in Las Vegas that I have noticed over the past twenty or so years is that it used to get cold at night. Even in the summer, it used to get cold at night and when I would go visit there, I would have to remember to take a coat. But as more and more houses have been put in, as more swimming pools, misters and fountains have put more and more humidity in the air out there, and as more of Clarke County has gotten paved with heat holding asphalt, it now stays warm in the night, which may seem normal for those of you on the wrong side of the Rockies, but is darned weird for the West. I always wondered if there was a climate change component to that shift, but this past weekend I discovered that it does still get cold in the high desert and that it is nice to have a coat to put on, even if you felt like a darned fool wearing it when you got off the plane. We flew down to Burbank to start off the weekend and as I stepped off the plane in my heavy coat, out into the lovely 76 degree sunny day, yes, I indeed felt like an idiot. The worst part is that I had so many bags and wheels and things, that I couldn't take the darn coat off until after we got our luggage and then went all the way to the rental car lobby, down at the other end of the airport. I am sure that others feared for my sanity. However, we had plenty of time to cool off because even though my escort had reserved her car through Hertz and done the on line check in thing, with its guaranteed ten minutes and you are on the road nonsense, we discovered that they didn't have a car ready for us, that they wanted to charge us for an upgrade and that if we didn't want to pay for the upgrade, we'd have to wait half an hour or more until the car was ready. Some guarantee, yes? I can guarantee we'll use a different car company next time unless they give us some redress for this. See, guarantees do work. :-) So we finally get in the car and headed off into the desert. Now I realize that this is a time honored California tradition, but most people doing it are looking for gold, not a Starbucks. We were way early because in Los Angeles, it seems like your choices are way early or way late. I have not yet figured out the super secret combination of events that let's you just be on time. We drive out to Ridgecrest and get there by 4:30 or so, needing to be there by 7:00 pm. Of course, I figure that if we'd left at 4:30, we'd have hit traffic and been late, so oh well. Down the street from our destination was a Starbucks, so we passed the time going through the calendar and getting caught up on Thank You notes and the next thing you know, it's time to go. This helped me figure out why Past Grand Matrons and Patrons always seem to give you Starbucks cards as your visiting gift. They know that you will need to go there, either to hang out when you are early or to have something to drink to keep you awake, or get you awake, for those early morning and late night drives. AH HA!! Go Starbucks cards!! Anyway, we went down to the event and I got to see a lot of really wonderful people. I have said it before, but it bears repeating, that these wonderful folk from out in the desert and up 395 in Eastern California are some of the most friendly, kind and generous people you will ever have the pleasure to meet. We had a lovely Mexican meal catered by a great restaurant that I love to visit when we are in that part of the State and then an evening of entertainment and social enjoyment with some truly fabulous groups from all over the desert area. A couple of the groups I had seen or heard before on previous visits, but they are always worth watching or listening to and I hope to hear and see them again in the years to come. Everyone was particularly moved by some of the gorgeous harmonies one of the groups provided on some of the patriotic songs and I liked a Scottish cello piece performed by one of the local high school kids with a group that is going to Edinburgh soon to perform there. But alas, all good things must come to an end and the ending of this one was particularly difficult. The evening ran quite late and then we had to drive back to Burbank. Some people stayed in Ridgecrest, but we decided to head back and sleep in the same place two nights in a row. My escort and I are both night owls, but we were still pretty exhausted, mostly because it had been a full day of traveling or sitting or both. In our experience, late at night (okay, early in the morning) is the best time to be driving in Southern California anyway. When we were about twenty minutes out from our destination, my escort said that at least we were done traveling for the day and I had to say, no, we might be done for the night, but we would be traveling more today, since by then it was 1:00 am. :-) The next day we went to Burbank and that was nice because we were in the same place all day. We saw a Traditional Official Visit and then we had a nice dinner and then we did an Instructional and then we had a meeting and then we were READY for going to sleep. And here is where one pays the price for being a Grand Line Officer because everyone else had to be in Ventura by 12:15, but my little sister and I had to be there by 8:00 am because we had a Transitional to do before the Official Visit. There was some momentary panic when it was realized that there would be no real time for lunch between the two events, but one of my awesome girls of the San Fernando Valley and her husband rode to the rescue and took In and Out orders for all of us and delivered lunch just in time for us to eat between events. I really appreciated her resourcefulness and initiative and she saved the day because otherwise there might have been cranky and we don't want cranky! Afterwards it was back to the airport and home again, to unpack, get ready for another work week and get braced to go back out on Friday. Such is the life. Next weekend, I will be in Tracy, Hayward and Sacramento.