Happy Trails to You

Linda Burton posting from Victorville, California while traveling between Phoenix, Arizona and Sacramento, California — We’re leaving picture-pretty Phoenix now; it’s been a perfect stay in a resort-relaxing place. The cats and I would love to linger but our mission calls us to the road. I-10 is straight and flat, black rocks, white sand, yellow flowers now and then, mountains here and there. Gas at Quartzite, there’s Hwy 95, the map says it’s a scenic route; transient homes are everywhere in wind and dust.

Dome Rock Mountains, the Colorado River, we’re in California now, green fields and orchards for a while; then sand again. Desert Center is our turning place, we leave the freeway, head north around the Park; Joshua Tree National. I stop for bent and twisted palms, now dead; reminds me of tornadoed places in the south.

No traffic here, no trucks, just space and wind, the road ahead is winding through the hills, is this spot just for me to see today? Ah no, a couple stopped with tripods on the ground; they’re wanting to remember too. Around a curve are bikers, ten or twelve, parked and resting, thumbs up, they waved.

 I start to notice houses here and there, shacks really, green street signs mark off the brushy land. A town laid out but never made it big? The ranger at the park explains; squatters land, they claimed it free; got power run but never water lines, most have moved away. Joshua Tree National Park, where I see bearded trees, strange sights to me.

Gas at Twenty-nine Palms, uniforms are all around; oh yes, Marines have space just to the north. My butt is getting sore, I’m ready to be done with sitting in the car, the sun is lowering now and causing me to squint. Apple Valley. Where are apple trees, I ask, there’s only rocks. But Roy and Dale lived here, and come to think of it, it has that cowboy western look I used to watch on Saturdays.

Roy Rogers (Leonard Franklin Slye) and Dale Evans (Frances Octavia Smith); remembered for their happy traveling song; it hummed in mind till cats and I are safely in our room, so far from familiar.

Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Happy trails to you, keep smiling until then.

Who cares about the clouds when we’re together?

Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.

Happy trails to you, ’till we meet again.