...
A couple of years before she died, I took my grandmother on a desert vacation. We did all the desert parks of the Southwest, hoping to catch the bloom, but didn't get much of that. Nothing, for me, desertwise gets near Monument Valley in terms of beauty, grandeur, blissful feelings, but on the other end of the spectrum lies Death Valley. We'd mapped our trip to come back home through Death Valley. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I'm damn lucky I was with my steel-toed gramma because I kept Goldie at a steady 95mph just about the whole way through.
Only thing she bitched about was wanting a martini in her car cup. The booze was in the trunk. There were evil vibes and crusty looking demons in souped-up beaters everywhere. I had to make her wait until we were somewhere more people could see us when we pulled over.
Truly, I would have no problem whatever splitting this state in two... or three... or four. Northwestern California should be Cascadia. Northeastern California should be Jefferson. Then you could have Northern California below those and Southern California below that. Southern California can have Death Valley in the east and paved pinheads in the west. That would be juuuust fine with me.
