Salvation Mountain.

May 25, 2015

A couple of weeks ago, my best gal pal asked me to go on an overnight adventure. She wouldn’t tell me to where, but of course I said sure. Surprises are a huge part of Marylouise’s love language. I struggle with them because I love to plan ahead and know where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing. Luckily, I trust ML, so I’ve learned to go with the flow.
(Maybe I should translate that to my relationship with God. I trust in Him. He has never failed me. So I should really just go with the flow more easily when he offers me surprise adventures.)

Mary printed out directions on mapquest so that I wouldn’t know where we were going for each stop.

The first stop was The Donut Hole. If you don’t know yet that I love donuts, I love donuts. (Check out my donut print for sale, here.) What a surprise to pull up to a gigantic donut drive through.

Next stop was the largest dinoSTORE in the world.

One of the best parts of the trip was the time on the road. We sang to songs and we talked about life. It was so perfect to be in the middle of nowhere, two soul friends together, the sun shining and wind in our hair. I love Marylouise because she reminds me to enjoy life.

Then, we continued down towards the Salton Sea, pulled over for a short visit (although the smell made us want to vomit so we really didn’t stay long).

Then, she pulled into the parking lot of the International Banana Museum. What?! A whole museum dedicated to bananas? Yep! What a wild idea.

We loved this banana yellow wall out front the most. Do you remember this Denny’s Commercial? My brother and I used to LOVE how stupid it was.

Then, we were finally headed to the main event– Salvation Mountain. Mary and I had heard about it a few years back when I was still living in New York. She finally made it happen. It was better than I even imagined. Find out the story behind it here.

The colors were so vibrant and uplifting and the spirit of the man whose hands built it, still fills the space.

We were right next to Slab City, so we went to their museum.

On our way back, we drove up the other side of the Salton Sea. We hit a bad sand storm and would advise that there wasn’t anything special on that side and if you do this trip, just go back the way you came. We popped through Palm Springs to have dinner at the Ace Hotel.

For the final surprise, she had booked a room for us at the Wigwam Motel off of Route 66. WHAT A DREAM. We were so beat that we practically opened the door and climbed right into bed. But walking outside when we woke in the morning, was so dream-like.