Travels With the Red Velvet Buddha

There he was on the top shelf of a second-hand store in Kingman, Arizona. I had no doubt that he would come for what remained of the trip. The niche in the backseat of the rental car seemed custom made for him. Though he did get rattled to the floor on a washboard road somewhere in Death Valley, making a terrible metallic clunk like a hubcap falling off, he was reinstalled without complaint.

We saw many wonders.

In the entrance of La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona 

Front entrance, La Posada. 

La Posada will become part of an annual pilgrimage, I think. Google the art of Tina Mion if you're in the mood for a weird and wonderful journey. She and her husband rehabilitated the ruined hotel over many years, and it serves as a gallery for her paintings. It's still a work in progress--and a wonder.

More wonders:

Did you know there was a yin-yang rock at the mouth of Mosaic Canyon in Death Valley? Maybe the red velvet Buddha knew, but I didn't. And how about this?

I don't know what a flagellated eukaryote cell is, but that's how un-evolved many of our current politicians seem to be.

Rhyolite, Nevada was once a prosperous bustling place. Now it's not. This could happen anywhere, given the right (or wrong) circumstances.

Did you know there are fish swimming in Death Valley? They are living fossils, their population once reduced to merely 50.

Some of them are Sapphire blue.

I love to stay at interesting places. I didn't stay here--it's been abandoned for years.

But I did stay at the Amargosa. It has an astonishing story. Google Marta Becket.

And if you're a billionaire or a talented grant writer, start your life over near Death Valley and fix this place up before it returns to dust. They have the most luxurious sheets and towels, but the building needs help. I hope to stay there again.