Highways 395 & 95 And High Weirdness

Another road trip to southern California, the kid and I set off down highway 395. It's pretty sparsely populated with a series of small towns threaded the length of the Owens valley.

One of these is Lone Pine. Lone Pine is apparently home to several wits. Their 'welcome' sign routinely 'gets damaged in the weather' (wink, wink) and ends up looking like an opening scene from a Blumhouse movie.

LOTS OF HARM. LOTS OF IT.

This time, the 'Welcome' sign was, sadly, intact.  But never fear, some wag had set up a bit of public art!

Lone Pine has a special tree, grown from a seedling sent from England in 1900. You can see it behind the sign, on the left.

OK, cool little public interest thing...

Then we see what's lurking under the tree. It scared the Hell outta the kid at first, she thought it was a real person.

 

Haha. OK, we walk past the sign for the tree to check it out...

But wait...under the sign for the tree, people have hung...things.

You know...things.

The kid spots this hanging junk and slams to a halt, her instincts perfectly in place. She's already unhappy with the fake frozen guy, and this weird shit isn't helping. "Mom...why is that stuff hanging there...?"
I don't know, I tell her.
"But...wait--is that a ROCK?!  Why did someone hang up rocks?!" Sounding decidedly freaked out. I turn, and her eyes are practically spinning around in her head.

I still don't know, but I'm thinkin' next time we go by, I'd better be ready and leave a fetish of our own. I'm sure I can come up with something... 

Meanwhile, we skirt the tree to get a closer look at frozen guy.

It was marvelously creepy and we heartily approved.  As we left, some people in a van screeched to a halt and exited their car laughing and pointing at the thing. We left them to discover the weird hanging junk display.

On the way home, weather on 395 demanded we detour up through Nevada on highway 95, which is wonderful and chock full of desert weirdness.
When you leave Bishop and fling yourself out on highway 6--the gateway to highway 95--they *warn* you.

Gas up, babies.

From there, you cross the White mountains, say a prayer to the gods of your choice and get on highway 95, traveling up through Nevada. There is *very* little out there...except mining towns and brothels.

 Hey, here in Nevada we have STANDARDS.

Sue's motel. I looove this sign...

Sadly the motel is derelict.

LIVING UNDER POWER LINES CANNOT HURT YOU OR AFFECT YOUR BRAIN.

Again, Nevada.  Weird is kinda what we *do* here.


Among other things Hawthorne has a military museum. A dog park adjacent is home to these wind sculptures made from surplus military bombs and other cool stuff.

These flowers turn in the wind and are a real eye catcher.

Some day when we have more time (and it isn't either the dead of winter or height of summer) we'll go back for a more extended trip to explore!

395, Again...

Another trip down highway 395, where weird things await...

One thing that has bugged me, literally since about 1980, is this sign with the weird squashed-bug symbol on the bottom. It looks like a right-facing Pac Man with six legs.  The sign is just ahead of a curve in the highway as you are going southbound. There is no matching sign going northbound.

 WHAT THE HELL DOES THE SQUASHED-BUG SYMBOL MEAN?!

I've even taken to the Internet to try and find out what the stupid thing means. No dice. All I can figure is, it is a warning that several (three) dirt roads offshoot the highway ahead.  But I've never seen anything like it where other dirt roads join the highway...and there isn't any kind of flashing warning light nearby, either (my other thought).

I grump my way down the highway.

Continuing the weird sign theme, further down is a Seventh Day Adventist billboard on the outskirts of Big Pine.  It used to have a message to the effect of 'Saturday is the sabbath, changed to Sunday by the Anti-Christ'. Not entirely friendly for a church, but oh, well.

They've upped the ante.

WOW.  That's some serious hate-slinging, there. Why would a church (and more importantly, the members) tolerate such a hateful message being displayed...? Truly a sign of our sad times, I guess.

So much for peace and love at church. Just based on that sign, I'd never join that one.

A little further down the road...

When you start to suspect that at this point, your doctor is just being a dick.

One happy note--the Give and Take sculpture garden outside Olancha has another new installation!

A raven who looks like he's either wearing the Wicked Witch of the East's striped socks and ruby slippers or some rad toe socks.

I love him, and he's a lot closer to the highway so hopefully he'll attract more attention to the sculpture garden!

Road Trip!

Took another trip down highway 395 to visit family and my doctor.  Just the other day we had a pretty big snowstorm--not much at our place but the Sierras in general got socked pretty hard.  We've been hearing the avalanche canons going off a lot as they try and knock loose some of the more dangerous areas.

Luckily for me the roads were pretty clear by the time I drove through. The hot springs off the side of the road at Devil's Gate Summit were drifting huge clouds of steam over the roadway...

All in all it was a nice drive and the weather took mercy on me this time.

Mojave is...interesting.  Half thriving, half waaay dead. There doesn't seem to be anything in between.  The AP/PM station there is like the 9th circle of Hell with it's broken gas pumps, the drug addicts-begging-money gauntlet you have to run if you want to go inside and the floor to ceiling tagging that is carved into every available surface (even the toilet seat, I kid you not) of the bathroom.

Why anyone would want to grip a public toilet seat long enough to carve their tag into it is beyond me.

But the local Army/Navy store--sadly closed now--is fascinating. They have fun signage.

Wait...2nd annual...?

They also had some random signs someone had made...most of them were generic yearlong holiday themed but this one stood out.

'Sorry you're no spruce goose anymore'. Okaaay...

Running the lawnmower over the waterfowl is a bit much, tho.

Farther down the street is a local RV park with a cute sign.

And an old factory of some kind...

Wait--what's the sign say...?

Oh.
Do they even allow grass in Mojave...?

The Progressive House!

Went back to visit a very cool little local thrift store/junk shop on the outskirts of town today on highway 395, 'The Progressive House'.

It's one of those old-school stores, a cross between grandma's attic, an eccentric yard sale and treasures found in an old barn.  The folks who run it give off a definite Hippie/Burner vibe and are very chill and fun.  When you first see the place it gets your attention right away:

 Flowers decorate the eaves all along the front...

One of the signs for the place was created using repurposed items and glass...

Another sign.

The also have 'Burma Shave' type signs all along northbound Highway 395 advertising their stuff nailed to various fenceposts.

We hauled along some outgrown clothing of the kid's to donate...

Their 'Open' sign.

One of the ladies there had painted this skateboard.

Then you get to go inside...

Cool door knocker.

And when you DO go inside...well let's just say that you can't look fast enough.

There is stuff hanging from the walls and ceilings as well as stacked on the floor and stuffed into every available nook and cranny.

Cool vintage lamps...my husband fixed me with a steely look and said, 'NO MORE FUNKY LAMPS'.

An old stump revamped into a costume jewelry rack...

Nothing is priced. When you ask how much something is, they smile pleasantly and ask you how much you think it's worth, and that's what you pay!

Someone has quite the eye for creating fun little scenes, and mixing modern with vintage.

A collection of vintage games and home movie equipment, it was like opening the hall closet door at grandma's house.

Love the Mid-Century Modern look of the logo on this projection screen.

A shirt signed & gifted to the shop by a tourist group.

The back of the store...

I struck out on what I had my eye out for--stuff for funky outdoor yard garbage--but the kid snagged herself some strange rubber duckies, and I unearthed a couple of old world atlases that will become origami and some fun chicken coop decorations...because what's the point of even having a chicken coop if you can't decorate it and make it into something silly?

More weirdness, and coolness...

Yeah, you never know what you're gonna fin--

Wait--'Leather Goddesses of Phobos'?!
While I stare goggle-eyed, husband shrugs and says, 'Oh yeah, that was a game.'

It's true, you never know WHAT you'll find in a thrift store...