Journey to Mojave Desert (part 3)

Continuing the Journey from the Mojave Desert in Northern Arizona on to Death Valley, we spent a day going to the Racetrack Playa.  Before we left for the trip to the Playa some in the Group or Grandmother Parisha herself had two stories to share.

One was of a man who had stayed at the same hotel where we were all staying.  He had been told before going out hiking that he needed to sign himself out of the hotel and sign himself back in upon his return.  His journey took him out to the Playa where he spent the afternoon.  Or so he thought.  On his return trip he ran into two Park Rangers who asked his name.  He told them and the Rangers said they were glad he had been found.  He said, "what do you mean, "found".  I was only gone for an afternoon."  The Rangers looked at one another and said, "come with us".  They took the man back to the hotel and showed him the book with his signature and the date where he had signed himself out to go on his 'afternoon' trip.  The date was 3 days later.

The Rangers said that there have been many people who have taken trips to the Racetrack Playa and have never been seen nor heard from since.  They told this man they thought he was going to be one of them.  The man was absolutely amazed.

Another person, a man I think, said he went to the Playa, found a rock to sit on so he could draw and before he climbed up on the rock, he took off his shoes.  When he went to get off the rock, his shoes were about 15 feet away from the rock.  The rock had moved with him on it and he never felt a thing.

We got to the Playa mid-afternoon.  Many of us walked out to the Bandstand, a group of rocks in the middle of the flat expanse of hard-packed mud.  Time moved quickly and it was time to go as dark was upon us.  Most of the people had already returned.  We were sitting in our cars waiting for one other.  It was now dark.  Grandmother PaRisHa sent someone out to get the one person whom, we could tell, was just walking across the expanse from the rock back toward the vehicles.  She said she thought she had only been out there for 15 to 20 minutes when in fact about 2 hours had passed.

I breathed a little easier once we got back to the hotel.

Journey to the Mojave Desert

Our journey to the Mojave in Northern Arizona began with me dropping a 50 pound suitcase on my foot.  It was then I learned why I needed the walking stick I decided I didn't need when I saw that I had one on my journey into spirit to see what the trip would bring, weeks before the trip began.

Is any of this making any sense??

Anyway, we got to the camp site which had been cleared of brush and anything else 'desert' so we had a clear spot to put our tents.  Good thing I brought an air mattress and pump.  The rocks were big and the air mattress was a good choice for the terrain.  The first day we were there turned into night quickly because we arrived late so many of us were setting up tents in the dark.  The night sky was like nothing I've seen before living in the Eastern State of Ohio all my life.  Generally there are trees blocking the night sky in every direction in Ohio.  Not so in Arizona!  In the desert, you can see for miles in all directions because there's nothing to block the view.  It's all flat and wide open.

We set up camp, built a sort of gathering/kitchen/eating area with plastic poles and tarps.  We each had an outdoor chair we picked up at the local five and dime and there was electric that we could hook up to.  Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha was orchestrating the proceedings and all was ordered and move fast as there were many hands working.

At one point, after all was set up and people were just milling around, I looked into the night sky toward the south.  Stars were abundant and so clear.  Something caught my eye amongst the tiny points of light and as I watched I could see a satellite moving from West to East.  Then, right in the area of the satellite making its slow crawl was another, slightly larger point of light moving North that caught my attention.  As I watched, two smaller lights appeared to break from the larger light in totally opposite directions and literally skipped, erratically, across the night sky.  They didn't go in straight lines away from the main point of light, they skipped as a stone skips across the waters of a pond,  jig jagging from the larger point of light in two opposite directions. 

I was relieved that they were so far away and not headed in our direction....

I brought this to the attention of Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha who was sitting close by.  She and others began to watch the skies and she replied that, indeed, there was much 'activity' this night.

More to come.

A Journey to the Mojave Desert

Traveling with Grandmother PaRisHa is always an extraordinary experience.  In the 25 plus years that I've known her it never ceases to amaze me that so much can happen in her presence.

Several years ago a group of us packed up and headed West to Arizona where we spent days and nights camping in the Mojave desert.  It was with a lot of apprehension that I made the decision to go because, if truth be told, I don't like creepy crawly things such as the big three: scorpions, any kind of spider - especially ones as big as tarantulas, snakes - especially poisonous snakes. 

So weeks before I made the decision to go sleep on the desert floor with all these critters I journeyed into the other worlds to see what would await me.  This is akin to time travel because it took me into the future to see what I could see.....and this is what I saw:

I saw a lush, flowering, wet desert as though it had recently rained.  I saw myself with my medicine walking stick and wondered why I would think to bring that with me.  There would certainly be no real need for it and it would be a burden to carry it on the plane with me.  I decided to leave the walking stick home where I thought it belonged.  I noticed that we were camping in an area that was cleared of brush and leveled out.  I saw that the creepy crawlies stayed to the outer reaches of the camp, as though out of respect for our being there.  I saw this through their eyes and from their viewpoint in the desert.  I knew in that moment that I would not encounter any of the things I disliked most and felt better about going on the trip.

As the day of my departure grew near, Grandmother PaRisHa sent emails from our desert destination saying that she had already set up camp.  She said that when we got there we would be able to see the desert in all its flowering glory because it was raining there.  Someone had been employed to come out and clear a section of the desert where we would be camping to make it easier for us to move around.  So much of what I had seen in my journeying had already come to pass, before I even got there!

After arriving in Arizona, and while taking my 50 pound suitcase off the back of the vehicle in which we were traveling, I dropped the case on my foot.  This was why I had seen myself with a walking stick.  It took my foot about 5 days of the trip to heal back to where I could walk without assistance from a stick that someone had gleaned from the desert floor, since I didn't have mine with me. 

I never did see any creepy crawlies walking around during the whole trip, something for which I was very grateful.

More to come.....