In Search of the Fountain of Youth

• This week’s major excitement was a rockin’n’rollin road trip with my friends Donna and Tom. With the three of us car-jiving to the blasting sound of Elvis’s greatest hits, we set out in search of the Fountain of Youth. On the map, it looks quite close so without hesitation we wheeled into a Starbucks after driving 10 blocks and squandered some time over a cup of tea. (I am getting really accomplished in the art of squandering time just because I can.)
  

• Opting for the secondary highway eastbound out of Hemet, our trip wound its way seriously uphill. Along the way, we peered over the edge of the roadside down, down, down toward our home in the valley which had disappeared in a wispy blanket of fog.

• Snow bracketing the road through Idyllwild, a popular ski resort, did not entice us to stop. At the sight of a guy wielding a show shovel we did a u-turn and headed back downhill.

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• Zig-zagging and switch-backing, the road quickly descended almost 5,000 feet from bright green pine trees against white snow, down a dusty brown desert mountside sparsely scattered with yucca plants and cacti, and into the lushly landscaped greenery of Palm Desert.
  

• Although not as up-scale as Palm Springs, Palm Desert's main drag is lined with jewelry stores with names like Tiffany's, huge art galleries, shops sporting names like Gucci and dream cars like Rolls Royce convertibles.
  

• Back out onto the hot, barren desert, we eventually reached the Salton Sea. This geographical anomaly is the accidental consequence of an irrigation dream that the Colorado River could be harnessed to create and sustain fertile orchards on desolate wasteland. In the early 1900s, the poorly constructed canals gave way and for 18 months, the mighty river poured into a salt-based basin 227 feet below sea level. A hundred years later, the Sea created by this “spilled water” is still 15 miles wide and 35 miles long. As it slowly evaporates, the saline content increases. Currently 30% more salty than ocean water, the Sea apparently teems with fish and we heard a woman shout her delight at a catch. Anyone ever heard of “desert pupfish”?

• The sandy shore smells strongly like an ocean beach at low tide and we meandered along, watching pelicans, sandpipers and other assorted birdlife skitter across the water and the sand. Suddenly, it was nearing sundown. Too late to further our journey on dark and winding roads, we laughingly abandoned the quest for the Fountain of Youth in favour of beating the rush hour traffic on the freeway.

• T'is Saturday and I'm back to the business of doin' nothin'. Sun is up. Day is on.