When we arrived in Joshua Tree on the day before the wedding, we sort of expected chaos, since that’s how I remember my wedding (almost 48 years ago). But, no. JP and Sarah were calm, cool, and collected. They even brought in some local “talent” to amaze and entertain—a rare, but very friendly desert tortoise. (The red lips are from the strawberry Poppy fed him/her.)

Since I already shared some wedding photos, I’ll skip to the day after the wedding, when Sarah and JP treated their guests to a fabulous rock-climbing adventure, with seasoned professionals who brought all the gear and were excellent teachers. We returned to the same place where the kids said their vows then hiked two miles to a collection of rocks with just the right challenge for climbers of every age and experience (in my case, none).

In the collage below, clockwise from top left: Sarah starts us out, she waves from the top, me rappelling back down, and Poppy and me going up. I’m thrilled to say the view from the top was amazing! (And it only took me three days to stop wincing every time I reached for something.😉)

Even the youngest among us gave it a try and she got over half-way up before coming back down. Such a cool thing to watch.

As we gathered up our gear and headed back, some clouds moved in to lend a bit more pizzaz to the desert’s beauty. Oh, Joshua Tree, we do love you. And thanks for being the perfect venue for this wedding!!

We headed out the next day to wander through the Mojave Desert, which was awe-inspiring, windy, and a little intimidating, with endless horizons, dry lakes, cinder cones, sand dunes, and crazy art work all in the same drive.

To our profound and delighted surprise, our travel pals, Fred and Colleen, met us in Mesquite, NV. (They’d planned to go the northern route, but snow in Tahoe made for a change of plans.) My late cousin’s husband, Ken, lives in Mesquite, and he joined us at Peggy Sue’s diner that evening.

Is that not a GREAT way to start an RV adventure? There’s SO much more to come next newsletter! Utah’s beauty blew our socks off and words can’t do justice to the Great Basin (but I’ll try.)

Here’s another cool surprise!!!

My wonderful team at Tule Publishing procured a BookBub ad for MEET ME IN MONTANA, Property Sisters of Montana, book 2. It will be FREE for a very short time around my BookBub Feature date on Friday, May 20th. If you haven’t read this book, I hope you’ll grab it. And, please, share any posts you might see on social media. These ads are ghastly expensive but they do reach the most readers.

Happy reading, my friends,

Deb

Coming Thursday – 5/19: links to MEET ME IN MONTANA – FREEEE!
Coming Thursday – 5/26: Utah...who knew? As the RV adventure continues…

LOVE AT THE CHOCOLATE SHOP
Montana Secret Santa
Sweet Summer's Kiss