salton sea and beyond

we made it to the salton sea, the largest lake in california-twice as salty as the ocean-, and spent two nights. we got lost (for the first time the entire trip) every day there, were nearly plowed into by a stop sign ignoring semi on a back road (i thank my lucky pennies!!), and i certainly feel that area to be the ookiest place i've been to. every road leads to nowhere, there are many places that were once towns or planned towns , flooded out or otherwise failed, that now house power lines that lead into the water and small communities of permanent rv's many of which are burned out and deserted. it's a modern living ghost town as oxymoronish as it sounds. also the sea has no natural aquifer and is fed only by agricultural runoff creating massive pollution. the hundreds of dead fish that litter the shoreline as well as the at times overpowering retched smell it emits are proof of that. i would like not to go back and it was there that i decided i was about ready to head back home to the retched smells of new york, where at least there they are familiar. i will say that we did happen upon the best mexican meal i've had in my life in coachella. there's also a surprisingly large population of birds (over 400 species including 30% of the white pelican population) that are however threatened by the pollution....

we left after our two nights were up (and we did another night shoot--i stayed in the car for most of it this time) and headed out to LA. krista and i made it to the flea market sunday and i am now loaded with goodies. i have to say krista summed it up best as it being the boarder line between heaven and hell. i'll take it.