Weekend trip to Joshua Tree: When pandemic reality sets in

Friday, December 10th I picked up my kids in my Tesla and set out on a 3-hour 113-mile journey to Yucca Valley in shitty traffic. This is the first time I've traveled long distance with my Tesla, and naturally, I felt anxious about when and how I'd charge my car battery. The beautiful thing is the Tesla monitor maps out all charging stations in the vicinity with kWh output. kWh data is important because the higher the charging station kWh, the quicker you can charge your car and go about your business. 

More than halfway to our destination (an AirBnb), we stopped at a 13 kWh Tesla charging station. I plugged in and we walked to Chick-Fil-A - no dine-in allowed - so we turned to neighboring MacDonald's and that's when pandemic reality set in:

• Elin and I ordered crispy chicken sandwiches, and to our surprise, the young register attendant had to get her supervisor to help punch it in. Are you kidding me?!  This was a major menu item. If you can't enter that on your register screen, what can you do on the register?

• Not 5 minutes after we sat down, an irate customer ranted about how many times and how often this MacDonald's gets his order wrong, and how he'll be late back to work after his lunch hour (who eats lunch at 5:30 p.m.??). He asked (paraphrasing), 'how can you possibly f*ck up every day when I order the same thing?'

• What seemed like eons later, the attendant brought our food in a paper bag. Wha?? We'd told her it was for dine-in. Then we discovered they'd given us two sweet and sour sauce packets when we'd asked for five. I got up to get sauce reinforcements and napkins before I realized the napkin dispensers were empty - ALL OF THEM!

• And on and on it went, capped by no soap in the men's restroom and the lock in one of the stalls in the women's restroom didn't lock.

I couldn't believe how awfully this store was run, until I realized pandemic! Since the pandemic, there has been a worker shortage, and workers quitting in the droves. So likely the staff there was shorthanded and trained hastily.

It was dark and we drove the rest of the way not being able to enjoy the scenery.  We arrived at the Airbnb in Yucca Valley Yuna had reserved, a 10 minute drive to Joshua Tree National Park.  34 years in the U.S. and I hadn't visited any National Parks until this year; Sequoia and now Joshua Tree!  The Airbnb was a sizeable 2-bedroom with lotsa artsy fartsy stuff in it.  The owner, an artist, had sprinkled her creativity throughout the property.  The temperature was painfully cold outside, and we were elated to be inside and quickly settled.  The next morning (Saturday), we had breakfast and drove to a local healthy eatery to pick up the food we had ordered online.  We took the food with us to the Park before we stopped at the National Park information center to obtain a parking pass and guidance on exploring the park.

From Google:

Joshua Tree National Park is a vast protected area in southern California. It's characterized by rugged rock formations and stark desert landscapes. Named for the region’s twisted, bristled Joshua trees, the park straddles the cactus-dotted Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert, which is higher and cooler. Keys View looks out over the Coachella Valley. Hiking trails weave through the boulders of Hidden Valley.

We entered the park and stopped at various places for bouldering.  We ate lunch on a giant rock.  Yuna's sandwich had excessive alpha sprouts which made her feel like she was grazing.  Elin and Johanna climbed rocks every chance they got.  We decided against stargazing - one cool activity in the Park - because of low nighttime temperatures, plus we'd have to stay in the park for a few hours more, and we'd already rock climbed enough yo.

We stopped at a supermarket on the way back to buy ingredients for dinner, then headed home to relax, shower etc.  After the nice dinner Yuna prepared, we played Scrabble and discussed plans for the following day.

We checked out around 10-11 a.m., went to Sagebrush Press Bookstore, only to find out they're closed
on Sundays, so we headed to Space Cowboys Books instead where Elin bought a bunch of used books for cheap, and I bought a native-American looking runner in the adjacent store.

For lunch, we drove up a highway to a remote area restaurant called Pappy and Harriet's where they serve food for dine-in only, no takeout, no deliveries, and also short-staffed because of pandemic.

From Wikepdia:

Billboard Magazine named Pappy & Harriet's one of the Top Ten Hidden Gems in the Country in its 2012 Best Clubs issue. The club attracts artists and
musicians from all over the world.

NY Times Magazine featured Pappy and Harriet's in its 2013 article "Listen Up | In The California Desert, A One Of A Kind Music Venue Blossoms."

The wait was sorta long, and we had to bunch up on the bench near the entrance like a buncha iguanas to keep ourselves warm.  The food was good, and the atmosphere Westernish.  Service was slow, like everywhere else nowadays.  We left after an hour and a half or so there, dropped off Yuna at her car by Sagebrush Press Bookstore and headed back home.

On the way back, there was expected traffic slowdown, but not exactly what we saw on the side of the freeway.  What are the odds a car ends up in a resting position such as this?  I hope the people in it weren't injured badly.  There was infinitely less traffic on the way back on a Sunday afternoon, than on our way to Yucca Valley on a Friday evening.

We stopped at the same charging station and saw this feline relaxing on top of his/her owner's car.  Elin rated the trip as a 9.5 out of 10, and Johanna was too pooped to properly assess the trip.  Her ratings are generally unforgiving, but later she rated the trip a 7.  The most favorite part of the trip was climbing boulders.