Have you missed us? Have you forgotten that weekend you spent here? Have you been thinking that you really need to get away? Have you been keeping our secret?
Since last we talked there have been some things happening. Big thanks to Nick and Susi for a week of creative infusion and construction. Susi envisioned a new fashion trend and re-purposed a few swan decoys into a regal gown while combining glass, steel and bone into something pettable. Nick took a look at a pile of old CB radios and felt transported back in time so his answer was to build a time machine to catch back up with us.
Continued with the ever lasting battle against the desert by finally wiping out most of the Halloween decorations that the spiders had contributed. Had the first use of the new outdoor fire-pit to make some Smores. Added another gross to the bottle wall and cleaned and organized the area. Built a float and had a small party to open the fall season.
We had the conversation back a couple of months ago about what to do for Halloween. It was on a Wednesday this year and we just don’t do mid-week parties. So we thought we’d just move it back to the weekend and celebrate like true pagans on Dia de Los Muerto. With an election around the corner we thought it would be perfect to blow off some steam and announce that we were open for fun. As with all ideas that start out around our table it quickly grew.
Now we might not like Wednesdays but our parties do begin on Thursday. With the sun starting to set we had the arrival of two of our senior Church members, Marty and Bob, better mention Mini-Mutt. Down for the winter after enjoying the northern climate of California and Oregon this summer they add some life to the Hitch-hikers Camp.
Friday had us cleaning and preparing for the arrival of our guests. By mid afternoon the first of those started to trickle in with the bulk caravaning in behind the Professors Medicine Wagon. Big thanks to the Peacock Family for bringing us so many new friends. We tossed together a meal for 30 and set about getting to meeting and greeting. Always fun to see how perfect strangers become new friends in this environment, maybe it’s all the colored lights.
Saturday starts with coffee and breakfast then the crowd disperses to different areas. Some move into the Zen Garden to decorate our styrofoam float with an assortment of found art, faux flowers, and shotgun shells. You couldn’t ask for a better team of artists as each moved in to add some thing that accentuated the others. Other members sauntered down to the gun range to try their hand at decorating pumpkins with bullets. Nice to see the ladies proving the equalizing power of a boom stick and always good to see the new respect that a first timer learns. If you’ve never been here you can’t understand how easy it is to go from a tour of rusty things to trying your hand at art, music or shooting pumpkins.
After sunset our guests gathered around the table with a hearty appetite and we didn’t disappoint. Several new members were initiated into the Church of the Chocolate Martini after dinner and then those without face art were sent to the Make-up Department overseen by Heather with help from Dan. Eugene, Adam and their armed goth band created by Lauren stood out as a benchmark then Jenn and Caddy showed up with not only a keg of beer but a much needed make-up kit and artist. So right on our our own undecided schedule we had everyone in costume, painted and organized like a troop of first graders carrying a float across the desert led by three pyromaniacs. To say that we owned the Range from the moment they saw us would be vanity but I’ll apologize later.
After causing heads to turn and tales to wag we returned to the compound for the games portion of the program. Any game that requires work gloves is usually pretty easy to grasp the rules and objective. When you begin by splashing flammable liquid on a pile of wood blocks it becomes even plainer to understand. Jenga means “build” in Swahili and since the word for fire is “moto” you should work quickly and carefully. We had a few gender split rounds with no real winners declared but no serious injuries either so all was well. And what is it about Royce that he shows up whenever there is a flame thrower in the yard.
For the sake of avoiding any prosecution we can’t talk about some of the fun but the verbal exchange down at the hot springs between a law enforcement officer and one of our members, Miss “I didn’t choose the GirlBob life, the GirlBob life chose me!” , was certainly entertaining.
Eventually the sun came back up and we had to say goodbye to some of our friends and send some others to bed. Pancakes and gunfire from the bombing range woke most up to the fact that the weekend had to end. Leonard Knight, blessed builder of Salvation Mountain, was in town for his birthday so people were stopping by to wish him a happy day. I had to leave a few tours to give hugs to people leaving and stop for others who were already asking when they could return.
In conclusion, it’s Wednesday and the party is over so I think I’ll enjoy a bit of this bottle of Sailor Jerry and tomorrow prepare for next weekend. Hope to see you soon.