Well, I made it to California on Friday, March 26 and right away I met Ivett, Brian, Otto, Zoey, Von Karman and Bella. I can't believe that it's been just over two weeks since my envelope arrived in their mailbox. It was great meeting everyone, and it was especially fortuitous that President Reagan was on the television at the moment I was getting out of my envelope. Did you know that the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989? Only two years after President Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate, the oppressive, communist regime was swept away by a wave of freedom! That might seem like ancient history to you, but Ivett and Brian remember that day very well. I'm so glad that walls like that have been torn down and people are free (for the most part anyway) to travel wherever they want and see so many interesting places. Ivett and Brian live in the Mojave Desert. Geographically, the area they live in is called the "high desert". Now in California, that term can mean something else, but in this case it simply means that the desert is at a large elevation above sea level. What does that mean you ask? Well, it means that if you were at the beach, you would need to climb straight up to a height of 2425 feet to be at the same elevation as Ivett and Brian's house. The climate in the high desert is extreme. In the summer, the temperature gets up to over 100 degrees in the daytime. Fortunately, there is hardly any humidity, which means that your sweat evaporates very quickly and, as it evaporates, it carries away some of that brutal heat! Also, it cools down a lot at night. Thank goodness that the current spring weather is a balmy 70 degrees. The town that Ivett and Brian live in is located in a valley, and we can still see lots of snow on the mountains to both the north and south of the valley. There a a lot of interesting creatures that live in the high desert. Have you ever heard of black widow spiders? Here is a picture of one outside of Ivett and Brian's house.
Wind Scorpions can run very fast, and one night Brian saw one run away when he turned the light on in a room. Some debris was on the floor where the Wind Scorpion was, and when Brian went to investigate, he found the dismembered remains of a cricket. Sure it sounds gory, but the Wind Scorpion was just having dinner! Another scary critter in the high desert is a rattlesnake called the Mojave Green. Brian took this picture of a Mojave Green in his front yard. Notice the large rattle!
These rattlesnakes have long fangs for injecting a potent venom. The snake in this picture was killed by Otto and Zoey. Thank goodness the snake didn't bite them. Other snakes that share the Mojave Desert with Brian and Ivett are the Gopher snake and this red and black striped snake that Zoey enjoyed watching.
Another critter that lives up here is the giant toad! One night Ivett and Brian noticed that Zoey was drooling excessively. They were very worried that she was sick, but then they noticed a giant toad that Zoey was playing with. They called a veterinarian, and she said that the toad secretes a chemical on its skin that not only tastes horrible but also causes extreme drooling. It turns out that one of the toad's natural defenses is that it tastes horrible! In the picture the toad is in an orange bucket to separate it from the dogs. Afterward, the toad was safely released back into the wild.
Not all the animals that you see in the Mojave Desert are creepy, crawly things. Some are beautiful birds that are just passing through on their migration between Mexico and the United States and Canada. One of these is the Yellow-Headed Blackbird. You can see their distinctive bright yellow head and black body in the picture, which shows three of the birds enjoying the bird bath in Ivett and Brian's yard. These birds only show up during their migration, and, when they do show up, they are present in large numbers. They are also very vocal, and they have a bizarre call that sounds like a rusty hinge. It's an amazing sight to behold when dozens of these beautiful birds are all calling to each other while perched in the trees in the backyard. You can listen to their call at www.allaboutbirds.org.
Look at this map to see how far the birds migrate. That's a long flight! I'm really lucky! Not only did I have a manila envelope to travel in, but my route intersects the migration path of the yellow-headed blackbird!
Well, that's plenty for now. I'm enjoying the high desert. Next, I'm literally going "down the hill" to visit Santa Monica. Within the borders of that beach-side municipality you can see in vivid detail the full spectrum of the human condition. I can't wait!
~ Flat Stanley
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