Joshua Tree

I had flown out to Los Angeles to visit Jim. He had tickets to U2's PopMart tour. The next day, he and I went to Joshua Tree. Because of the concert the night before, we didn't wake up until 1 in the afternoon. We gobbled some Rice Chex, and then mixed up his shrooms with juice and fruit. We split the mixture into two cups and hopped in his Bronco.

We started coming on right outside the city of Joshua Tree, and by the time we had entered the park and driven for a while, we were tripping fine and dandy. We picked out some rocks and started climbing. At the top we were only 60 feet high, but we could see for miles around us. The sun hadn't set yet , but I could discern various shades of blue at the horizen. I couldn't exactly explain what the differences in the colors were, but they were there. My friend Jim, was face down, examining the rock. As I lay on my back gazing at the horizen, he would periodically come over to me and give me a little white pebble. "Look at the colors, man." and "So many pretty colors." I laughed because I only saw white pebbles, and he saw so much, but I was also touched that he wanted to share this beauty with me. For a time I felt like I was in 1950s Los Angeles. I kept trying to explain how I was feeling this "California mythos." When I trip, I get intellectual, and try to explain things to everyone. Jim seemed to understand, at least he said he did.

We decided to climb down as the sun was setting. As I walked to the edge, a gust of wind blew the baseball hat off my head. Jim had told me not to wear in backwards, but I didn't listen. The hat hanged in the air 3 feet away from me for about 3 seconds. We couldn't take our eyes of it. Finally it dropped out of site. As we made our way down, I was having trouble telling the distance between where I was putting my feet and hands. Toward the bottom, I slipped and slid 10 feet into a thicket. From the waste down, I was trapped in the bush. I started laughing and couldn't stop. I didn't hurt myself, and the absurdity of trying to perform physically in the state I was in hit me full force. Jim thought I was hurt, but I finally convinced him I wasn't, and got him to pull me out.

back at the truck, we ate some subs we brought with us, anbd I stared into the window, at myself. I looked exactly like my older brother. Cool, I thought.

We hopped into the Bronco and began driving around the park. We took a road called, I believe, Geologic Road, or something like that. The pavement ended and the road became two ruts pointing out to nowhere. we rode along this path until it was dark. We stopped, and I took off my shoes and wwent outside. The path was sandy. I could feel every particle of sand as I clenched my toes. Each particle felt like it was sliding like mini snakes between my toes. Jim pulled out his telescope and began trying to find some constellation. I hopped onto the hood of the Bronco and stared at the stars. Periodically, I could feel the entire sky lift up and set down again. Every once in a while, a collection of stars I was staring at would surge in at me and then retreat. Oh, it was so beautiful.

Eventually, we realized it was time to go home. Jim packed up his telescope, I put my shoes back on, and we jumped into the Bronco and went home.

It was about 11 pm when my face hit the couch at Jim's apartment. Even though I was only awake for 10 hours that day, I had packed about 48 hours of consciousness in that time.