Through Painted Deserts

“In the Mojave, we felt as though we were traveling through the desert in an oven. Joshua Tree National Park was on our left for miles, and I kept thinking about Bono and the boys, hiking up the hills in black and white. We moved out of the desert and turned north into the Sierra Nevada. I confess California has taken me by surprise. Not having been here, all I knew of the state was Los Angeles, the Lakers and Hollywood, and smog and surfers. But there are mountains here, an impressive range, and the brown of the desert gives way to green, rolling green hills fed by creeks running over boulders, splashing down through pastures where sheep graze. The Sierra Nevada has towering peaks that would give the Rockies a run. We slope slowly through meadows, the mountains in the distance, the deserts behind us. Mike had told me about the mountains in California, but I never imagined them to be so majestic.” ~ Donald Miller Through Painted Deserts

I wish I could write my adventures like this. Through Painted Deserts is a written portrayal of Don and Paul’s journey from Texas to Oregon. Miller is an awesome writer. He has the ability to almost ramble on for pages about nothing in particular and yet manages to talk about so much. I love the paragraph above; it’s what I wish I could write. Instead I come up with intense insights like “California is soo pretty. And it’s different from the east coast and once you get away from LA I actually like it a lot.” – yeah I defiantly need to hone my writing ‘skills’ more. But I wanted to share this snippet with you because it describes my feelings exactly – at least for one of our trips to a school in the middle of nowhere. Except for the heat – we mostly had air conditioning – except when we were overheating. As much as I complained about California I didn’t hate it. I loved spending everyday with Rosita and the background was beautiful. I just can’t get over being stuck in HOURS of traffic every day.