8th 6

Day 12:  Joshua Tree to Old Town Temecula ( uncensored version)

Route 66 has ended for us, alas, yet we get to connect with family in Temecula.

Joshua Tree National Park is amazing, to say the least, so that I will.  Chet King, fellow ” laughing cholla”, photo number 6 is for you!  A cactus called the cholla decided to jump onto my calf.  Akiko supplied the gloves, and Sharon White had the pleasure of separating my calf from an unfriendly, painful hitchhiker.

On to dinner in Old Town, with Sharon’s number one son, and now only child (Brad is over 50 years old, I guess that he is not a child anymore, eh?), his wife Dawn, and our number 3 grandson Tony.

Some family members continue to travel on the infamous Route 666. I will not participate in any family conspiracy of silence, where dishonesty is a treasured value.  Our number 2 grandson, who is quite ” damaged” is also not so mysteriously connected with a missing daughter, who, not coincidentally, is incredibly damaged goods, as well. Each has a potentially fatal problem with knowing and telling the truth, and acting with honesty and integrity in their affairs.  As they say ” in the Program”, at the end of Route 666 is either death, insanity, and/or jail, and they are both living into those nightmares, and have normalized their own stupidity over the courses of their lives
Sad..

Families are like our planet Earth, they can’t be healed by taking a torch to them.  No one heals by sacrificing another in the flames of one’s own hatred and ignorance.  We have been the sacrificial lambs in the past, but now we wear spiritual kevlar.,

May they both find healing and peace, FAR AWAY FROM US!