Bert Gildart: Writer and Photographer

©Bert Gildart: Panamint Jane and Ballarat Bert have moved on, though they’re still thinkin’ hard on their times in Death Valley, being as they walked (in our last post) with the ghosts of Shorty Harris and Aguereberry Pete. Our names are honorary names bestowed on us by heroes from our past lives.

But thar’s still lots on our minds, most notably thoughts about the good folks we met at Texas Springs here in the year 2014.  There, we meet two extremely talented musicians.  Christiane had been a classical musician but Ron  grooved on country music, my favorite, and what was so incredible is that the man not only played country-western music like a master but knew the history of each song he played.  He appreciated (for starters) singer/songwriters Hank Williams, Earnest Tubb, Kris Christopherson, Ray Price, George Jones, and Waylon Jennings. Naturally we asked if music had been his career, and his response is what was so interesting.

“No,” he said, “I have a doctors degree in physics from Montana State University.”

Much irony here as Dr. Ron and I attended MSU at exactly the same time –  say 100 years ago.   The man (and his wife, too!)  was completely down to earth, and joked that the two of us might have drunk pitchers of beer together at the Molly Brown — being as how it was a hangout for us both.

And then we met hiker David, a capable young man who was taking a little time off from a career in editing for the military to redirect.  He and I established a wonderful rapport, and I enjoyed making several hikes with him.

Dave was versed in the making of videos, and I couldn’t think of a BETTER VIDEO to show than one of the young man hiking into the timeless badlands surrounding Zabriske Point in Death Valley.  (Note: Now, see, Adam, what you’re missing??)

L to R: Classic musician Christiane on her keyboard, Dr. Ron in background; Route 66; David
preparing to descend trail into timeless landscape.

Janie and I are now (and actually have been) in Anza Borrego Desert State Park for several days.  We reached this magnificent state park in part by driving an old segment of Route 66.  As well we stopped for a night in Mojave Preserve, and before telling about the good times we are starting to have here at Pegleg (link for Pegleg history), we may do a bit more reminiscing about our travels of this past week. It’s all still very much on our minds.

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AIRSTREAM TRAVELS THREE YEARS AGO:

*Brobdingnagian Landscape

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 1st, 2014 at 9:06 am and is filed under Outdoors, Photography, RV Travel, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.