After the rigours of yesterday’s boot scootin’ and Star Wars viewing, I sleep in quite late. It helps that Charlotte is nestled in Fantasy Springs’ carpark, so the normal dawnlight alarm is effectively muted.
It’s after noon by the time I get around to leaving which is a novelty for me. A quick search of my starred places on google maps shows that Slab City is only a couple of hours away. I point Charlotte’s nose north, hit cruise control and allow her to do nearly all of the work.
On the way down to Slabs (as the locals call it) I make a stop at yet another of America’s wonderfully odd roadside attractions – the International Banana Museum, located in all places, Mecca!
It’s a slightly bizarre place – the backstory is that the current owner came across someone selling their banana collection a few years ago, and thought it a clever way in which to attract visitors to his store which is right next door. He didn’t originally have a passion for bananas, and if the collection had been say, apples, he wouldn’t have bought it, as apples lack the quirkiness of bananas, so it was more coincidental than anything.
However since then he has fully embraced ‘bananadom’ – everything he wears is yellow and banana related, he travels the world looking for banana items, and has slowly but surely built enough notoriety to have tour groups stop by. He has plans to expand – the current place only displays about half of the total collection – I’d love to see where this gets to in 5 years time. Whilst he does sell I.B.M. tshirts, I don’t think big Blue has anything to worry about!
A quick banana milkshake, which is fantastic, before I sign the guestbook and am back on the road.
Soon I hit the shores of the Salton Sea, and it’s nice to have water views again after a while inland. I don’t tarry much, as I want to get to Slabs before it gets dark, but it is a pretty place to sit in the sun for a bit.
Returning to the journey, I make a random detour to check out the Fountain of Youth Spa (hoping it might be an opportunity for a dip in hot springs). However it’s a big RV park, that does have a spa, but since Slabs is just down the road (and free), I can’t see much point in paying for an RV slot just to use their spa. I only include this little detail for reasons that will appear relevant in future posts.
By the time I retrace steps and make it down to Slabs, it’s just hitting dusk.
I make the obligatory stop at Salvation Mountain, again at a most opportune time – I’m almost all alone and the lighting is fantastic.
From here it’s on to Slabs – I drive carefully about, stumbling across East Jesus, which is a private community, before heading back to Slabs proper and finding a place for Charlotte to rest, down on the Low Road.
Surprisingly I can get a mobile signal here, so I watch a few Netflix shows on my phone, before sleep overcomes me yet again.
[…] John on the road to the Fo untain of Youth RV park about 10 mins from the time I was there (as told here). Our paths must have meant to have […]