Best Friends

I wish my son could be my best friend. I am sure  it doesn't work that way, but I'm just sayin.

I took Lucas to the airport on Monday to fly back to Chicago. He has been here over spring break. I told everyone that he called his mom and asked to come home, because he missed home. How could I not buy him a plane ticket. He misses us.

When I told him that story he said he did not remember the conversation going like that. But I am glad he came home, because I miss him.

This week we went rock climbing, off-roading, and hiking. We sat at the Museum booth at the Mid Winter Fair and Fiesta. Lucas used our Adobe Illustrator program to design a new t-shirt and two cups for the gift shop at the museum. He is so cool.

We talked about architecture and city design. Over the weekend we went to a history conference and sat through a dozen presentations on local historical organizations. On Monday I got an email from the president of the San Diego Congress of History telling me what a nice boy Lucas was.

On Saturday we went to see San Fermin at UC San Diego. The concert was so cool...and by cool I mean loud. On the two hour drive home we talked about the history of music and how current artists fit into the genera of past decades.

I called my brother Bryan this week to tell him how much I missed our dad. I had no idea how much my father loved me. I am only beginning to realize how much joy he got out of what I thought were sacrifices. I am so happy that our boys are moving on to become men. And I am very proud of the men they are becoming.

One day they will see life through my eyes and realize how much I loved them. And by that time I will probably be gone, just like my father was gone before I could realize how much I wished he could have been my best friend.  

Just so you know, yes, I am crying like a big baby.

What I am Thankful for...

An ode to the 2011 Jeep Wrangler that was a big part of our lives, but is now gone. We bought this Jeep in December 2010, just weeks before I moved to California. In the 30 months we had it out here, we trashed it. But I guess it was for a good cause; a great time off-roading. Here it is as a Brand New Jeep in Columbus, Ohio.

Here it is in the Coyote Mountains, its first week in California, after Graham and Martin brought it on a cross country trip of a lifetime. 

This is our Jeep in Arizona. 

This is the Jeep getting banged up in Split Mountain pass. 

This is our Jeep for sale in the used car lot. 

I get very sad when I look at these photos. I wish we could have held on to this little workhorse, with its several small modifications and the new off-road tires I had to buy after Deneen drove over a large piece of metal near the high school. 

But it was time for a 36,000 mile service, and somehow I convinced myself that it was cheaper to just buy a new Wrangler. I hope we make as many memories in the 2014. And I hope we can buy a second Jeep Wrangler next year when the new turbo diesel engine is released in the United States.     

What I want for Christmas

What do I want for Christmas...

Umm...a new Jeep.

I loved my Jeep Wrangler in the Turks and Caicos. The gas gauge did not work, when you filled it gas ran out from under tank, and it backfired. But you could take it anywhere and you never worried about a scratch.

The 2011 Jeep Wrangler that we bought to move to the Imperial Valley turned out to be the little Jeep that could. It has been in and out of a lot of places. This image is my Jeep coming through Split Mountain in an area where we had to build up a rock ramp in order to transverse through the wash. I did not appreciate this Jeep until it was gone, but at the beginning of November it was at its height in trade in value. For three years and 37,000 miles this Wrangler took us on countless adventures throughout the Yuha Desert and the Anza-Borrego State Park.

Jeeps seem to hold their value. I bought this Jeep for $24,000, traded it in for $17,000, and you could buy it today at Rogers ad Rogers for $22,000.

Our new Jeep is a 2014 Wrangler with an automatic transmission and a hard top. It is new, and clean, and not a scratch on it. Well, not so fast, on Sunday I had it in the desert for the first time and got into a tight spot on BLM road 094. We came too close to a creosote bush and now its has a few scratches down the passenger's side. Let the dance begin.

My Work Here is Done

 Has it been a year? I don't believe it. The last blog I wrote was after our annual meeting in 2012. The 2013 annual meeting is next week.

Ah, so what have I been doing, you ask?

"Working. Working. Working." say I.

What happened to the adventure, you ask?

"Working. Working. Working." say I.


I have included the Opinion piece that was heart breaking and awful and 30 months ago. It followed the first public interview I had given to the paper after arriving in the Imperial Valley in 2011. The Opinion piece that came out today says it all.

Click on them to read them. The comparison of the two articles could not be more telling about what this year has been like. It has been a lot of work.

But my work here is done. This is what we came to do. Open a museum that would make an impact, that would be community focused, and that would reach for the highest standards and maximum fun.

I am ready for the next adventure. Please let me know if you hear of any museums with a major crises that needs fixing - that might also be in the Caribbean, South America, South Pacific, or Alaska. I would also really be interested in developing something for Carnival or Holland America Cruise Lines.

So please, keep your ears open...

Moving Forward

This weekend the Imperial Valley Desert Museum held its Annual Member Meeting. This was my second meeting since I have been here. This was a very different meeting from the one last year. Last year I presented on our plans to open the museum. This year I talked about our first year of being open.

We hired staff last January. We installed the conservation lab in January. We held our first public event on January 28. We installed our first exhibit in February. We opened to the public in March. It has been a crazy year. My job has transitioned from planner to manager, with constant fundraising in between.

Yesterday I received a text message that read: "I am thrilled with the energy, work, and direction I am seeing this museum headed in. Makes you say, 'I want to be a part of that!' "

I can't imagine anything I would rather hear. That kind of has been the plan, so I guess things are moving forward.       

Border Crossing

The weather has broken. The first summer we were in the Imperial Valley the heat was exciting. This past summer it was just hot. We now complain that it is too cold. Over the weekend there was a weather advisory out of Yuma. It was expected to be under 60 degrees and they were warning people to be careful if they were going out to the parade.

On Monday we took our fist hike of the season. We hiked 4500 feet up into the Jacumba Wilderness - all the way to the border. This is a hike I have wanted to do for the last two years. In the wilderness area the border is a broken barbed wire fence. This is not the billion dollar fence you see across the desert from the highway.

We hiked another mile or so to the boundary monument. The border of Mexico was set by the Treaty Guadalupe Hildago Treaty of 1848, and reconfirmed by a survey in 1889. Between 1891 and 1894, 258 boundary monuments were erected along the border. Monument 231 is on Blue Angle Peak in Jacumba. From this vantage point we could see the mountains on the east side of the county and the Salton Sea, both 60 miles away, as well as El Centro, Ocotillo, and Jacumba.

This whole area at one time was the home of the Kumeyaay. The border was placed right through their native lands and today there are reservations both in Mexico and in the US. At the museum we have written a couple grants talking about the artificial border that separates the indigenous peoples. From where we were hiking you could see the US border going both directions, as if it were a giant line drawn in the sand. I had never experienced it like this before. It  was truly amazing. It really looks like an artificial demarcation. A line we have drawn and dared people to cross.

This was a very tough, but very cool hike. Well worth the 19-month wait. The people I was with wanted to go across the border and get a picture looking back at us. I told them they were going to set of the motion detectors. On our way back down we were met by three Border Patrol jeeps. They asked us if we had seen anyone hiking, someone had tripped the monitoring device. So I guess those are real. We will be more careful next time.    

History on the Go

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog. But that does not mean nothing is happening. In December 2010, before I actually came out to California, I developed a personal strategic plan for creating viability and raising the profile of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum. This included what one of the trustees called the "We Do Stuff Program." In May 2011 I developed and wrote a proposal and budget for the We Do Stuff Program called "History on the Go." In June the History on the Go program moved forward into a new strategic plan.

In part the proposal reads, "the Desert Museum would like to take the unique story of the desert region out of the desert and into the classroom." One of the first grants we received here was to pilot the coiled-clay art program. If you have followed my blog or the museum's blog at all you will have read about the coiled-clay program often. This pilot program has been used to develop History on the Go.

This week we committed to fund the History on the Go program for the next three years. It will be the museum's signature public outreach program and will be available, free of charge, to any school in the county.

The program includes a signature "History on the Go" Jeep that will be very visible in the community. Last week, a call from one of our trustees set up a really quick meeting with the local Jeep dealer. I got up in the morning and mocked up a proposal using Adobe Illustrator, which is above, We made our pitch at 9:00am. At 2:30pm we picked up a new Jeep Patriot. This is an exciting development. One of the first programs that I have developed here to really take hold and make a difference. As I write this I am 15 minutes from having a coiled-clay art home school program.