Christmas In Death Valley (With the Lost '49ers)

Desert Oracle Radio

Ken Layne

Society & Culture, Places & Travel, Philosophy

4.8 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Gentlemen!" yelled their frontier guide, Captain Jefferson Hunt, "All I have to say is that if you take that route, you will all be landed in Hell!"

So began the four-month-long "shortcut" that left the starving Lost '49ers in the middle of Death Valley at Christmas. Hopefully your holidays won't be quite so exciting, although it's generally better to have an adventure than just sit around eating pies. Soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver, written & hosted by Ken Layne, and broadcasting tonight in Joshua Tree on KCDZ 107.7 FM at 10 p.m.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/desertoracle

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California.
0:10.1	Now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.
0:14.7	Night has fallen on the desert, and it is wintertime.
0:19.7	Happy solstice to you all. I hope you got outside on the shortest day of the year.
0:34.6	I used to like to take a long walk with family or friends on winter solstice.
0:45.8	But to be honest, for several years now, it has just been me and the dog.
0:52.3	It's a time for silence and a time for reflection.
1:02.2	Not a time for chit-chat.
1:08.7	Some people do.
1:17.0	They're reflecting on Christmas or on New Year's Day But winter solstice is the end of the solar year
1:21.6	And then it is immediately the new year
1:27.0	Just like that.
1:30.1	It happened just before 2 p.m. here in the Mojave High Desert on Solstice Day.
1:41.0	And because I was dragging all day long, because there's lots to do, but I really want to get in the cave and hibernate for a long winter's nap.
1:56.5	There was not much of the day left by the time we were walking, the dog and I.
2:03.7	We got about 40 minutes of sunshine before it dropped behind Olena Peak.
2:11.0	And so much for that, goodbye to 2022, a year that never really knew what it was about.
2:22.2	We do get years like that sometimes,
2:26.7	especially after too many years in a row
2:30.6	when just about everybody in America seem to be stuck
2:36.4	on the same topic
2:38.1	presidents
	...

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