Hello all and Happy Holidays! Well, it took a while to catch up with everything after I returned from my trip to Las Vegas & AZ, but I finally did it and now I can post the 1st photos from that incredible trip.

I’m including some colorful night shots of the lit-up Vegas strip. The hotels there are amazing…each one like a city unto itself! I’m also posting some shots I took from the front seat of the helicopter I took into the mouth of the Grand Canyon! This was awesome! The river shown is the Colorado River and it’s miles down from where the photo was taken! You can see the reflection of the copter windows in some of the shots to get an idea of where I was sitting. After landing, we all took a small boat down the river…beautiful! The copter shown wasn’t the one I was in, but very similar. I was also given permission by the Native American Indian Tribe on the reservation we visited to take photos of them in their ritual dress…these were shot on 35mm film so I’m waiting for them to get developed. I’ll also have more canyon shots, more Joshua Tree shots (one is posted here) and more Vegas pics.

Signed, matted photo prints are available! Price ranges from $25 – $75 depending on size (starts at 5×7 & up). Email me for details & thanks for reading!
~Lauren

Wow! What an amazing trip…from the “mini-cities” that are the theme hotels on the Vegas strip, to the wild shows and entertainment to the stark beauty of AZ and the Grand Canyon…the highlight of the trip was taking a helicopter ride from the top of the canyon to the bottom…and I was in the co-pilot seat, shooting photos the whole way! Next was a boat ride down the Colorado River, then back up in the copter to the Skywalk. This glass bridge looked straight down into the canyon..what a bizarre feeling to stand with only glass between you and the floor of this natural wonder! The ride through the Joshua Tree forest was also great…these spiny trees look like something from another planet.

I’m still playing catch up from the trip but will have pics to post soon! I shot both digi and 35mm film photos.

I woke up this morning knowing I had to update this post so I hope it helps someone who is or has a family member considering moving there. I think it would be a good town to move to if you are fairly young, independently wealthy and have a love for the desert!

#1 There are no jobs in Pahrump and if you are lucky to find one it will be minimum wage. There are jobs in Vegas but it is a minimum 67 mile drive one way. The economy in Vegas is one of the worst in the United States and I am sure that the job market there is not doing as well as when I was there.

#2 You have to drive to Vegas for EVERYTHING unless you can shop Walmart 365 days a year. They do have a Home Depot in now….Oh I forgot they are building a prison there too!!!! In town no less not on the outskirts as any other sane town that is trying to encourage business. As I said before you have to drive to Las Vegas for pretty much everything. The main road to Vegas is Blue Diamond Hwy or 160 and it is dangerous. The road is mostly  a straight line so why so many accidents??? Because everyone speeds or falls asleep there are only shoulders going one way and they do not have enough space to correct yourself if your car wanders.(I was there recently and they have now put a shoulder on both sides of the road this should prevent many accidents) . Nevada itself is famous for people running red lights. Never trust a light when it turns green ALWAYS look to see if traffic has stopped. Even that is not a guarantee.  Pahrump only has about 2 lights although I think that they have acquired a third so as you drive everyday you take your life in your own hands. I am a very good defensive driver so none of this effected my life until I was rear ended while stopped at a stop sign. Oh and did I tell you about the time I was driving down a main road with the rightaway for miles and some elderly person pulled right in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes and the Sushi I had just picked up went flying all over my car! I saw more accidents the year I lived there than I have seen in my entire life. If the above is not enough to scare you please keep reading…

#3 Many of the health care professionals live and have offices in Vegas and only visit their offices in Pahrump a few days a week or every other week.) There is an emergency clinic and a hospital. But neither is prepared to handle a real emergency. If you do have an emergency you better have the best health care in the world because do you know how much an ambulance to Las Vegas costs from Pahrump and that is the cheap alternative. If it is a REAL emergency than they fly you by helicopter and you might as well file for bankruptcy unless you are Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Or you can purchase special insurance in case you need to take the helicopter. If you are looking to retire there…let me be blunt no matter the good health you are in currently shit happens! …And your health is not getting any better it is declining and dare I say when you are looking to buy a retirement home you are looking for a place that you would like to die in, maybe it will take 20 or 30 years but that is the end result. Still want to hear more??

#4 So you want to move to Pahrump, because you do not want to pay income tax??? They charge taxes for everything else and guess what???? NO INCOME TAX NO SOCIAL SERVICES!!!  First of all Nevada as a state is fiscally irresponsible and the nice socialist state of Oregon with all of its wonderful social programs has had a rainy day fund. What does this mean to an elderly person in Nevada? Let us put it this way I had a family emergency not long ago. I drove 15 hours went straight to the Sheriff’s office 11:30 at night and they basically told me to go fuck myself. Actually what they said is that I was wasting their time….guns involved….too bad!!! What they told me was this: There is an elderly woman in Pahrump who believes that there are people living in the walls of her home so she has been making holes in her walls and destroying them…..the sheriff’s office can do nothing because it is her house and she has the right to tear down her walls!! If she has guns and her neighbors are naturally nervous the sheriff’s office can do nothing….she has her rights. The only circumstances that they would interfere is if she had NO food in her cabinets. This is what happens to many elderly people when they suffer from something as simple as a lack of vitamin b. Even the public officials  in Virginia were shaking their heads at the lack of services provided for the elderly in Pahrump and Nevada (yes I got more help from the State of Virginia! And to top it off they weren’t rude!!!)….THERE IS NO SAFETY NET!!!! I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH TO YOU THAT I HAVE NEVER EVER LIVED IN A STATE….ANYWHERE THAT YOU COULD NOT CALL OR GO TO THE POLICE AND THEY WOULD WANT TO HELP YOU. Need an escort out of a scary area??? call the police!! Been away from home for a week and notice an open window???call the police!! In most cities they will bend over backwards to help you for these simple situations. It makes them feel good as there are so many times that people are not appreciative of their services. Haven’t heard enough yet???

#5 The money that you will save not paying taxes will go straight to the electric company unless you buy a home installed with a swamp cooler instead of air conditioning. Most houses in Pahrump were built with air conditoning. It is ridiculous the amount of electricity that people use in Pahrump…they move there because the heat is supposedly good for their arthritis and then they live in their air conditioned homes….and complain about how hot it is. And by the way I hear that even the electric company is corrupt. Here’s some more…

#6 Pahrump is the home to meth production, legalized prostitution and a soon to be built prison. They are already starting to have a gang problem wait until the prison gets built did I mention THEY ARE BUILDING IT IN TOWN??? They say it will be a nice prison that will only have soft criminals… immigration issues…hurry up do these people think that the people busted for immigration violations are just women who are working as housekeepers???NO! They are usually people who have committed more serious crimes! In addition to all of this the elected officials are always under investigation for corruption…you name it…If you want to know more about what goes on in Pahrump they have 2 newspapers and the one that is not afraid to tell the truth is THE MIRROR which is owned by brothel entrepreneur Joe Richards. Yes the most reliable newspaper in Pahrump is owned by a man who makes his living off of renting out women by the hour!!! Before you consider moving there I recommend that you faithfully read his paper for 6 months and if that doesn’t deter you… rent for a year. If you are considering buying a home in Pahrump I emplore you to spend the money to fly in an independent home inspector from another state.

#7 The town itself is ugly. Butt ugly.

#8 Just in case you think I have nothing positive to say about Pahrump. The hills surrounding Pahrump have Joshua trees and I love them all! Mt. Charleston looms in the background and it is beautiful. Pahrump has beautiful sunsets! It is located about an hour from Death Valley. Death Valley is very beautiful…but there is a reason it is called Death Valley carry lots of water with you when traveling in the desert. Also there is an interesting Opera House in Armagosa that a ballet dancer from New York City has been running for ages. There is also Red Rock Canyon outside of Vegas. If you are a UFO buff AREA 51 is close by. And finally one of my favorite places is the China Ranch Date Farm in Tecopa.

#9 I love visiting Pahrump but wouldn’t want to live there.

#10  Not far from Pahrump is Yucca Mountain where the United States will soon be storing nuclear waste. We have to store it somewhere!

I hope this helps even one person in life!

UPDATE!!

Because of the nasty comment I thought I would look up and see what is going on in Pahrump these days and I found this:

Tweaker town

Pahrump fights a never-ending battle against meth cooks and speed freaks

I sympathize with anyone who has a drug problem it is devastating not only to the individual but to friends and family and the community but this is something that I would also consider when looking for a place to retire.

I went back to Pahrump a few months ago and here are more reasons for not moving there if you are a lover of books the largest book store in town is..

N

Nothing against sex at all but not a Borders, or Barnes and Noble in sight!…then I thought that maybe there was a section of town that I was not aware of…that perhaps I had missed…so I turned to the Yellow Pages!

Now Music Mind & Matter is a nice little “New Age” store that used to be owned by the folks that did OUT THERE T.V. (now called MATRIX NEWS  NETWORK). They do have a very good selection of  UFO, New Age, 2012 books.  Nothing wrong with a Christian book store but its not my sort of thing. Someone told me that the used book store is mostly paperback top 10 and historical romances but since I have not been there you have to check it out for yourself. There was a fairly good used book store by the post office but it went out of business due to health issues. If you move to Pahrump your best bet is Amazon or the 60 mile drive to Henderson where they have both Barnes & Nobel and Borders although when I was in Borders a few months ago they had taken out most of their music and were rearranging I was shocked at how low the stock levels were. Not a good sign! They did still have a good magazine selection!

OK now for the brothels…its funny that there are so many because Pahrump is a Mormon town…run by Mormon’s. The reason it is so underdeveloped is because most of the land is owned by a few people who want top dollar for their property….so it is VERY expensive to open a business there. Wal-Mart could afford it and now there is finally a HOME DEPOT. This is not a town that is trying to preserve its integrity or develop into a nice retirement community…everything goes to the highest bidder. It’s not like Santa Fe, or Boca Raton…the landscape that you see in the photo of the Adult Superstore is what the whole town looks like. There are pockets of nice landscape around the casinos and there are the whack job homeowners who landscape like they are in Florida with green lawns…wasting the precious resource of water!

There is an ongoing battle with the brothel owners, town commissioners and who ever else involved in such things. Heidi Fleiss the Hollywood Madam was rumored to be opening a brothel that catered to women or partnering up with Joe Richards…but because of the politics instead opened a laundry shop

Now as I said I am no fan of prostitution but either its legal or not…the politics involved with who is allowed to have a brothel and who isn’t is ridiculous and motivated by some higher moral issue but greed and politics. I forgot to take a photo of  The Kingdom which is a building that looks like a castle and is owned and operated by Joe Richards. It is a strip club that is the first building heading to Pahrump from Las Vegas he opened it in retaliation for the denial of building a brothel. Even I have to take Joe Richards side in this case….in the  ideal world that I dream of there would be no prostitution!!

Here are several articles on the subject

THE LAS VEGAS MERCURY

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES….the FBI arrests Joe Richards

THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL…Joe Richards is convicted.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES…weighs in. The person commenting at the bottom has it right the commissioners are the ones that need to be investigated!

STATE OF NEVADA COMMISSION ON ETHICS…just in case you think Candice Trummel is a sweet moral politician who has not been corrupted by greed. Apparently the whole family is greedy and corrupt!! This seems to be the norm in Pahrump!

THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL…an piece on some series on brothels in Pahrump that aired on the Sundance channel.

And in recent news here is info on two more corrupt commissioners Liakopoulos and Neth.

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES Liakopoulos is a whack job who had his own talk show every week pretending to be a veteran and bilking people out of money the people elected him as a commissioner so his corruption could be more widespread. (Glad I wrote this article it seems the sob lists his address as Florence, Oregon…time to warn those good citizens!) Neth bilked investors.

PAHRUMP VALLEY TIMES…more on Liakopoulos.

NEVADA ETHICS COMPLAINT ….just in case you think Laurayne Murray who testified about Liakopoulos is free of corruption you can read this complaint.

LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL…more on Henry Neth

I could do this all day long…..

My personal thoughts on prostitution are scattered through out this post…another personal opinion of mine surrounds the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS who have spent who knows how much money against gays but who has built an empire off of peoples addictions, SEX, GAMBLING  and ALCOHOL. For those of you who do not know the second highest concentration of Mormons is  Las Vegas…if the church were true to its teachings every single person who works for or runs a casino, serves alcohol would be excommunicated or at least deemed not worthy of Temple….nor would the church accept their tithing from these people…but as we all know churches are corrupt and will take blood money anyway they can get it….IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST no less!!

CHOOSE CAREFULLY BEFORE RETIRING TO THIS TOWN!!!

I am thinking about officially renaming the Big One. Her new name is going to be, “The Girl Who Cried Pee.” No we are not Native American, but if the name fits….

Who in the world decided that it was important to potty train our young? Why can’t she go to school in diapers. I promise she can change it herself if need be.

I am, of course, am kidding. She is doing really well with the potty training adventure. The problem is teaching her to recognize what her body is telling her. Now I know how lucky we are to have this problem. I know many kids will say, “I have to pee!” as the pee is running down their legs.

Our challenge is the Big One will say, “I have to pee” and it will be a good hour or so before said pee appears. While we are home it’s not a big deal. But when we make the drive to San Diego about every other week {it’s a 3.5 hour drive}, it can be extremely frustrating to hear, “I have to pee!” from the backseat.

The first time it happened, I frantically searched for someplace to stop. Of course she announced it while we were passing through Rainbow, CA. For those of you not familiar with Rainbow , it’s very, very small and I don’t think there are any retail locations.

So I ask her if she can wait a few more minutes. She says she can, so I increase my speed a bit to make it to Temecula where there are plenty of available potties. Figuring this will be a long trip home {we are about 1 hour into the adventure} I decide we are stopping at a Starbucks. I figure their bathrooms are cleaner than McDonald’s and I can get coffee if this takes an hour.

We stop, get her on the potty and then we wait. And we wait some more. And we wait some more. Nothing. There is no pee. UGH! The Big One tells me the pee and poop are coming, just not yet.

So I got my iced white mocha and pile back into my car. Just so you know, she is wearing a Pull-Up and has a “piddle pad” on her car seat so that if we have issues we are okay.

We continue on our merry way driving home. We go through Corona, Ontario, Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga. We hit the 138 {the middle of nowhere} when the Big One announces again that she has to pee. I was like, “Look around…. Do you see somewhere to stop and pee?”

All we can see for miles is sand and Joshua Trees, no retail in sight. So I ask her if she can wait a bit longer. She says she can, so we continue on our way and finally get to a place where I know there are bathrooms.

{Actually I know there are “flushing toilets” at this spot thanks to an difficult ride home for my MIL after a weekend visit. Thank you for the inside tip, Mom.}

We make it to Saddleback Butte State Park and find the bathrooms. Actually not a difficult task since there isn’t much there other than the little bathroom buildings.

The Big One finally pees and we continue home. Now I have to tell you, from the first time she told me she had to pee, until the actual pee came a flowing, it had been almost 3 hours.

I think next time she tells me she has to pee in the car, I will take my chances and keep driving until we arrive at wherever we are heading.

I am excited to announce that my ‘Extraordinary Trees’ series took 3rd Place in the ‘Trees’ category in the prestigious and international 2008 Prix de la Photographie, Paris competition. The jury selected 2008’s winners from thousands of photography entries from over 85 countries. You can find my winning series here. The “Prix de la Photographie, Paris” (Px3) strives to promote the appreciation of photography, to discover emerging talent, and introduce photographers from around the world to the artistic community of Paris. Winning entries from each major category are exhibited in Paris at the prestigious Galerie Acte 2 from June 26-28 and published in the high-quality, full-color Px3 Annual Book, which is distributed to galleries, agencies, publishers and bookstores worldwide.

You are visiting the blog of fine art photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website.

Joshua Tree

Originally uploaded by Tokenhippygirl

A comfy spot for wildflower watching

Spring brings wildflowers to this part of California.  Every weekend, you can find people armed with cameras looking for that perfect shot.  The come on foot, in cars, in buses, on motorcycles, and on bicycles. They stop by the side of the road or venture onto unpaved roads that are little more than paths.  They hike out into the fields.  You see them lying among the flowers, frolicking with kids and dogs, and hunched down trying to capture the exquisite beauty of an individual blossom.

During spring we enjoy going on what we call a “wildflower wander,” although we often wander the same route.  We’ve learned that poppies like to play jokes on us.  The places where they are the thickest one year may be devoid of blossoms the next.  So our wanders are always a bit of an adventure.

We’ve made several wanders this spring.  One Sunday was cold, very windy and trying to rain or snow.  At one of our favorite peach orchards, we watched an attack of killer tumbleweeds.  The trees were in full tilt bloom, but the tumbleweeds were rolling across a nearby field and crossing the road like an advancing army.  A few weeks later, we passed the same spot as the farmer was burning piles of tumbleweeds that had piled up along the fence.  The blossoms had faded, and the trees were leafing out.  Later this summer, we’ll pass by again and see the branches laden with fruit.

A field of poppies with goldfields in the distance

We generally leave on our wanders in the morning, hoping to beat the wind and returning in late afternoon when the poppies are closing for the night.  Wind is common here in spring, and it makes it hard to take pictures — not only hard to hold the camera still, even on a tripod, but the poppies close up to protect themselves.  But when the day is calm, they can be spectacular.

Yesterday’s weather was delightful, with wispy white clouds.  But in the two weeks since our last wander, the poppies are obviously past their peak.  The Joshua trees are usually blooming by now, but this year we’ve seen only one tree actually blooming.  They look stressed from the extended drought.  They really need an El Nino winter with lots of rain.  A type of yucca, Joshuas are unique to this part of California with their gnarled shapes that seem to twist in every direction. In spring, creamy white flowers pop out on the ends of the branches, giving way to a cluster of fruit.  Last year’s fruit, dried and shriveled, is visible on the ends of the branches, but there’s no evidence of new blossoms.

Lupines or bluebells, beautiful just the same

A couple of years ago, we happened upon a wash that must be the ideal spot for lupine.  The bushes there are immense — probably four feet high and six or more feet across.  Most other places, they are only about a foot across.  The wash is abuzz with honeybees, and the aroma of the lupine perfumes the air.  Now my friend Jack, coming from Texas, would probably insist that these are bluebells.  No matter, they are still beautiful to behold, and in this particular spot they are nothing short of spectacular.

Whether you are looking at a vista or focusing on individual flowers, spring in the high desert is a feast for the eyes — the display lasts only about six weeks.  As the grass turns brown, the flowers fade.  The heat will be here soon, and people will retreat back into their air conditioned homes, venturing out for walks in the early morning or in the evening.  But for those few weeks in spring, we thoroughly enjoy the show.

Snowy egrets

While the flowers are fading, the highlight of yesterday’s wander was stumbling across a flock of snowy egrets.  We’ve seen the smaller egret variety before but not the larger snowy ones.   We saw a group of them on our way to stop for lunch.  That’s when I took this photo.  On our way back, an entire flock of them — probably several dozen birds — were across a pond.

Crossposted from Itsgettinghotinhere.org

Nothing compared to ecosystem collapse that is.

Spreading hands as dry and cracked as the orchards he tends, the stout man his mates call Tank explained what damage a decade of drought has done.

“Suicide is high. Depression is huge. Families are breaking up. It’s devastation,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got a neighbor in terrible trouble. Found him in the paddock, sitting in his [truck], crying his eyes out. Grown men — big, strong grown men. We’re holding on by the skin of our teeth. It’s desperate times.”

A result of climate change?

“You’d have to have your head in the bloody sand to think otherwise,” Eddy said.

Ten years ago I traveled to Adelaide, South Australia, the driest province in the driest continent on Earth. I spent five months of my Junior year in college studying sustainable development, environmental politics, and climate change. It was the first time I grasped the issue of global warming. At that time, the drought described by Tank had only just begun.

Now, ten years later, Australia is teaching me a new lesson – as depressing as they may be, articles about climate impacts can still teach us something.

My climate reading for today all started with this news story about global warming creeping into Joshua Tree territory. Have you no decency, Mr. Crisis. That’s my tree you’re messing with.