To and From

What I saw on the way to Shoshone, CA

Last weekend, my mom and I took a trip to California to visit one of our favorite small towns, Shoshone. Less than 25 people live there, but they have the cutest old-timey-like general store.

It holds an abundance of unique soaps, trinkets, jewelry, and gemstones in all shapes, sizes, and types. Most people probably stop there for the lotto tickets, but we always walk away with rocks.

Across the road is the museum, equipped with antique artifacts, taxidermy animals (I don’t like it but hope it was done ethically), and a giant thing of colemanite. My favorite part (not surprisingly) is the display of minerals found around the area.

On the way there, I brought a journal to document what I saw or thought. This was also my first time traveling anywhere since my depression diagnosis and treatment. We’ve been to Shoshone multiple times, but it’s as if I saw everything for the first time.

I’ve never felt more present while in the car. Normally I’d zone out, lost in my thoughts, but that didn’t happen once. I can still remember the trip instead of it being one big blur of anxious thoughts.

With that, here’s what I wrote down on the way to and from Shoshone.

Going to

📜 Alaska’s license plate has a bear (it was cute)

📜 Orange, purple, yellow plants; white, shades of green

📜 Deflated shiny balloon stuck on a yucca

📜 Black car with bullet-riddled back door (this was kind of startling to see; I assumed it was the doing of a BB gun)

📜 Land untouched by man is most beautiful

📜 Who lives in the mountain caves? The tiniest holes harbor something or someone

📜 Big black bird—crow?; beak open

📜 Red-dusted mountains

📜 Slim rocks lined up like graveyard stones along the road

📜 Bird flying afar with something in its mouth

📜 Handmade wood cross with flowers at base

📜 One small lone cloud over mountaintop

📜 Container in the middle of nowhere with Japanese writing on it

📜 Crows on faded billboards (gives me major southern gothic vibes)

📜 Lizard ran across barren road in a barren town

📜 “Happy ln”—road to nowhere except decrepit homes

📜 Ash-colored dead plants polka-dotting vast land lots

📜 Mountains splattered and blended with colors of yellow and green and light orange

📜 White butterflies crossing the road (there were so many of them! I swear they followed us throughout the whole trip)

📜 Bleached-of-color mountains with dark red plants

Coming from

📜 Buggy attached to helicopter blades? Flying high above mountains (still don’t know what this was; I thought it was a helicopter at first but upon closer inspection, it was an offroad vehicle…thinking it was “homemade”)

📜 “No shooting” signs on an empty lot in between two houses

📜 Wind-worn mountains

📜 “Naked tech support!” (this was an ad on the back window of someone’s vehicle…don’t know if they meant it literally or just as an attention-grabber; I wasn’t going to visit the website to find out)

Findings

Of course, going to Shoshone means bringing home treasures. Here’s everything we got!

One of my favorites. It reminds me of the moon, for some reason, or if it had an ocean. I believe it’s crazy lace agate.

I have no idea what kind of agate this is, but goodness, it’s so unique! All I see is a dragon’s eye (where the brown spot is). Sometimes I can’t believe things this beautiful come from this planet.

Can you believe this was only $16?! For the whole set?! I remember seeing similar ones at Target years ago for double, probably more.

Pictures really don’t do these bookends justice. The inclusions are absolutely stunning.

The other pair we picked up. I’m seriously in awe every time I look at them.

Again, pictures don’t capture all the stunningness. I just love the contrast.

Found these at the museum; go for the history but stop to grab some small but mighty beautiful gemstones. Don’t know what the green or purple one is (the back of them looks like cooled molten lava), but the white and black one is petrified wood, one of my favorites.

I didn’t know what it was when I picked it up; I just really liked it. Plus, it was the only one of its kind, next to louder, more colorful ones. The description on the price tag said coaster, but seriously, how could I ruin this awesome pattern by using it that way?

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