we arrived safely in palm springs last night. the rental car folks gave us a free upgrade to a nissan 350Z, a sporty little two-seater that's possibly the nicest car i've ever driven (of course, i haven't driven that many cars in my day.)

our current motel—a motel 6—isn't quite as nice as the car. other than having a swimming pool and a bunch of tv channels, the motel has few frills. in fact, when we arrived our room didn't even have a bar on the toilet paper dispenser. (thankfully, the maids gave us one today.) but it's cheap and has wifi, so i can't complain too much.

today, virago's dad drove up from san diego to meet us. the three of us went out to breakfast, then over to the nearby town of joshua tree (where, despite what the song says, the streets do have names) and drove through joshua tree national park. check out our vacation photos here. the set will presumably be updated as we take & upload more photos. ¶

Well, they named their streets just after that nice Mister Bono alerted them to the problem. Next up, they're going to find what they're looking for. Diddly shit. ¶

Is that the Motel 6 on E. Palm Canyon Drive? That's the one I'm staying at for day three of Coachella in April. Leave the light on for me! ¶

that's the one.

the coachella lineup looks pretty good! ¶

Oh man... was the ID exhibit inside of Dinny the Dinosaur worth seeing?

Creationist propaganda washed down with Throbbing Gristle. Should be a hell of a weekend. ¶

yeah, it was worth seeing. but bring a sweater... it was cold in that dino's belly! ¶

the free exhibit inside the belly of the brontosaurus is just some displays inside the gift shop -- definitely worth the price of admission. there is a $5-entry museum out behind the dinos that we didn't pay to see, since i didn't want to provide any financial support, so i can't say how "good" it is. (i quite enjoyed the evolution exhibit at the sd museum of man later in the week, a wonderful contrast in intellectualism!) ¶

yeah, it was quite striking seeing all the ID crap at cabazon one day, and then going to the museum of man literally the next day. ¶