I opened my eyes abruptly at almost exactly 6am the next morning. I saw that sunrise was imminent and had to take some shots. I pulled on some warm clothing, went over to the other house to retrieve my camera and tripod and proceeded to take some photos. When I returned to the house, I was startled to see a head pop up from the sofa - where no head had been when I left. Turned out to be RD, who had heard me leave and had come down from his bunk bed (in the room he shared with the Biddanurs) to check out the sound. He decided it was too much effort to climb back up and just settled on the sofa.
I tried to sleep some more, but eventually got out of bed. Akshaj was up and about and Latha was watching him. We could have used one more restroom in the place. Akshaj and Latha were in the bathroom and I was pacing, waiting for them to come out. Suddenly mgd comes out of his room and makes a beeline to the bathroom only to realize that it was occupied. He sits himself down on a chair and then notices me pacing.
MGD: "Do you need to go? Is it urgent?"
Me: "I do need to go, but not super urgent. Do you have to go now?"
MGD: "That's why I am sitting down."
Me: "I can wait. You go."
One by one we headed to the main house. Most folks were up and about there. We got some coffee and a group decided to try volleyball. It was quite cold and rather windy. The ball seemed to be extra hard and many of our forearms and wrists were still sore from the game on Saturday. After some time we realized it just wasn't the same, we gave up on the game and headed in to play some TT and pool. After some of that, it was time for breakfast.
In all these weekend outings, I am usually on the hook for one breakfast - omelets. Prem tried to relieve me by offering to make fritatas, but the crowd wanted omelets, so I got started. After some false starts with the pans, I eventually got a handle on the process and started serving up breakfast. A game of poker was already underway and kids were watching TV. After breakfast there was some desire to start another poker game, but we decided to clean up first. Of course by the time we were done, folks were pretty much ready to leave. There was a plan to stop at an outlet mall on the way, so there was some desire to not delay much longer. So, around 1.30pm, we all headed out.
The wind had been howling all morning and as we reached the town of 29 Palms, the rain started and it was quite heavy all the way to Hwy 10. 10 West was crawling and while the conditions were unsuitable for shopping (it was an outdoor mall), we exited at the mall mostly because of the traffic. We got coffee and folks explored some stores. We gave up soon and headed back onto the highway. Luckily the traffic eased up quickly and we had a largely uneventful drive back home. We saw a couple of bad accidents on the way, but otherwise it was fine. We had dosas for dinner and after a cup of tea, hit the sack.
A sign near the main door of the house read, "Dedicated to Dignified Loafing" - an appropriate motto for life in the high desert. It had been a fun, relaxing trip.
The setting and the house (even with all its shortcomings) were certainly part of it. I was actually quite sore from the volleyball and ping pong. Kids had had a great time - being able to run around in an unstructured place full of interesting things to explore, fall over, and run into was enjoyable to all of them. During the drive back Abhi kept campaigning to return to the house and after we got home, refused to come out of the car for a good 20 minutes for the same reason. Even now, he is quite ready to head back. And so are, I believe, the rest of us.
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