Pepe Gets A Bath

No, this is not the local car wash, it is in fact the Panther Junction Visitor Center (a.k.a. Headquarters, or HQ). Note the two Dagger Yuccas in full bloom. It was while gathering my massive quantity of mail that I decided it was finally time to give Pepe a bath, as Lex had taken off to parts unknown and Pepe's services as a stalwart utility vehicle were pretty much over.


While she was here, we took off and visited Ernst Tinaja on the Old Ore Road, and were met with several large water puddles, one of which was almost 200 feet long. We almost turned around at this one, but then espied a sedan approaching -- piloted by two girls of the female persuasion, no less. Oh, yeah?


Well, then, there was nothing for it but to proceed on through the axle-deep water and mud and continue on to our destination, whose parking lot was covered in a layer of cake frosting. Pepe had himself a field day this day, let me tell you.


Back in present day, here's a shot I took on the way to Alpine this morning of our Persimmon Gap entrance sign, complete with its own blooming Dagger. There is quite the buzz around here about this, as apparently this is the first time this particular plant has bloomed since being planted. Pretty cool, huh?


And here's Pepe preparing to hit the shower, at long last. Now you see it . . .


. . . now you don't. It took a grand total of $6.00 in quarters and several applications of the foamy brush to finally get rid of all the mud, but as you can see, it was well worth it. Now, doesn't he look happy?


And here's a little detail shot showing how clean he really is. After taking the last shot, I caught this glint coming off of him, and was reminded of Lightning McQueen, the little race car in the awesome Pixar animation Cars. Ka-CHOW!!! Oh, yeah. We're cookin' now!


With Pepe feeling so fine about himself, and with my appetite for a burger to appease, I decided a little trip to our local Sonic drive-in was in order to show him off properly. I just love this place. (A new girl, Tasha, was our waitress. She's so cute!)