Back from Las Vegas and I have re-affirmed my love of the high desert country. Driving for hours across vast expanses of Joshua trees, through parts of the Mojave and up and over the mountains and past the windfarms of Tehachapi was soothing and almost meditative. Hiking around Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, I experienced the splendor first-hand. And the quiet and stillness of the surroundings encouraged my reflections on everything — life, love, the vast and varied beauty of America — these last few days. I feel like I'm still carrying some desert silence within me.