Charleston Peak is  about  35 miles from Las Vegas and climbs nearly 12,000 feet skyward. It still has three to four feet in places and it is possible to go in hiking in the snow  if that is your desire..  Below the high peak area and the beautiful Ponderosa pine  is a desert recreation area filled with many canyons and arroyos. Arroyo is a Spanish word for an intermittent dry stream. I had to look it up as I thought it meant canyon. I spent two extraordinary afternoons in this beautiful desert, wandering through the canyons and walking in the  wonderful silence that only the desert can offer. It is particularly soothing after a bad session at the blackjack table. The cactus  and the beginning hint of desert flowers,  unidentified  critters scurrying about and barely seen, small lizards and the immensity of space is transformational. 

Back at the NDE compound I have been filtering vegetable oil for an amazingly old (well over 300,00 miles old) Mercedes which runs on veggie oil and bio diesel along with regular diesel. It is quite an amazing car.  I am driving a bright yellow Nissan Xterra which is fun  to drive but only gets about 18 miles a gallon  and sucks the juice right up. 

Fr. Steve Kelly  arrived last night and he is a good guy and a hard case and I mean this in the best sense of the word. He noncooperation with the man is legendary. He will spend time in solitary confinement before taking a job if he is incarcerated for civil disobedience.`He will ride a bus long hours before paying the federal tax on a plane ticket. He along with the  group of arriving pilgrims will comprise this year's assembly of peace walkers, all of us walking down state 95 north, usually into the wind and into the desert.

We have also been checking and cleaning equipment, putting up tents, airing sleeping bags and sorting  through the boxes  of dishes and plastic cups from last year. Much has been accomplished and much remains for the last minute rush. The Sacred Peace Walk begins.