For many years I've wanted to see the southern desert in bloom. This year, family business took me to San Diego at the end of March. Every day for weeks before this trip, I watched desertusa.com, a favorite website, to check the status of this year's wildflower display. It just got better and better as my departure day approached.

I packed my bags for house cleaning, visiting customers, backpacking, partygoing and hoped I had the right wardrobe for the week. As it turned out the only thing I didn't use in my stash was ... (more)