Back in 2013 when I was promoting my next novel, The Sneaker Tree, I’d post a picture of one of these “Sneaker Trees” that occur all over the world. Once within minutes of one of those posts @pkninjaz, Jazmin, a complete stranger from the other side of the country sent me the picture above. It is a picture of the Slab City, California shoe tree known as the Tree of Souls.
Ever since that blog post in 2013, I’ve gotten a steady stream of views of my post. It’s not the most popular thing I’ve ever written, but for some reason it never goes more than a day or two without a few reads. So I’m finally curious enough to want to figure out why.
That picture above is from Slab City, California. Slab City, nicknamed The Last Free Place in America is an unincorporated , off the grid area in the Sonoran Desert that is home to artists, bohemians and people seeking an alternative lifestyle.
That all sounds pretty cool, right? According to website LiveThatAdventure.com Slab City “is a crazy mixture of Mad Max, a post apocalyptic town, and an art museum.”
Pic from https://history.howstuffworks.com/
As I said earlier, I could probably live there. I like artsy people and stuff. Reportedly, there are about 150 year round residents and about another 150 or so snowbirds that show up in the winter months. The only thing keeping me from moving there is the “waste” situation. Slab City has a sewage system but no one knows where it goes. Some residents just have their own outhouses. Some have RV’s and they just drive to wherever to empty their tanks.
In the middle of the territory is a hill called East Jesus that one man turned into a place of worship.
East Jesus
Slab City seems like somewhere for me to visit and feature on my travel blog. Who wants to come with me?
Anyway, like I said, for some reason a lot of people want to know about that place regularly. Also, my book The Sneaker Tree is still for sale on Amazon and it’s literally Stranger Things but I wrote it long before someone made it into a Netflix series. I didn’t realize that until a book promoter hit me up and made the comparison. Btw, Stranger Things is coming back Nov. 26, but who wants to watch it now. Too long of a break, we’ve lost interest. Also the kids are all about 40 years old and have kids of their own. Netflix, you’ve jumped the shark on this one. Yeah, that’s right, I’m bringing back “jumped the shark.”
Thank’s for reading. Have a great week! ~Phil
