Desert trip: card games, sandstorm, dragon

This weekend we took a loop out to the desert, and though it was primarily a sunday drive, at the various stops we looked for board games, card games, and local game-related pieces.  Most gift shops have  decks of cards, but I'm not interested in decks that just stamp some pattern on the flipside of the cards, I want to see attractive uses of the faces of the cards.  Which led to the interesting question of how a prospective buyer is supposed to know what kind of decks they're looking at.

Effective packaging will show a few of the card on the back, so if there is a Jack of Spades with a galaxy on it, odds are at least the face cards have custom designs.  But we also saw decks with no clue on tha package about what kind of design it was going to be.  One shop had sample decks hole punched and put on rings so you could flip through each of them.  That was a neat display scheme.  I grabbed a box that said "Don't Die Out There" at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park HQ, and another that said "I Spy Road Deck" at the State Park Nature Center.

Then we got caught in a huge dust devil while exploring a big iron dragon out in the desert: the winds were about 60mph and the sand blasted us, stinging like a swarm of insects as we dove back into the car for safety.  Those few minutes were a real taste of adventure, though we were scratching sand out of our hair and ears for hours.

There is a collection of over 40 amazing sculptures within a few miles of town.  And with the wild weather it was like visiting another planet.

On the was home we actually found a parking spot in Julian,CA on a saturday!  So we were able to walk around town a bit.  Normally, it's such a train wreck of parking and crowds we just skip the area entirely.  A place called the Old Julian Garage looked pretty dull from the outside, but inside was a huge gift shop of smart-ass signs, drinks, minerals, game, trinkets, and jewelry.  I grabbed a card game called "Danger Noodle!" at that spot and we headed home. 

Let's see ... "Try Not To Die!" turned out to be a clever deck of cards with an entire survival guide printed on the cards.  The Aces even had an index of what topics were on which cards, so you can look up "Head Injury" and it tells you grab the 4 of clubs.  Not attractive but useful.  So if you're going to pack one deck of cards on your next hike, this would be the one to grab.  Clever, different, a worthy addition to my collection of card decks.

The "I Spy Road Game" was cute.  People can play "I Spy" on any road trip any time.  Someone names a thing and the first person to spot the thing gets a point.  Great for kids.  So this deck just collected a few dozen common clues and put them on a deck of cards, four clues per card.  So passengers can now each draw a card, and the first to find any one of those items gets to score that card.  Simple.  Sounds like a blast.  So, if you're going to pack just one deck of cards on a road trip and there are at least two people not driving, grab this one for ideas to help pass those miles.

I will be reviewing "Danger Noodle!" separately once we have a chance to try it out.