December 18, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode, Paul sits down with Kevin Bone, co-owner of The Palms, a quirky and artistic desert destination in Wonder Valley, CA.. Kevin shares the fascinating journey that brought him and his wife, Laura, to this remote haven, about 15 miles east of Twentynine Palms off Hwy 62. From its origins tied to the Homestead Act of the 1950’s to its transformation into a vibrant hub for music, art, and community, The Palms has become a beloved gathering place. Learn about its rich history, including Laura's band, The Sibleys, their connection to a German biker group, and how Ben Vaughn’s annual music festival put The Palms on the map.
Discover the eclectic mix that makes The Palms so special: a bookstore filled with rare finds, Laura’s celebrated vegan cuisine, open mic nights, experimental festivals, and even an old guillotine that adds to the venue's charm. Kevin also shares his vision for maintaining the intimacy and affordability of The Palms, ensuring it remains a welcoming retreat for locals and travelers alike. Whether it’s music/theater, homemade food, or a sense of community, The Palms offers something truly unforgettable. Tune in for the full story behind this desert gem!
Watch the full episode HERE
What you’ll learn in this episode: 0:00 Welcome to the show and introduction of our guest: Kevin Bone of The Palms
0:43 The Palms is located in the middle of nowhere known as “Wonder Valley”
1:39 Kevin Bone tells us the story of how he ended up at The Palms
2:31 The history of The Palms started with Kevin’s now wife as a teenage girl.
3:31 A guillotine, a bus and amazing art are all part of The Palms and come with a story
4:12 We learn about Kevin’s wife, Laura’s, band, “The Sibleys” and a German Biker Tour Group that would visit The Palms a couple times a year to listen to them
6:06 An annual music festival at The Palms put on by Ben Vaughn
6:58 Find out how the Homestead Act of the 50s brought homesteaders to the area near The Palms
8:11 Wonderland Books is also a part of The Palms and is a bookstore with an eclectic mix of books and music
9:05 Laura is also a chef and makes a vegan burger that people rave about
10:13 How The Palms markets Laura’s Five-Courser Vegan meals and the sense of community that The Palms has that keeps people coming back
12:31 The prices at The Palms and the goal to keep everything affordable, making it a community for locals
14:59 Music festivals at The Palms like the High Desert Hukilau Music Festival and what an Experimental Festival is
17:05 Movies have also been filmed at The Palms
18:30 The future of The Palms and the desire to keep it as special and as intimate as it is now
21:52 An old bus, a guillotine, and an old skateboard ramp that makes the stage are nostalgic items found at The Palms
23:19 Open Mic nights, the music booked at The Palms, how Coachella is connected, and how theater, comedy and literary are all part of the line up at The Palms
27:53 How to get to The Palms
29:14 A bison with planets on it make up the sign for The Palms
31:08 Kevin and Laura’s wedding was held at The Palms and hosted by the community they have built through this special venue.
32:09 A special thank you to our sponsor: Opus Escrow
Related Episodes: Music, History & Magic: The Story of Tiny Porch Concerts at Peter Strauss Ranch
Wings, Wrenches and Wisecracks with Tom McClain and Hangar Comedy
Sage Brews- A Female Owned Organic Brewery
The Palms Bar & Restaurant: The Palms Mailing Address: 83131 Amboy Rd. Twentynine Palms, CA 92277 Phone Numbe
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This episode of On the Road is abouta hidden gem in the middle of nowhere.
Hi, friends, it's Paul Ward, andwelcome to On the Road. Well,
do you ever want to be out in the middleof nowhere and get away from the hustle
bustle of everyday life, but still, ofcourse, you want something to do? Well,
(00:21):
my next guest might have the answer.
Kevin Bone is the proprietor andco-owner of the Palms Restaurant
here in the middle of nowhere,which is Wonder Valley, California,
just off of Highway 62.Kevin, welcome to On the Road.
Thank you, Paul.
Absolutely. And tell us for ouraudience, where exactly are we?
(00:41):
Where is Highway 62?
Highway 62 stretches from the 10 Freeway,
comes up through the Mojave Desert,
cuts across from thetowns that we know as the,
"High Desert." Which includeYucca Valley, Morongo Valley,
Joshua Tree, the town ofJoshua Tree, and 29 Palms.
(01:04):
And if you continueeastbound from 29 Palms,
but you still officially inthe zip code of 29 Palms,
you eventually hit aplace lovingly known as,
"Wonder Valley." It's anunincorporated part of 29 Palms.
And we're about 15 minutes from townand 60 miles from Palm Springs. Roughly.
(01:26):
About that, about a 15-minutedrive from downtown 29 Palms.
Gotcha. And what made you wannalive essentially in the middle
of nowhere? And what are you doing here?
I kept hearing about thisplace called Wonder Valley,
specifically about a place calledThe Palms in the middle of nowhere.
And somebody I knew was doinga music festival out here,
(01:50):
and I went to hear some friends playat this place in the middle of nowhere,
and it was The Palms out in WonderValley out in the middle of nowhere.
And I instantly fell in love with it.
I also got an eye for a singer for oneof the bands who happened to be the owner
of the restaurant and onething to led to another.
And here I am living out in the desert.
(02:12):
And she became your wife?
She became my wife. She is actuallythe owner of the restaurant.
She and her family own it.
And there's a lot of historyhere. I mean, it's not just,
it didn't just kind of come outtanothing. It was a rundown shack,
and a teenage girl had a dream, and hermom convinced her to pursue a dream.
Yes.
And now it's become something.
Exactly that. There's alot of history in the area.
(02:34):
The building was probablybuilt in the fifties.
It had been a couple of differentthings. Laura, my wife, the owner,
she had a dream as a when she was inher teens about owning a place where it
could be food and music. And hermom spoke to a friend who said,
"There's a place just down the road here,
you might wanna look into it."And the windows were bashed.
(02:55):
It was smashed up from it.
And they bought it andfixed it up and opened
on Halloween night in 1996.They had no power that night.
And the first keg of beer was to loanto them by the liquor distributor.
And they've been open eversince. And now it's good food,
(03:16):
live music all the time here.So, she's lived her dream here.
And it's quite an eclectic mix of stuff,right? I mean, you've got a guillotine,
and you've got an old bus, andyou've got amazing art on the walls,
and everything is telling a story.
Everything's got a story.
And there's some that I stillam probably going to learn.
(03:36):
There's a guillotine in the backyard.
It was made as a prop for amusic video for Laura's band.
The bus they had driventhrough Mexico, parked it here.
We had ideas of turning it into somewhatof a green room because it sits right
beyond the stage there.
But there are all these little thingsaround that have their own stories.
(04:00):
Wherever you turn, there'ssomething here that,
has a story of the history of theplace or a history of the talent.
And speaking of the music, it got astart from a couple different bands,
correct? Like, "The Sibleys,"is that Laura's band?
Yes. So,
"The Sibleys," the family thatbought the Palms are The Sibleys.
It's Laura, her brotherJames, and their mom Mary.
(04:23):
They bought this started this,
and James and his sisterLaura started The Sibleys.
And for a few years, theywere playing cover songs,
country covers, classic countrycovers, that sort of thing.
And they would play for hours. Theywould play for four hours, just covers,
covers, covers a much smallercrowd than there is now.
(04:46):
And cut to now,
I am now in the band. Theyhad a change of members. So,
now I play with the band. We playjust a couple of times a year.
We don't overdo it.
We play because we have fun and it's avery local crowd and people enjoy that
when we play. And but yeah,they used to play quite a bit.
(05:09):
We did have a German biker
tour group that would comein a couple of times a year,
and they would let us know ahead of time.
And they were motorcyclistswho guided by a tour bus.
And we would expect them,
they would come in andthey'd sit and have lunch.
(05:30):
We would provide a lunch for them,and then The Sibleys would play,
four songs maybe. And theywould always end with,
"Take Me Home CountryRoad," with John Denver.
Right.
And there would be 25 German bikers,
motorcyclists waving theirlighters, singing to,
(05:52):
"Take Me Home Country Road."It was just such a beautiful
picture of America for them whilethey were coming through the desert.
Right. And we are here ona special night. I mean,
there's a festival going on tonightwith about six bands this evening.
It is. And that festival is put onby a gentleman named Ben Vaughn,
who's a music producer and writer.
And that is the festival that I came to,
(06:18):
I dunno, eight years ago maybe.Originally when I met Laura. Ben
goes back and forth from Los Angelesto here. He lives out here, part-time.
And every year he has a smallfestival, usually about six bands.
And The Sibleys are always part of that.
They're part of the reason he decidedthat he wanted to live in Wonder Valley.
(06:40):
Nice. So,
we're here on a special day becauseThe Sibleys are actually performing.
Yes.
And they, of course, don't perform asoften as they used to, but still do.
Yes.
Okay. So, there's a lot goingon in the area, too. I mean,
this is kind of a homestead area.
There are little cabins aroundpeople settled here in the fifties.
In the fifties, and Idon't know all the details,
(07:03):
but apparently part of theHomestead Act was that if you built
a structure of a certaindimension, it was fairly small.
I don't know if it was10' by 10' or 12' by 12',
but it's fairly small structure.
You could claim the fiveacres that it was on.
So all around here,
there's these plots of land that are fiveacres with little tiny cabins on 'em.
(07:26):
They're really fun tolook at. And, you know,
over the course of time of thepast few years, especially,
people have purchased them andmade them little dwellings or
rent them out to their friendsor, but as you drive through here,
you can see them. They're,picturesque little cabins.
Some of them are in good shape.
And there's one nearby that I love becauseit looks like it's about to fall any
(07:49):
minute. But there's somethingbeautiful about that.
Right. And speaking of little cabins,
you have a bookstore across thestreet that's charging almost
nothing for the books in there.
People stop by on their passageand just kind of curious about the
artwork outside.
And you've got an eclectic mix of allkinds of books and records in there.
(08:11):
That is Wonderland books.It is a labor of love.
Laura at one point decided shewanted to turn that into a bookstore.
On the side of the building, there'sthe rabbit in the Alice Wonderland.
And it's just a small concrete,
one of those cabins built of concrete.And she filled it with books.
(08:32):
She used to leave the door unlocked,and people could just go in and browse.
They wanted a book and thought maybethey could check across the street at the
restaurant and see what to do aboutit. They might leave a dollar.
They just took the book. That was finewith us too. In more recent years,
we open it, especially on Sunday.
We let people know that go across thestreet and browse. If you want something,
(08:55):
give us a dollar or don't, andjust enjoy yourself over there.
Amazing. And speaking of the restaurant,Laura's quite the cook, right?
She's a vegan chef.
She's a vegan chef. Now.Her, she loves vegan food.
She makes a burger that peopletalk about, that people rave about.
She makes her non-vegan things.
(09:16):
Her regular menu is excellent,
but her passion has become veganfood plant-based cooking. She doesn't
eat meat at this point intime. She started every night.
We're open, she has a vegan special.
We do a fair amount ofvegans that come in here.
(09:37):
And it's nice to have it as an option,aside from the regular menu. And,
and then a couple of times a year,maybe three, four times a year,
she puts on a,
she usually a five-course plant-basedmeal where she makes every course,
she makes every cheese, everysauce, everything is made by her.
And she gets a crew of people to helpher do it and fills the back room with
(10:01):
people that treat it like anevent. Get to know each other.
They havea five-courseive-courseeal.
Does word just kind of spreadlike wildfire that Laura's cooking her five-course
meal? Or do you have to market this?
We do very little marketing. Assoon as we put it out, it sells out.
Everybody knows.
Everybody talks about it.
Everybody that's been to one comesto the next one and the next one.
(10:22):
And it is interesting that, again,
I'm kind of going back to that ideaof you're in the middle of nowhere.
It's hard to get peopleto come to nowhere. Right.
And it's like people are kindaset in their ways, and it's,
they don't wanna venture outta town. Andhere you are, like 15 miles from town,
but people continue to flock here.You've got this sense of community here.
(10:44):
There's a real community here.Really interesting place,
especially for someone that'slived in the big cities.
There's another venue that's very famous.
The other side of the high desert,Pappy and Harriets. Most people,
a lot of people know about it. PaulMcCartney played there. It's a big deal.
We are lesser knownbecause we are farther out.
(11:05):
And there's beauty to thatbecause we are farther out.
You get a little more space.We don't get overcrowded. But
we can do some thingsout here under the stars.
We have two-day experimentalmusic festivals.
Where else would you wanna do that?
Except under the stars inthe middle of nowhere, right?
(11:25):
Or where can you, because youget the light pollution. Right.
We don't have the light pollution.Even in the town of Joshua Tree,
which is beautiful, you're against thepark. There's many more businesses,
because we are the only place around.You don't get hardly any light pollution.
You can see little lights fromthe people living out here. So,
people that know us don't mind,
(11:46):
in fact appreciate making the extralittle drive to be out here in
the middle of nowhere. By the same token,
there are people that I've met that Imeet regularly in the town of 29 Palms
that's 15 minutes away, that have livedhere for years and have never been here.
Right.
They're afraid they've heard thestories, they, or whatever the reason,
(12:08):
or they're just curious. They didn'tknow what happened in that building. So,
there's a little bit of thepeople that know it love it,
and other people don't, and maybe that'sa good thing so we don't get overrun.
So nice balance.
Tell me about pricing. Youhad your burgers at $3.50,
and now they're at like $5.50.
When everybody else in townis 20 bucks for a burger.
(12:31):
When I first moved here,a hamburger was $3.
A cheeseburger was $3.50. And thatwas, I think, eight years ago.
We've raised the prices and every timewe have, we have maybe twice as said,
I always get a little bit about, Istruggle with it because I feel like,
(12:51):
are we gonna chase the customers away?So now our, our burgers are $5.50.
Wow. And it's like inflationjust kind of passed by here.
Again, it felt like, oh, we're gougingthe customers until I go anywhere else.
And I realize that I'm usedto what we charge here.
I go to a fast-food restaurantand a burger is $7.50-$8.00.
(13:14):
Right.
So again,
a passion project forLaura and her family.
There's a big connection for thecommunity. And when they bought the place,
Laura's mom played a reallyimportant role in buying it.
And she was reallyconnected to the community.
And she knew that some peopledidn't have registration.
(13:35):
Some people didn't haveyou know, they couldn't,
they didn't have a lot of money. And so,
they could come here and get a sixpack of beer for not very much money:
for hardly anything. Andthey could get a burger.
They could get food,they could buy closeout.
We have a rack where you can buy a T-shirtfor a couple of dollars so they could
buy the basics that theyneeded and afford to do. So,
(13:57):
we're not making a killing here,but that's not what this is about.
Right. It's almost a community serviceproject. I mean, you're open on weekends,
right? Friday, Saturday,Sunday, you've got brunch.
We have brunch.
And then the, the bookstoreis open during brunch hours.
Sunday during brunch hours. It's abusy weekend for us. And it's a lot.
And there are other personal projectsthat we do. So, it's, for us personally,
(14:20):
it's enough. I don't think we could doless than that without the community.
being upset. We arealso a community meeting place.,
there's a community center just down theroad. But this is where people meet to.
I don't know if you, if the, thelisteners can hear in the background.
There's some chatting.
There are people that come in in hereevery day just to talk to each other.
(14:42):
This is where they see each other. So,
it's very much acommunity gathering place.
It's it is a watering hole.It's a restaurant. It's venue,
but it's a place where people meeteach other and talk to each other.
And everybody knows each other byname. I could, if I walked out there,
I could name everybody at the bar.
Right. And then let's talkabout the music festivals,
because you've had several inthe past with different themes.
(15:05):
I read one was
High Desert Hukilau Music Festival, the.
High Desert Hukilau Music Festival.
Hukilau.
They've been doingfestivals here for a while.
There's usually about two inthe fall and two in the spring.
Sometimes they're rock androll, or they've had a,
(15:26):
an experimental festivalhere for many years.
Another experimental festival.Experimental festival joined in.
Now, when is that? What'san experimental festival?
Experimental music is, is quitean umbrella of sounds. So,
for both of these festivals,the sets tend to be short.
They get a lot of musiciansin going from the early in the
(15:50):
day to late at night.
And the range with experimentalmusic is if you can imagine something
quiet and maybe droney almostlike soft and to something
crazy and grinding and costumes.And it covers quite an array.
It's very fun. It may not besomething that you hear on the radio.
(16:12):
But not knowing, going into anexperimental music festival,
just going in blindly. You,
you can really just have funhearing all kinds of green stuff.
And people who know, know.
People who know. Well, that's the thing.
When we have an experimentalmusic festival here,
people come here for miles forthat. They come from San Diego.
(16:32):
They come from San Francisco.
Oh, wow, that's far!
It's a scene. There are people thatare really involved in that community.
But again, a festivallike we can have out here,
you can't really have a lot ofplaces. So, they will travel.
And this last weekend we had ahuge one. It was weekend long.
People camped out. They were here allday, all night. Music went till late,
(16:55):
till one in the morning,1:30 in the morning,
and then started again the next day, andone after another. It's a great time.
That's awesome. And they film movies here.
We've done film shoots movieshoots. We've done music videos
of all shapes of sizes.
We've done everything from studentfilms to a little bit larger.
(17:24):
There's a band called, "Shakespeare'sSister" that had broken up.
They got back together after 27 years.
And they did their first music video here.There's a lot that that goes on here.
There's a movie, I don't knowif I can talk about it yet,
but there's a movie that was shot here.
They're still putting the pieces together,
but there's a couple of big namesinvolved. That should be fun if,
(17:49):
when that comes out. Butalso, there's videos.
Sometimes we will have people that justwant to use our parking lot because it's
the only parking lot around. So,
there was a music video with BadBunny shot here a couple years
ago.
Okay.
They just needed a parking lot.
And they did a video with Bad Bunnystanding at a bus as was going down the
highway. So there's stuffgoing on around here.
(18:11):
People love filming in the desert.
What are the plans for the future? Areyou gonna keep it small and intimate?
Are there ideas to grow? I mean,
I know that the pressure is alwayskind of like bigger is better,
but then there's something that'skind of lost when you get too big and
then keeping the burger prices at $5.50.
Absolutely. Now, that's a good question.
(18:32):
Sometimes when somethinggrows too big too fast,
it changes the nature of it.
And there was actually somebody that wastalking to the owners a few years ago
about if you sold your property,
you could sell it for a lot ofmoney, because it's, for us.
You've got the liquor license, you'vegot, we've got 15 acres, you've got this,
(18:54):
that, and they weren't interestedin doing that, even though it was
Apparently worth a lot of money. AndI talked to Laura about, she said,
"I hate the thought of itturning into something else."
So, along those lines, yes.
If we spent more timetrying to make this the next
(19:16):
big thing, it would change the natureof it would no longer be what it is now.
I don't think any of us are interestedin that. She doesn't, I'm not,
the family is not, we really like it beingthis place that serves the community,
and that people can goto and be surprised.
They walk in this door of a place in themiddle of nowhere and look at all this
stuff.
But if it was the place thateverybody from LA to San Diego
(19:40):
heard about, it wouldbecome something different.
It would become a tourist attraction ora venue that would be a three hour wait
to get into. And none ofus are interested in that.
Right.
None of us are.
Yeah. You know, you raised a point, italmost happened at a perfect time, right?
Because here she was, shewas in her teens; still
(20:01):
amazes me. She had a dream. It's kindalike that movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes.".
Yes.
If you ever saw that, wherethe old rundown train stop,
and they fixed it up. But itwouldn't happen today. Right.
If you had a rundown building, I mean,you'd have to get the liquor license.
That's a challenge. You do musichere till one o'clock in the morning.
(20:25):
And so things were justeasier back 20, 25,
30 years ago. Now everythingis bureaucratic and cumbersome.
Even though you're inthe middle of nowhere,
it would be so much harder to replicatethis today. You almost couldn't.
I don't know if you could replicate this,
when we have a very exhausting weekend,and she and I'll talk and I'll say,
(20:46):
"Why are we doing this?""Why what?" Then she'll say,
"Don't blame me. I was a teenager.I didn't know what I was doing." So,
there's little truths to that fora while. When they first opened it,
they had a place next door.Laura would be over there.
Her mom would be bartending.If they got an order,
Mary would get ahold of Laura,
who would walk on over here and cook aburger and then walk back home. I mean,
(21:10):
it started with that. And they couldn'thave known this was gonna happen.
But they also bought a couple oflittle cabins and fixed them up
and rented them out ifthey needed to be rented.
This is before Airbnb evenexisted, I believe. And so,
people got to visit and therewas a place to come to. So,
this community of Wonder Valley, this
(21:32):
place plays a significant role ineven the community of Wonder Valley.
They couldn't have planned that. Itwas the right people, the right place,
the right time. If someone tried todo this again, it couldn't be done.
And then you've got thisbus, which is kind of a relic
testament to a trip that they took.
Yes.
A family trip that theytook through Mexico.
They rode through Mexico. I don'tknow a lot of details about that yet.
(21:56):
I'm still working through other stories.I'm working my way through the stories.
But things in the beltsof the, the guillotine,
one of their songs TheSiblings have a song called,
"Can I Borrow You Guillotine?"Which they'll play tonight.
There's music video that'sdone at the guillotine. Again,
just things that were part of their livesat certain points in their lives ended
up here. And they just seemed to be.
(22:19):
It shot.
An important part of what,
when people go to the back tooutside to see a show or a festival,
see the bust in the background ofthe stage. The stage, actually,
the stage itself is abeautiful light blue.
The stage was theunderpinnings of a skate ramp.
Skateboarding.
(22:40):
For skateboarding. They bought it.They took it, they flipped over.
And now it is the stage.
I knew some people in LosAngeles wanting to get married,
and they wanted to get married here.
And they said they would like topaint that in blue black. I said, "Oh,
we can't do that." They said, "We'llpaint it, we'll paint it back." I said,
"No, you might wanna getmarried somewhere else.".
(23:01):
So, the musicians here are verydiverse. I mean, even on a single night.
Yeah.
It's not all the samegenre or the same sound.
We're only open two nightsand then Sunday brunch,
Friday night is always open mic. So,anybody can come to do anything they want.
On Friday night, open mic night.
Friday night a gentleman bythe name of Gray Hill runs it.
(23:22):
Gray Hill's Open Mic is mostlymusicians, sometimes comedy,
but we never know who we're gonna get.
And then Saturday is our nightthat we reserve for booking.
And until I came along, it was generallymusic. If somebody wanted to play here,
"Sure. Let's do it." Andyou could get anything here.
The festivals, again, the festival,you know, the experimental music,
(23:42):
the rock and roll, different festivals.
The Hukilau Music Festival thatyou spoke about was one that I put
together. When I came here, I
got a call from theWashington Post. I said,
"Coachella is happening down the hill.
Are you guys doing something?" And Ilooked at my calendar at the weekend,
(24:04):
there was nothing booked. I said,"No, we aren't, but we can, we will.
We are." So, Icalled everybody I knew,
and within a day I probably had 15bands. And by the end of the weekend,
I had 29 bands scheduled to play.
Ahe same time Coachella washappening down the road.
At the same time.Coachella's two weekends.
But the first weekend we had 29bands booked here for a weekend.
(24:26):
It was a weekend-longfestival that I put on.
I didn't know what I was doing really.And we had bands inside and outside.
We had Victoria Williams playing inside.
She's kind of a big namefor the area. Ben Vaughn.
It was a mix. Everybody was local.And it was just a wonderful event.
(24:48):
And that was just somethingI was able to do out here,
because they have the means todo it. There's an indoor station,
an Outdoor Station, but Ialso have a love for theater.
I've been involved with theater.
I was in a big show inLos Angeles for years,
and I wanted to bring it out here,
which has actually had a lot to dowith me getting to know Laura. So,
since I've been here,
(25:08):
we've also brought some theaterin here and some comedy and some
literary stuff. There's anevent for example called,
"Red Light Lit" that is storytelling.
But there's improvised music going onin the background while you're telling a
story. And all of these areproduced by different people. So,
this is now something that we bringin, but people call us and say,
(25:32):
"We'd like to do this here." Andthey always enjoy it here. So,
we become a regular stopfor some of these people.
There's a friend that thatis out here, Lisa Moncure.
Her music also includes some spoken word.
She wears a bright redwig. She's very dramatic.
(25:53):
She'll stand on the table and sing.
She's got a standup bassplayer and a really tight,
good band that she plays with. And that'sa mix of spoken and word and music.
And it's very mysterious and playful.
And sometimes she'll have peopledance around as while this is going on
we have something that startedin here called Stage Fright.
(26:17):
It started with an open mic.And the person that started it her name is Lindsay,
but in costume, she calls herself,"A Lolly, Good woman.".
She dresses up a little bitlike a clown with crazy hair,
lipstick all messed up.
And her idea to start with wasfor Stage Fright that the band
faced the other directionaway from the audience.
(26:38):
They were afraid to perform.
She didn't really knowwhat it was going to be.
And she kept doing it everyopen mic. And it started,
and the band grew to being
half the community incostume. There was an alien.
There was someone dressed in an alienthat would start teasing someone in the
audience.
They had just all these wackycostumes and all this wacky music.
(27:02):
And over the course of time, itdeveloped into this performance.
The music became a little morelegit. And the performance of it.
It's quite the show. It's a spectacle. So,
if you're coming from anywhere and youjust happen in this place in the middle
of nowhere.
To walk in nowhere Yeah.And what's going on here?
And there's an alien on the table,
and there's an accordion playerwearing a silver mask playing,
(27:25):
but no notes are coming out. Andall this, you know, you just like,
"Where am I?".
And these folks probably don't takethese characters anywhere else,
it just stays within The Palms?
That one's hit a couple local places,but this is the home for that.
This is the original.
Yes.
Awesome. Not to make the place toofamous. 'cause you wanna, you know,
(27:47):
keep the venue small. But for folksthat do wanna come and experience,
how do you get here?
If you're on the 10 freeway,
you would get off atHighway 62 and take that
eastbound. It goes north,and then it goes eastbound.
And then it takes you through Morongo and.
And Yucca and Joshua Tree. Andthen at, in downtown 29 Palms,
(28:10):
you would take a loft or northboundon Adobe Road. You continued on,
it would take you to very,very large military base.
The Marine base is I believe thebiggest in the nation. That's.
That's called 29 Palms.
In 29 Palms. And then you wouldtake, as you're going on Adobe,
you would take a right onto AmboyRoad and continue on Amboy about maybe
(28:32):
12 miles. And we're off to the right.
We are also a route thatpeople take to go to Las Vegas.
And it's a very scenic route.
Winds around if people don'twanna drive to the highway. So,
we do get some traffic comingfrom Vegas and going to Vegas.
Some of its people that havebeen here and want to stop.
Every time they come and goto Vegas, they'll stop here.
(28:55):
And some people arejust going to Las Vegas,
and they see this place andthey think, let's check it out.
I saw the sign with thebuffalo. It's not palm trees,
it's a buffalo. And you'rewearing it on your shirt.
And there's planets thathave been drilled into the
buffalo. What's that all about?
The Palms. The sign for the Palms. Yes.
(29:16):
The bison has nothingto do with palm trees.
That was there when they came intothe building. They left it there.
And there's something that I think weall like about it not being a palm tree.
Was it called The Palms?
It was called The Palms when they boughtit. But the planets that are on it now,
if you go to the sign, itwas just a, a dark image of,
(29:37):
of a bison black imageon a brown wooden sign.
Now there's some planets that are puton it. The day at work, I walked in,
and Laura came out of the kitchen,
and somebody came into the restaurantand said, "Who, who painted the sign?
Who put the planets on the side?"And Laura and I looked at each other.
We had no idea. "I don't know what,
(29:57):
what are you talking about?" "There'splanets on the side." We walked outside
and sure enough, there wereplanets on the side. Somebody,
one of our regular customershad decided that it should have
planets on it, sort of likea solar system on the bison.
They did it.
(30:17):
And they're a customer that's also avery good friend and has been a friend of
the family's for years. And she did,
she put those on in a way that we couldtake 'em off if we didn't like them,
but they were a gift.
And that speaks a lot tohow the community feels
about this place. It wasa gift from her to us.
(30:40):
And we love it. We keep 'em on.
But she also did it in a way she didto surprise us, but also in a way,
if we didn't care for,we could take them off.
Laura and I got married out herethree years ago, almost to the day,
three years ago, out on the stage.
And the entire weddingwas thrown by community,
(31:01):
by friends. All the decorating;
we have a friend who plays accordion.She led the procession down the,
by the side of the street to go aroundup to the stage. And it's a mix.
It's a mix politically.It's a mix in all the ways.
And you can be sittingright next to somebody that believes completely different
(31:24):
than you do. You're just having abeer and they're just having a burger.
And that's part of themagic of this place.
No one gets into each other's personalstuff. Every comes here just to,
to talk to whoever they're talkingto and have a drink and some food.
And, you know, we stayin neutral otherwise.
And everybody also loves this placeis being a place that they can go to
(31:48):
and a place that you canhave entertainment right in your backyard here without
having to drive to theother side or tail. Right.
Well, Kevin, Bo,
thank you so much for being ourguest on this edition of On the Road.
We've loved learning about you and ThePalms and what folks can do if they wanna
drive out into the middle ofnowhere. There's actually lots to do.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
(32:08):
I enjoyed it.
And we wanna thank oursponsor, Opus Escrow.
And be sure to tune innext time for On the Road.
This episode of On the Road is abouta hidden gem in the middle of nowhere.
Hi, friends, it's Paul Ward, andwelcome to On the Road. Well,
do you ever want to be out in the middleof nowhere and get away from the hustle
bustle of everyday life, but still, ofcourse, you want something to do? Well,
(00:21):
my next guest might have the answer.
Kevin Bone is the proprietor andco-owner of the Palms Restaurant
here in the middle of nowhere,which is Wonder Valley, California,
just off of Highway 62.Kevin, welcome to On the Road.
Thank you, Paul.
Absolutely. And tell us for ouraudience, where exactly are we?
(00:41):
Where is Highway 62?
Highway 62 stretches from the 10 Freeway,
comes up through the Mojave Desert,
cuts across from thetowns that we know as the,
"High Desert." Which includeYucca Valley, Morongo Valley,
Joshua Tree, the town ofJoshua Tree, and 29 Palms.
(01:04):
And if you continueeastbound from 29 Palms,
but you still officially inthe zip code of 29 Palms,
you eventually hit aplace lovingly known as,
"Wonder Valley." It's anunincorporated part of 29 Palms.
And we're about 15 minutes from townand 60 miles from Palm Springs. Roughly.
(01:26):
About that, about a 15-minutedrive from downtown 29 Palms.
Gotcha. And what made you wannalive essentially in the middle
of nowhere? And what are you doing here?
I kept hearing about thisplace called Wonder Valley,
specifically about a place calledThe Palms in the middle of nowhere.
And somebody I knew was doinga music festival out here,
(01:50):
and I went to hear some friends playat this place in the middle of nowhere,
and it was The Palms out in WonderValley out in the middle of nowhere.
And I instantly fell in love with it.
I also got an eye for a singer for oneof the bands who happened to be the owner
of the restaurant and onething to led to another.
And here I am living out in the desert.
(02:12):
And she became your wife?
She became my wife. She is actuallythe owner of the restaurant.
She and her family own it.
And there's a lot of historyhere. I mean, it's not just,
it didn't just kind of come outtanothing. It was a rundown shack,
and a teenage girl had a dream, and hermom convinced her to pursue a dream.
Yes.
And now it's become something.
Exactly that. There's alot of history in the area.
(02:34):
The building was probablybuilt in the fifties.
It had been a couple of differentthings. Laura, my wife, the owner,
she had a dream as a when she was inher teens about owning a place where it
could be food and music. And hermom spoke to a friend who said,
"There's a place just down the road here,
you might wanna look into it."And the windows were bashed.
(02:55):
It was smashed up from it.
And they bought it andfixed it up and opened
on Halloween night in 1996.They had no power that night.
And the first keg of beer was to loanto them by the liquor distributor.
And they've been open eversince. And now it's good food,
(03:16):
live music all the time here.So, she's lived her dream here.
And it's quite an eclectic mix of stuff,right? I mean, you've got a guillotine,
and you've got an old bus, andyou've got amazing art on the walls,
and everything is telling a story.
Everything's got a story.
And there's some that I stillam probably going to learn.
(03:36):
There's a guillotine in the backyard.
It was made as a prop for amusic video for Laura's band.
The bus they had driventhrough Mexico, parked it here.
We had ideas of turning it into somewhatof a green room because it sits right
beyond the stage there.
But there are all these little thingsaround that have their own stories.
(04:00):
Wherever you turn, there'ssomething here that,
has a story of the history of theplace or a history of the talent.
And speaking of the music, it got astart from a couple different bands,
correct? Like, "The Sibleys,"is that Laura's band?
Yes. So,
"The Sibleys," the family thatbought the Palms are The Sibleys.
It's Laura, her brotherJames, and their mom Mary.
(04:23):
They bought this started this,
and James and his sisterLaura started The Sibleys.
And for a few years, theywere playing cover songs,
country covers, classic countrycovers, that sort of thing.
And they would play for hours. Theywould play for four hours, just covers,
covers, covers a much smallercrowd than there is now.
(04:46):
And cut to now,
I am now in the band. Theyhad a change of members. So,
now I play with the band. We playjust a couple of times a year.
We don't overdo it.
We play because we have fun and it's avery local crowd and people enjoy that
when we play. And but yeah,they used to play quite a bit.
(05:09):
We did have a German biker
tour group that would comein a couple of times a year,
and they would let us know ahead of time.
And they were motorcyclistswho guided by a tour bus.
And we would expect them,
they would come in andthey'd sit and have lunch.
(05:30):
We would provide a lunch for them,and then The Sibleys would play,
four songs maybe. And theywould always end with,
"Take Me Home CountryRoad," with John Denver.
Right.
And there would be 25 German bikers,
motorcyclists waving theirlighters, singing to,
(05:52):
"Take Me Home Country Road."It was just such a beautiful
picture of America for them whilethey were coming through the desert.
Right. And we are here ona special night. I mean,
there's a festival going on tonightwith about six bands this evening.
It is. And that festival is put onby a gentleman named Ben Vaughn,
who's a music producer and writer.
And that is the festival that I came to,
(06:18):
I dunno, eight years ago maybe.Originally when I met Laura. Ben
goes back and forth from Los Angelesto here. He lives out here, part-time.
And every year he has a smallfestival, usually about six bands.
And The Sibleys are always part of that.
They're part of the reason he decidedthat he wanted to live in Wonder Valley.
(06:40):
Nice. So,
we're here on a special day becauseThe Sibleys are actually performing.
Yes.
And they, of course, don't perform asoften as they used to, but still do.
Yes.
Okay. So, there's a lot goingon in the area, too. I mean,
this is kind of a homestead area.
There are little cabins aroundpeople settled here in the fifties.
In the fifties, and Idon't know all the details,
(07:03):
but apparently part of theHomestead Act was that if you built
a structure of a certaindimension, it was fairly small.
I don't know if it was10' by 10' or 12' by 12',
but it's fairly small structure.
You could claim the fiveacres that it was on.
So all around here,
there's these plots of land that are fiveacres with little tiny cabins on 'em.
(07:26):
They're really fun tolook at. And, you know,
over the course of time of thepast few years, especially,
people have purchased them andmade them little dwellings or
rent them out to their friendsor, but as you drive through here,
you can see them. They're,picturesque little cabins.
Some of them are in good shape.
And there's one nearby that I love becauseit looks like it's about to fall any
(07:49):
minute. But there's somethingbeautiful about that.
Right. And speaking of little cabins,
you have a bookstore across thestreet that's charging almost
nothing for the books in there.
People stop by on their passageand just kind of curious about the
artwork outside.
And you've got an eclectic mix of allkinds of books and records in there.
(08:11):
That is Wonderland books.It is a labor of love.
Laura at one point decided shewanted to turn that into a bookstore.
On the side of the building, there'sthe rabbit in the Alice Wonderland.
And it's just a small concrete,
one of those cabins built of concrete.And she filled it with books.
(08:32):
She used to leave the door unlocked,and people could just go in and browse.
They wanted a book and thought maybethey could check across the street at the
restaurant and see what to do aboutit. They might leave a dollar.
They just took the book. That was finewith us too. In more recent years,
we open it, especially on Sunday.
We let people know that go across thestreet and browse. If you want something,
(08:55):
give us a dollar or don't, andjust enjoy yourself over there.
Amazing. And speaking of the restaurant,Laura's quite the cook, right?
She's a vegan chef.
She's a vegan chef. Now.Her, she loves vegan food.
She makes a burger that peopletalk about, that people rave about.
She makes her non-vegan things.
(09:16):
Her regular menu is excellent,
but her passion has become veganfood plant-based cooking. She doesn't
eat meat at this point intime. She started every night.
We're open, she has a vegan special.
We do a fair amount ofvegans that come in here.
(09:37):
And it's nice to have it as an option,aside from the regular menu. And,
and then a couple of times a year,maybe three, four times a year,
she puts on a,
she usually a five-course plant-basedmeal where she makes every course,
she makes every cheese, everysauce, everything is made by her.
And she gets a crew of people to helpher do it and fills the back room with
(10:01):
people that treat it like anevent. Get to know each other.
They havea five-courseive-courseeal.
Does word just kind of spreadlike wildfire that Laura's cooking her five-course
meal? Or do you have to market this?
We do very little marketing. Assoon as we put it out, it sells out.
Everybody knows.
Everybody talks about it.
Everybody that's been to one comesto the next one and the next one.
(10:22):
And it is interesting that, again,
I'm kind of going back to that ideaof you're in the middle of nowhere.
It's hard to get peopleto come to nowhere. Right.
And it's like people are kindaset in their ways, and it's,
they don't wanna venture outta town. Andhere you are, like 15 miles from town,
but people continue to flock here.You've got this sense of community here.
(10:44):
There's a real community here.Really interesting place,
especially for someone that'slived in the big cities.
There's another venue that's very famous.
The other side of the high desert,Pappy and Harriets. Most people,
a lot of people know about it. PaulMcCartney played there. It's a big deal.
We are lesser knownbecause we are farther out.
(11:05):
And there's beauty to thatbecause we are farther out.
You get a little more space.We don't get overcrowded. But
we can do some thingsout here under the stars.
We have two-day experimentalmusic festivals.
Where else would you wanna do that?
Except under the stars inthe middle of nowhere, right?
(11:25):
Or where can you, because youget the light pollution. Right.
We don't have the light pollution.Even in the town of Joshua Tree,
which is beautiful, you're against thepark. There's many more businesses,
because we are the only place around.You don't get hardly any light pollution.
You can see little lights fromthe people living out here. So,
people that know us don't mind,
(11:46):
in fact appreciate making the extralittle drive to be out here in
the middle of nowhere. By the same token,
there are people that I've met that Imeet regularly in the town of 29 Palms
that's 15 minutes away, that have livedhere for years and have never been here.
Right.
They're afraid they've heard thestories, they, or whatever the reason,
(12:08):
or they're just curious. They didn'tknow what happened in that building. So,
there's a little bit of thepeople that know it love it,
and other people don't, and maybe that'sa good thing so we don't get overrun.
So nice balance.
Tell me about pricing. Youhad your burgers at $3.50,
and now they're at like $5.50.
When everybody else in townis 20 bucks for a burger.
(12:31):
When I first moved here,a hamburger was $3.
A cheeseburger was $3.50. And thatwas, I think, eight years ago.
We've raised the prices and every timewe have, we have maybe twice as said,
I always get a little bit about, Istruggle with it because I feel like,
(12:51):
are we gonna chase the customers away?So now our, our burgers are $5.50.
Wow. And it's like inflationjust kind of passed by here.
Again, it felt like, oh, we're gougingthe customers until I go anywhere else.
And I realize that I'm usedto what we charge here.
I go to a fast-food restaurantand a burger is $7.50-$8.00.
(13:14):
Right.
So again,
a passion project forLaura and her family.
There's a big connection for thecommunity. And when they bought the place,
Laura's mom played a reallyimportant role in buying it.
And she was reallyconnected to the community.
And she knew that some peopledidn't have registration.
(13:35):
Some people didn't haveyou know, they couldn't,
they didn't have a lot of money. And so,
they could come here and get a sixpack of beer for not very much money:
for hardly anything. Andthey could get a burger.
They could get food,they could buy closeout.
We have a rack where you can buy a T-shirtfor a couple of dollars so they could
buy the basics that theyneeded and afford to do. So,
(13:57):
we're not making a killing here,but that's not what this is about.
Right. It's almost a community serviceproject. I mean, you're open on weekends,
right? Friday, Saturday,Sunday, you've got brunch.
We have brunch.
And then the, the bookstoreis open during brunch hours.
Sunday during brunch hours. It's abusy weekend for us. And it's a lot.
And there are other personal projectsthat we do. So, it's, for us personally,
(14:20):
it's enough. I don't think we could doless than that without the community.
there's a community center just down theroad. But this is where people meet to.
I don't know if you, if the, thelisteners can hear in the background.
There's some chatting.
There are people that come in in hereevery day just to talk to each other.
(14:42):
This is where they see each other. So,
it's very much acommunity gathering place.
It's it is a watering hole.It's a restaurant. It's venue,
but it's a place where people meeteach other and talk to each other.
And everybody knows each other byname. I could, if I walked out there,
I could name everybody at the bar.
Right. And then let's talkabout the music festivals,
because you've had several inthe past with different themes.
(15:05):
I read one was
High Desert Hukilau Music Festival, the.
High Desert Hukilau Music Festival.
Hukilau.
They've been doingfestivals here for a while.
There's usually about two inthe fall and two in the spring.
Sometimes they're rock androll, or they've had a,
(15:26):
an experimental festivalhere for many years.
Another experimental festival.Experimental festival joined in.
Now, when is that? What'san experimental festival?
Experimental music is, is quitean umbrella of sounds. So,
for both of these festivals,the sets tend to be short.
They get a lot of musiciansin going from the early in the
(15:50):
day to late at night.
And the range with experimentalmusic is if you can imagine something
quiet and maybe droney almostlike soft and to something
crazy and grinding and costumes.And it covers quite an array.
It's very fun. It may not besomething that you hear on the radio.
(16:12):
But not knowing, going into anexperimental music festival,
just going in blindly. You,
you can really just have funhearing all kinds of green stuff.
And people who know, know.
People who know. Well, that's the thing.
When we have an experimentalmusic festival here,
people come here for miles forthat. They come from San Diego.
(16:32):
They come from San Francisco.
Oh, wow, that's far!
It's a scene. There are people thatare really involved in that community.
But again, a festivallike we can have out here,
you can't really have a lot ofplaces. So, they will travel.
And this last weekend we had ahuge one. It was weekend long.
People camped out. They were here allday, all night. Music went till late,
(16:55):
till one in the morning,1:30 in the morning,
and then started again the next day, andone after another. It's a great time.
That's awesome. And they film movies here.
We've done film shoots movieshoots. We've done music videos
of all shapes of sizes.
We've done everything from studentfilms to a little bit larger.
(17:24):
There's a band called, "Shakespeare'sSister" that had broken up.
They got back together after 27 years.
And they did their first music video here.There's a lot that that goes on here.
There's a movie, I don't knowif I can talk about it yet,
but there's a movie that was shot here.
They're still putting the pieces together,
but there's a couple of big namesinvolved. That should be fun if,
(17:49):
when that comes out. Butalso, there's videos.
Sometimes we will have people that justwant to use our parking lot because it's
the only parking lot around. So,
there was a music video with BadBunny shot here a couple years
ago.
Okay.
They just needed a parking lot.
And they did a video with Bad Bunnystanding at a bus as was going down the
highway. So there's stuffgoing on around here.
(18:11):
People love filming in the desert.
What are the plans for the future? Areyou gonna keep it small and intimate?
Are there ideas to grow? I mean,
I know that the pressure is alwayskind of like bigger is better,
but then there's something that'skind of lost when you get too big and
then keeping the burger prices at $5.50.
Absolutely. Now, that's a good question.
(18:32):
Sometimes when somethinggrows too big too fast,
it changes the nature of it.
And there was actually somebody that wastalking to the owners a few years ago
about if you sold your property,
you could sell it for a lot ofmoney, because it's, for us.
You've got the liquor license, you'vegot, we've got 15 acres, you've got this,
(18:54):
that, and they weren't interestedin doing that, even though it was
Apparently worth a lot of money. AndI talked to Laura about, she said,
"I hate the thought of itturning into something else."
So, along those lines, yes.
If we spent more timetrying to make this the next
(19:16):
big thing, it would change the natureof it would no longer be what it is now.
I don't think any of us are interestedin that. She doesn't, I'm not,
the family is not, we really like it beingthis place that serves the community,
and that people can goto and be surprised.
They walk in this door of a place in themiddle of nowhere and look at all this
stuff.
But if it was the place thateverybody from LA to San Diego
(19:40):
heard about, it wouldbecome something different.
It would become a tourist attraction ora venue that would be a three hour wait
to get into. And none ofus are interested in that.
Right.
None of us are.
Yeah. You know, you raised a point, italmost happened at a perfect time, right?
Because here she was, shewas in her teens; still
(20:01):
amazes me. She had a dream. It's kindalike that movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes.".
Yes.
If you ever saw that, wherethe old rundown train stop,
and they fixed it up. But itwouldn't happen today. Right.
If you had a rundown building, I mean,you'd have to get the liquor license.
That's a challenge. You do musichere till one o'clock in the morning.
(20:25):
And so things were justeasier back 20, 25,
30 years ago. Now everythingis bureaucratic and cumbersome.
Even though you're inthe middle of nowhere,
it would be so much harder to replicatethis today. You almost couldn't.
I don't know if you could replicate this,
when we have a very exhausting weekend,and she and I'll talk and I'll say,
(20:46):
"Why are we doing this?""Why what?" Then she'll say,
"Don't blame me. I was a teenager.I didn't know what I was doing." So,
there's little truths to that fora while. When they first opened it,
they had a place next door.Laura would be over there.
Her mom would be bartending.If they got an order,
Mary would get ahold of Laura,
who would walk on over here and cook aburger and then walk back home. I mean,
(21:10):
it started with that. And they couldn'thave known this was gonna happen.
But they also bought a couple oflittle cabins and fixed them up
and rented them out ifthey needed to be rented.
This is before Airbnb evenexisted, I believe. And so,
people got to visit and therewas a place to come to. So,
this community of Wonder Valley, this
(21:32):
place plays a significant role ineven the community of Wonder Valley.
They couldn't have planned that. Itwas the right people, the right place,
the right time. If someone tried todo this again, it couldn't be done.
And then you've got thisbus, which is kind of a relic
testament to a trip that they took.
Yes.
A family trip that theytook through Mexico.
They rode through Mexico. I don'tknow a lot of details about that yet.
(21:56):
I'm still working through other stories.I'm working my way through the stories.
But things in the beltsof the, the guillotine,
one of their songs TheSiblings have a song called,
"Can I Borrow You Guillotine?"Which they'll play tonight.
There's music video that'sdone at the guillotine. Again,
just things that were part of their livesat certain points in their lives ended
up here. And they just seemed to be.
(22:19):
It shot.
An important part of what,
when people go to the back tooutside to see a show or a festival,
see the bust in the background ofthe stage. The stage, actually,
the stage itself is abeautiful light blue.
The stage was theunderpinnings of a skate ramp.
Skateboarding.
(22:40):
For skateboarding. They bought it.They took it, they flipped over.
And now it is the stage.
I knew some people in LosAngeles wanting to get married,
and they wanted to get married here.
And they said they would like topaint that in blue black. I said, "Oh,
we can't do that." They said, "We'llpaint it, we'll paint it back." I said,
"No, you might wanna getmarried somewhere else.".
(23:01):
So, the musicians here are verydiverse. I mean, even on a single night.
Yeah.
It's not all the samegenre or the same sound.
We're only open two nightsand then Sunday brunch,
Friday night is always open mic. So,anybody can come to do anything they want.
On Friday night, open mic night.
Friday night a gentleman bythe name of Gray Hill runs it.
(23:22):
Gray Hill's Open Mic is mostlymusicians, sometimes comedy,
but we never know who we're gonna get.
And then Saturday is our nightthat we reserve for booking.
And until I came along, it was generallymusic. If somebody wanted to play here,
"Sure. Let's do it." Andyou could get anything here.
The festivals, again, the festival,you know, the experimental music,
(23:42):
the rock and roll, different festivals.
The Hukilau Music Festival thatyou spoke about was one that I put
together. When I came here, I
got a call from theWashington Post. I said,
"Coachella is happening down the hill.
Are you guys doing something?" And Ilooked at my calendar at the weekend,
(24:04):
there was nothing booked. I said,"No, we aren't, but we can, we will.
We are
and within a day I probably had 15bands. And by the end of the weekend,
I had 29 bands scheduled to play.
Ahe same time Coachella washappening down the road.
At the same time.Coachella's two weekends.
But the first weekend we had 29bands booked here for a weekend.
(24:26):
It was a weekend-longfestival that I put on.
I didn't know what I was doing really.And we had bands inside and outside.
We had Victoria Williams playing inside.
She's kind of a big namefor the area. Ben Vaughn.
It was a mix. Everybody was local.And it was just a wonderful event.
(24:48):
And that was just somethingI was able to do out here,
because they have the means todo it. There's an indoor station,
an Outdoor Station, but Ialso have a love for theater.
I've been involved with theater.
I was in a big show inLos Angeles for years,
and I wanted to bring it out here,
which has actually had a lot to dowith me getting to know Laura. So,
since I've been here,
(25:08):
we've also brought some theaterin here and some comedy and some
literary stuff. There's anevent for example called,
"Red Light Lit" that is storytelling.
But there's improvised music going onin the background while you're telling a
story. And all of these areproduced by different people. So,
this is now something that we bringin, but people call us and say,
(25:32):
"We'd like to do this here." Andthey always enjoy it here. So,
we become a regular stopfor some of these people.
There's a friend that thatis out here, Lisa Moncure.
Her music also includes some spoken word.
She wears a bright redwig. She's very dramatic.
(25:53):
She'll stand on the table and sing.
She's got a standup bassplayer and a really tight,
good band that she plays with. And that'sa mix of spoken and word and music.
And it's very mysterious and playful.
And sometimes she'll have peopledance around as while this is going on
we have something that startedin here called Stage Fright.
(26:17):
It started with an open mic.And the person that started it her name is Lindsay,
but in costume, she calls herself,"A Lolly, Good woman."
She dresses up a little bitlike a clown with crazy hair,
lipstick all messed up.
And her idea to start with wasfor Stage Fright that the band
faced the other directionaway from the audience.
(26:38):
They were afraid to perform
She didn't really knowwhat it was going to be.
And she kept doing it everyopen mic. And it started,
and the band grew to being
half the community incostume. There was an alien.
There was someone dressed in an alienthat would start teasing someone in the
audience.
They had just all these wackycostumes and all this wacky music.
(27:02):
And over the course of time, itdeveloped into this performance.
The music became a little morelegit. And the performance of it.
It's quite the show. It's a spectacle. So,
if you're coming from anywhere and youjust happen in this place in the middle
of nowhere.
To walk in nowhere Yeah.And what's going on here?
And there's an alien on the table,
and there's an accordion playerwearing a silver mask playing,
(27:25):
but no notes are coming out. Andall this, you know, you just like,
"Where am I?".
And these folks probably don't takethese characters anywhere else,
it just stays within The Palms?
That one's hit a couple local places,but this is the home for that.
This is the original.
Yes.
Awesome. Not to make the place toofamous. 'cause you wanna, you know,
(27:47):
keep the venue small. But for folksthat do wanna come and experience,
how do you get here?
If you're on the 10 freeway,
you would get off atHighway 62 and take that
eastbound. It goes north,and then it goes eastbound.
And then it takes you through Morongo and.
And Yucca and Joshua Tree. Andthen at, in downtown 29 Palms,
(28:10):
you would take a loft or northboundon Adobe Road. You continued on,
it would take you to very,very large military base.
The Marine base is I believe thebiggest in the nation. That's.
That's called 29 Palms.
In 29 Palms. And then you wouldtake, as you're going on Adobe,
you would take a right onto AmboyRoad and continue on Amboy about maybe
(28:32):
12 miles. And we're off to the right.
We are also a route thatpeople take to go to Las Vegas.
And it's a very scenic route.
Winds around if people don'twanna drive to the highway. So,
we do get some traffic comingfrom Vegas and going to Vegas.
Some of its people that havebeen here and want to stop.
Every time they come and goto Vegas, they'll stop here.
(28:55):
And some people arejust going to Las Vegas,
and they see this place andthey think, let's check it out.
I saw the sign with thebuffalo. It's not palm trees,
it's a buffalo. And you'rewearing it on your shirt.
And there's planets thathave been drilled into the
buffalo. What's that all about?
The Palms. The sign for the Palms. Yes.
(29:16):
The bison has nothingto do with palm trees.
That was there when they came intothe building. They left it there.
And there's something that I think weall like about it not being a palm tree.
Was it called The Palms?
It was called The Palms when they boughtit. But the planets that are on it now,
if you go to the sign, itwas just a, a dark image of,
(29:37):
of a bison black imageon a brown wooden sign.
Now there's some planets that are puton it. The day at work, I walked in,
and Laura came out of the kitchen,
and somebody came into the restaurantand said, "Who, who painted the sign?
Who put the planets on the side?"And Laura and I looked at each other.
We had no idea. "I don't know what,
(29:57):
what are you talking about?" "There'splanets on the side." We walked outside
and sure enough, there wereplanets on the side. Somebody,
one of our regular customershad decided that it should have
planets on it, sort of likea solar system on the bison.
They did it.
(30:17):
And they're a customer that's also avery good friend and has been a friend of
the family's for years. And she did,
she put those on in a way that we couldtake 'em off if we didn't like them,
but they were a gift.
And that speaks a lot tohow the community feels
about this place. It wasa gift from her to us.
(30:40):
And we love it. We keep 'em on.
But she also did it in a way she didto surprise us, but also in a way,
if we didn't care for,we could take them off.
Laura and I got married out herethree years ago, almost to the day,
three years ago, out on the stage.
And the entire weddingwas thrown by community,
(31:01):
by friends. All the decorating;
we have a friend who plays accordion.She led the procession down the,
by the side of the street to go aroundup to the stage. And it's a mix.
It's a mix politically.It's a mix in all the ways.
And you can be sittingright next to somebody that believes completely different
(31:24):
than you do. You're just having abeer and they're just having a burger.
And that's part of themagic of this place.
No one gets into each other's personalstuff. Every comes here just to,
to talk to whoever they're talkingto and have a drink and some food.
And, you know, we stayin neutral otherwise.
And everybody also loves this placeis being a place that they can go to
(31:48):
and a place that you canhave entertainment right in your backyard here without
having to drive to theother side or tail. Right.
Well, Kevin, Bo,
thank you so much for being ourguest on this edition of On the Road.
We've loved learning about you and ThePalms and what folks can do if they wanna
drive out into the middle ofnowhere. There's actually lots to do.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
(32:08):
I enjoyed it.
And we wanna thank oursponsor, Opus Escrow.
And be sure to tune innext time for On the Road.
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