My Brain Melted In Slab City

we are pulling into Slab City this is it right here out in the middle of the desert and the middle of California the south side barking this is literally no-man's land just there's Jesus mountain Tampa tent community right there trying to get some clothes to this main attraction impossible so slab city is mysteriously known as the last uncovered land in the United States or lawless land got a caravan I've got two guys behind me three vans total rolling up on this Slab City Library all right so let's find some parking right in this area right here all right we just arrived in Slab City what are you guys doing over there yeah getting ready Brendon how you doing where's a David so now he's googling it and his car he's gonna see how far away it is I don't know where he's walking to maybe he did find it you guys ready to roll er yeah so this is the famous the famous I guess attraction here in Slab City I call it Jesus Rock I wonder if we can meet the old man that made it how are you okay understand right now when it's wet this surface this surface here okay so that's not rock that's just mud just click okay video yeah just say where is the he's still here sorry same you live here three years okay cool so what is the local population here would you say 200 this is about 200 hooker then during the fall winter spring there's like 2,000 people here wow really yeah now living here so it fluctuates Linda that's we just well I think yeah a lot of times a lot of the younger like dirty kids they go back home because that's how if you don't go home for Christmas you're not getting oh no I might have money help me save me from the family so we got to keep that family who'd I go how cold how cold does it get here at night does 432 so and this is January so this is probably the coldest month of the year only just down it at low 30s yep usually got lost before that was 38 and then this year it's crack 38 buncha time yeah that's not unbearable then you can survive so do you dude sometimes let people like get up in there and what was the what was the old man like you met him actually no you never met him because yeah but he was sweet and nice I mean I like I said I've watch all those video I know all his family and friends and everybody and he did it he did all this by himself [Music] what do you guys think so far in your first 15 minutes [Music] [Music] how you guys doing hello miss how are you I love I love your solar setup I love it oh no oh yeah so this is solar Mike's yeah and this is so this is like okay so what uh so this is where the community charges there all those other electronics huh okay yeah so you bought one already or you're saving to buy one yeah what what type of an are you interested in are you in a high top or a low top I was gonna say you'd fit perfectly in a low top what's your name darling I'm going my whisper whisper I'm Josh nice to meet you whisper you youtubers a little bit yeah I'm on it I want to meet my youtuber people cuz badly yeah you probably have a decent channel i watch no no I'm not okay my brain melted I'm not I have a channel I'm the person that watched okay I started watching truck-driving videos my daughter's watch truck-driving video so you don't go mad okay guys I'm an over-the-road truck driver whose brain melted Oh cried for two years so man watching truck driving videos for sanity we ran these crazy people that live in a vehicle on purpose already yeah you know I'm used to living out of my sleeper anyway well I've got might we all we actually caravanned over here we all three have vans some van is a heck of a lot bigger so I'm gonna go on permanent vacation yeah instead of living in a box staring at a bars in Michigan in the summer I'm outside yeah exactly I'm only a minute well whisper was nice meeting ya so this is the community charge station yeah all right you have a great rest of the day okay thank you this is when I hear about on the internet the city in jail against the side all right so okay yeah go ahead rule number one is you don't have to stay on the carpet II don't have standing here gotcha okay number two is everything you can go into excellent all right well that sounds like a pretty good set of rules and you guys don't mind if I video right excellent all right and your names are I'm Steve Steve wizard I'm Josh it's a pleasure to meet you both if you don't mind I'm gonna go roam around yeah thanks again gentlemen [Music] [Music] at least it's nice and warm and sunny yeah it's kind of move in everybody seems very welcoming yeah did you see where they had the winter slab city winter a slab City Winter Olympics it's like we got some homemade zucchini bread peanut butter cookies some soda and then if you look over there we have the slab city internet cafe we're gonna go check that out [Music] appreciate the info [Music] hello how are you I'm good a little bit yeah what do you got going on over here tiny portraits based on magic cards okay but this is something that is not as interesting you want to see something interesting I'm doing I am also building a pedal car huh feel free to show it to me yeah that is kind of cool though I like what you're doing right here that's really pretty color rosalie yep nice to meet you I'm Josh this is my friend Brandon and Daniel here so you're building this which are meant to show humans paperwork insurance later the real stuff yeah less than two miles like more than like less than a half a mile actually from the slabs and it was a 1987 Subaru Sunbird like really really shitty car obviously driving towards the largest homeless compound in the world and you wouldn't have any goddamn papers exactly yeah so you're saying that somebody actually came in repo'd a $400 car they wanted your $400 thirty-year-old car now what does that mean let's slab cab this is Slab City posting on the boards for people who don't have their own transportation to take them out and gets to okay like make a bun - what's in it what's the little city my first major stop that's got a grocery store a post office a small necessities yeah that's good you're not in jail so you're building something pedal car in this aisle six inch rims I got tubes for them yesterday with self filling foam and I rolled this down ten feet of the road so it's a silicone it's a done but I can see the mechanics of what you're doing having my car taken away I've almost got the whole skeleton oh so this was three days ago yes okay so yeah you're very early in the bill then yeah swivels yeah that's nice so pedals that's a one right there yeah okay so you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna recline back and then it's almost like those big wheels we hadn't learnt kids member those yeah I was going to buy austell they have a really pretty kind of sapphire blue solar panel tricycle with a basket it's so whatever safe it's solar paneled yeah solar paneled like it's so Catalan is a tricycle there's not a basket on the back and then a small solar the solar wasn't hooked up but he said he didn't want to sell it unless it was for the price of what the solar would contain Joseph I couldn't get the bike oh it looks like you're not short on bicycle parts and frames and oh this is the bike this is the bike shop right and I basically found a little picture on Etsy yeah what you're trying to do yeah I was gonna be like sixteen or an image of the final law you say it's Charles bike shop yep Charlie's bike shop mark mark is also here that's his chopper over there which is a gorgeous piece of machinery and even the kids come here and do kind of like shadow days to build their own bikes oh okay that's why they have tiny so they're so this is like dog free zone like there no no I'm saying dog free like you can just like oh there's I saw signs something about dogs oh yeah dogs at play yeah so there's dogs so it's just a warning stink haters dogs hanging around yeah so these are the plans on Etsy I do work normally so I had plans to buy one to turn this way gentle son here okay right oh wow that's what you're eventually gonna have that is the color diagram this is like I sketched it out on a notebook to the best of my ability that shouldn't be too bad yeah nobody I've showed it to those parts and this is the black and white diagram gotcha okay that's it yeah you should be able to put that together yeah it's not gonna be rocket science yeah I've got about I'd say I've got about 40% of the parts here already yeah you have an abundance of stuff here and then you've got the bike man to help you excited about it says the first time one's been builds on the slabs well I'll walk you back up to your I didn't mean to interrupt your creation there I appreciate you taking the time to be completely fuel efficient and then darling what was your name one more time for camera pleasure to meet you thanks again for talking okay nice to meet you Joseph yeah oh yeah I see so these are hand drawings of what you kind of wanted to do in I saw the original I sketch this out and then this sketch I did this morning horses for know the brake system okay I see how that's gonna work yeah well it's only been three days right the picture she showed online is actually pretty cool it's gonna be a four-wheeler yeah well best of luck to you hope you get it up and running soon okay how we doing dude I'm loving this this is awesome artwork for sale Oh cooler is even a little goes back in here how we doing boys friendly and nice let's go some info on this area [Music] this guy that I forgot to go talk to this name is spider and you'll notice we want the interview that he is like the guy that's in charge of this slab this specific slab in Slab City would you say your name was one more time spider again Josh I have a couple of questions on this Airbnb you don't mind some people are gonna see this and they might want to take you up on your offer so how does it work is it how many nights can you stay and you can stay as many nights as you want okay I have an open door policy 24 hours a day 365 days a year okay I am on the web California ponderosa that's a website yeah it's a website okay I'm all Duchess so you can be found on GPS also if you go if you get on Google Maps or Apple maps and you type in California Montrose it'll pop up unless you're going what's your rate nor does it fluctuates on what you want to stay in okay so it learner okay so I'm sorry it's not just that unit there it's all of these people they come back every year stay here with us okay so you take you take reservations pretty far out - oh yeah the California Ponderosa trailer that is my house gotcha and then we have the cabin next to it which is 35 dollars a night Joseph oh there's we have allows next to that now do eat this each unit offers something different as far as amenities go - they all have power okay right now I'm working on I just had I just bought this place eight months ago okay so I'm eight months in I have pigs here now I have chickens here I just brought in new trailers I'm working on the power distribution gotcha I have people out there in Babylon right now looking for things that I need like I'm sorry where's where's Babylon is that like I'm next closest town Babylon is New York City Boston okay I use a generator right now because I don't have the battery bank and the system set up right okay gotcha every unit has its own system at the moment so otherwise solo I've got every unit is capable to charging phones cameras whatever they need what the battery banks differ for each one or they all it has the cabin my little red barn right here I know that's one battery then we have the cabin in the back it has two batteries and then I have my George trailer which it has a Rhino battery so I don't worry about it what's a Rhino battery it's a type of a deep cycle battery they're like $300 apiece really and they go up there the next stage battery from what you would call AGM let s yeah yo totally see now are they up another up to par on a lithium battery though yeah they are yeah they're right yeah I don't I don't ever have to look at that battery okay great so what's up with the the animals like that well the pigs we're hoping for next year I have the chickens yeah we're building a we're building a larger kitchen okay so I'll be able to do breakfast in the morning I'll have bacon it's about my own bacon gotcha I am growing this ourselves we're gonna get more pigs later on after we have the slaughter of the first male oh man y'all have time you know we're like we're trying to start something here and I have a lot of people very interested in it already yeah a lot of people that have already came here from all over the world yeah I mean we're looking at Italy France Japan so this city slab city in your little location here is known worldwide worldwide yeah that's great and with the graces of them the more they stay the more I get to do here exactly and do for them when they come back yeah so every time they come back there is something different and it blows their mind yeah this is my way of showing my art I'm forming a small community yeah community of people that can work together every day there's one pot and we all contribute to and we all contribute to it yeah sure and that pot allows us to do this exactly we live in harmony and usually my waters a little bigger but that just came done I just spent my wad and then you go into my place you'll understand where the money goes you want to give me a tour I would love to let's do it this is 8 months in the wook okay we go I have a long well you say eight months you mean you started creating this site eight months ago okay by a very good friend of mine I bought from like my brother now I love him you ever have one person in the world you need to talk to and you can only talk to them you can count on the other side okay but I can go to him and talk to him about every anything and he holds no judgment or no animus and no matter what the subject doesn't say what the subject is a long term friend I assume yeah all right turn this way okay my little red barn all right the smallest red barn in the desert it has its own power you can charge your phones charge everything you need in there so solar panels are on the roof there's a battery in the back I also use this for another thing yeah now every year Nilan has a parade NATO festival parade okay so I put my little red barn in the parade oh so it's always on wheels yeah you tow it into the ground really in the door we sit on the back and go down the road so it has two to three purposes yeah plus believe it or not it is actually the most rented one I have out here well it stands out too right when you walk in the first look on in the Internet to you I'm considered there's a bond and yeah you're pretty little red barn I show you the inside but somebody staying in there no problem yeah I just obtained this trailer not too long ago this trailer here was used in a movie from one of the college kids cactus blossom was the name of the movie you'll be able to look it up online and get lost to the cactus blossom and you'll see my trailer in that movie gotcha so this trailer here we're in the neighborhood we have had some some online or some footage this trailer here we're in the haps of rehabbing the inside and you live in this one no okay you okay but we're gonna rehab the whole inside of it I can I show them yours it just means it's lived in it's used yeah this one here is our honeymooner this one here we just got done okay the outside is a little messy because we're still in construction mode gotcha would you consider this by calling it the honeymoon suite you mean that this is your prime this is my prices your Mac Daddy model okay it's for two people can sit and can be comfortable in here yeah nice big bed two little trailer over there the cactus blossoms similar in scheme yumiya yeah so more it's good oh wow look at that nice bathroom let me go get a shout out and this burner stove works yeah sink works yeah yep pump work as you say there's electric pump under there there's one outside even has a shower now how does the shower system work you guess that plumbing out here oh yeah you gotta turn this switch on right here gotcha you turn this on and then the water see it you can hear the pump yeah but you get water at the sink right away gotcha now hot water no hot water hot water in this one yeah gotcha that's later that is a plan though but that is a place each trailer and that fridge is that a propane fridge or there's a propane propane or an electric yeah but you can primarily it works yeah I can't something happen between the power I have to have an electrician come and look at it gotcha the TV it did work TV works - yeah anything Wi-Fi is available for all the units available we use Netflix a lot yeah Amazon Prime I also get TV signal - from the antennas TV your freedom $40 a night gotcha if somebody wants to rent it by the month I would do it by the month - I do all actually Zack is renting it by the months he's been here okay this is the second month in Wow and the gentleman staying at my cabin he's he's been here for a couple of months and he might be here for a little while longer I'll show you the cabin the cabin that's a slick looking cabin I like that yeah we just got most of the cactuses going out that way play the trailer from the movie going so you guys are growing these cactuses yeah just for a like aesthetic yeah all the bottles out there are from my project I'm going to be building a glass archway the main archway to come into this area here come to the campus yeah later on I got telephone poles coming in this entire area so we can sit out here and see what he's doing with his arms blocking so you're gonna put telephone poles up and then put tarps and put I'm going into Cabin sorry yeah it had its own shower but I built a new shower room we had to use this here for the shower and it was just too small gotcha always had to get in there duck like this cool air during the summary so turn this bad boy on how does that work it works on the outside wood water that runs trickled through dreams and pulling the air through it keeps it cool nice this is actually the coldest room I was gonna say this seems like the most insulated yeah during the summer I can rent this out per month yeah and I provide power from the generator so we can so your generator what what what are you pushing there are 9,000 oh that's a big boy yeah I have a few generators gotcha okay paint heater still out there out yeah well I have one generator that's a dual fuel or propane like gasoline okay that's cool I've never even heard of those what uh oh it's a generator right so this one's currently vacant yeah very nice the only thing in this one here the bathroom works but none of the kitchen stuff in this one work because this one here is too close to this kitchen and I don't know how to have all the propane tanks around it understand so whoever stays in this trailer here has the option well actually everybody does they have the option to use my kitchen and my refrigerants I do I have refrigeration and stoves yeah the bathroom works I gotta do more work to this trailer yeah I'm gonna actually very clean it's very nice yeah but we're gonna move it back 15 feet raise it up off the ground 5 feet before the purpose of well there's a picture of George painted on the side and once I move it back up he's when I sit at the fire pit I won't be able to see his picture Dasha but if I raise it up five feet I'll be able to see his picture at the fire pit okay that make sells we're gonna put a little deck on it and you'll actually see the views it's painted on the side pan right on the side and you'll actually get a really cool view yeah yeah it'd be elevated yeah oh nice yeah that's the guy I bought the place so 15 feet oh that's your friend no I'm gonna wait too long though this here is my Silver Bullet later on it's another trailer that's gonna be put on the Airbnb but it's not here this is uh my small kitchen right now okay once the trailer is moved back that 15 feet it's gonna give me the option to take the chili door and turn it straight out I got brand new stove so we're gonna put three other stoves in here my wife does baking so this is like the community kitchen for everyone the community kitchen for here I serve beer I serve spirits oh wow donations to dollar donations later looks beer cost is Arizona beer all right we may have to go get some cash on a car I could use a beer I have internet power this is my main power right now for the bar it's a big inverter always like a kilowatt of juice going in Wow yeah I can run the refrigerators when it's up to full charge during the day I can watch my big-screen TV nice and they take a lot of [ __ ] juice yeah I know yeah you know I can do everything in this that the city does out here yeah I have people from all over the world they bring me things and generally if you come that's awesome you blend me a bottle of booze really nine out of ten times it better be fireballs and then the man likes fireball that is a big bottle of fireball over there how do you love some fireball all right now they're with me if they want to tag along yeah look at this little guy let me see Cleopatra this is Cleopatra she's my dog that's why she's chasing me oh yeah people take pay $10 a month they're allowed to use the Internet anytime they need they come here they get a shower one hot shower once a week and that's that so where's the sign that says critter Club am I missing that splice that in six six people on their so-far nice which is cool all right so what's going on back here what's this is little lounge area where we just were I have man I have never seen it counts this big yeah this is the largest Catholic in my entire life and there was any cops this big this thing is huge where the hell'd you get it it was donated well hell even though in the portion that it's very large enough when this trailer is moving back yeah exactly yeah that's our little men's room right now we're in the midst of digging a hole for a new one okay so you're gonna put this one over there or you're building a whole new one operation gonna be another operation made I'm gonna build a cool room so explain to me how a cool room would work yeah we have layers of different style dirt gotcha but now being so close right here we have three feet of sand but underneath that sand you got oh about eight feet of clay okay gotcha okay now that eight feet of clay we got to keep going down about approximately hopefully I'm hoping it's only three more feet to reach the sands okay the real good Cyn once we get down to the sand we'll dig down another six feet put a pipe in and throw all that sand back in around that Joshua and flatten it down okay now that sand is gonna become a floor right now what he's gonna do is we're gonna start we're gonna tunnel a doorway just to specify you guys dug this by hand with a pickaxe yes Wow but see reach up again Aidan now that's not that's that's part of a roof line but because we're the clay is so deep Aidan bring your feet bring your hand down go down slow keep going keep going keep going keep going keep going that's the three 3-foot mark that we have to dig out to the sand okay I got you what he's basically saying is they're going to dig a system of underground tunnels and create in a room out of it and it'll be cool because the sunlight can't penetrate and heat up and then that's where they will hang out in the summertime when it's about 120 degrees outside you all right so I want to know who are the people that we need to talk to when you come to visit slaps Katie well you've already talked to spiders spiders a good way very nice very welcoming Thank You spider my home range like I said happens every Saturday okay and then we say the range you mean like a firing range no it's literally it's called the range it's a big stage okay and it has amps and guitars and stuff music play bill door bill why do they call him builder bill up in the front it's a stage it's really nice school buses also another great person is jack two horses Jack two horses okay when you say west' Satan is that like a little suburb here in Slab City you'll see a sign okay I met him I met him earlier I didn't yes yeah I didn't get to get him on camera but I did meet him yeah he's a really great guy you said his name is something to horses what'd you say his name was Jack - jack - horses and why do they call him that um I'm not sure - horses old history maybe he ran motorcycles or something right here across the street at the internet cafe yeah pirate Rob lives right there pirate Rob's yeah I met charlie Charlie's bike I went to Charlie's bike shop yeah it's right next to him some fat guy yeah pirate Rob I don't know if it necessarily want to do an interview but you can at least ask him yeah he's been out here for years he just abandoned because he kind of moved up yeah but it's pirate camp yeah so there was a gentleman I met at the main attraction here in slabs TV that everybody sees a Salvation Mountain yeah I don't remember the guys name sure he told you sure who's running it right now yeah I think that sounds about right at this minute you might have been Rhonda nice guy yeah he was just telling us that you know about it a little bit I'm trying to think there's a little guy he's not really like a super big like you know he doesn't need camps like alright ladies and gentlemen this is George is the first owner of this property he's the one who started it all California ponderosa this is the man who made this is the natural hot spring in Slab City Zak's already been in homeboy Brandon there's about to jump in all right Brandon we're all waiting on you homey yeah buddy [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] good Christ what up homie what's up John you didn't ready to take off man all right nice meeting you brother I'm you're in San Diego okay yes all right you guys sleep tight tonight enjoy the cool air in the desert hey this is real life right here fellas this is how most people do it all that [ __ ] all that [ __ ] on TV is not real yeah man this is the this was the lifestyle that you're actually getting into not that [ __ ] on YouTube that you see from like seven people that's it this is real right here yeah the real van life you

Channel: A Wayward Man

Views: 235,631

Rating: 4.6491227 out of 5

Keywords: slab city, slab, vanlife, salvation, salvation mountain, east jesus, travel, vandwell, van, california, california ponderosa, winter in slab city, slab city 2019, slab city locals

Id: WwAmrXWVN3E

Length: 47min 36sec (2856 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 12 2019