I Nearly Died in #Yolo County

Jumping Cholla, also known as “Teddy Bear Cactus”

A djent metal band on tour, driving to their next gig in an Astro van pulls off the sun-seared highway somewhere between the rolling windmill hills of California and the gas station angel sentinels of the Arizona border. I don’t know where we are exactly because the single lane highway to my childhood hellscape has been stopped for several hours in the — I look at the digital thermometer display on my rental car’s dash. An even…