Ann and I pull ourselves together by 8 o’clock and drive south. Sort of. We get hungry and stop in Kramer Junction for breakfast, but still make it out to the swirled, jumbled rocks of New Jack City around 10. We have Roy’s printed-out guidebook, but can’t make much sense of it, so we just ask people for a little beta. No one else seems to sure either, but manage to get on a 5.9 or 10a route to warm up. It has some in-your-face moves, which give Ann trouble for a little while, but she works them out. Then I do pick one out from the guide called The Red Book, 10a. I have some weird fantasy that there is some slab on it, but it turns out to be a leaning dihedral with some good jams and fun moves. After some fruitless driving around and lunch, we pull up to a shady crag and again ask advice. The folks there say nothing is more than 10-ish, so I pick the most direct line. It’s good, 10a, steep edge climbing. Finally we TR a similar route with one nasty move over a bulge. Ann does battle with it for a while, but in the end has to leave it for another day. Out of time, we head towards Ft. Irwin to meet Ann’s brother Randy. On the way I see what looks like a vast field of tall boulders across the valley. A desert mirage, perhaps, but I would like to go back and see it again.