Western Quest III – May 2005
Just as our trip to the west coast in March of 2003 entailed a good bit of work, so too did this trip in the Spring of 2005. It seemed to us, at the time, that the era of Star Wars was, in a sense, coming to an end with the release of Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. As such, we had decided that we needed to seize the opportunity and really make an event out of it. This was to be a once-in-a-lifetime chance and we decided to take advantage of it. We decided that we’d attend the premiere of the film in Los Angeles, and had hoped that it would take place at the Chinese Theater. Alas, that was not to be, and the movie premiered at the ArcLight Theater instead.
While we were out on the west coast, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally take care of the last bit of location work needed for our first book. We took a few days and drove southeast to Yuma, AZ, Buttercup Valley, and the Imperial Sand Dunes. We managed to collect all the data & photos we needed during that short visit, which was fortunate, since Yuma is really quite an inconvenient place to go. It’s not really near anything else, and one has to make a special effort to go there. I’m glad we did it, but I’m not sure I’ll be back anytime soon. It’s just too remote, and there’s not much to see or do there. Having said that, I’m elated that we were finally able to shoot & document that Return of the Jedi location for the book.
