Dream - The Cadillac and the mysterious valley

Perhaps fifteen or more years ago, I dreamed of driving the 1970 Cadillac, a gold four-door sedan with a white vinyl top. I was going through the desert on a lonely road and eventually ended up in California, though the original destination may have been Nevada, at least in some versions of the dream.

While still in Arizona, the road eventually led through a large, long, open air building with picnic tables, way out in the desert, far from anything. I had some kind of car trouble there, I think, or perhaps simply stopped there to take care of some suspected problems, or perhaps just to check to see if there were any.

I opened the hood and looked everything over. Something did have to be fixed on it and eventually I had it partially taken apart. As I worked, the engine got bigger and became tall and huge, like it was from a car from the 1930s, and had a lot of space around it. I think there was some problem with gaskets. The water pump gasket may have been leaking a little, but I think there were also some oil leaks. There was something to do with the radiator and hoses. too. Eventually I got it all back together, though perhaps without fixing anything. It could still be driven, though.

I think I also met somebody there, perhaps more than one person. I wasn't expecting to, they just happened to show up. The place was pretty well filled up with them before I left. They were having a picnic of some kind, using the picnic tables there. It was apparently some kind of celebration for them. It wasn't just a family, it was a large group of families, like some kind of reunion or work picnic.

I had the same basic dream more than once, maybe several times.

In more than one dream I ended up in California somewhere in a National Forest of some kind, a large bowl-shaped valley covered in pine trees. There was something in the middle, some kind of building. I think some kind of evil scientists worked there. I think it was run by somebody who was at least at times an enemy, though the people there seemed to be friendly, at least sometimes. I even worked among them for a while. I remember more than one car being involved at times, one or two station wagons I think. I also seemed to be playing more than one role sometimes, and sometimes another person or two were there with me, family members I think. My mother was probably one of them.

I remember stopping, perhaps because of caution or perhaps being stopped by car trouble, partway down into the valley. I ended up staying in the building for a while, perhaps several days or even longer. There was some worry about being able to leave. I think I had to leave, it was time and it was dangerous to stay, something was going to happen or might happen. I didn't have enough money to buy enough gas to get back home, though.