Kevin
Hello BB Community - I hope you don’t mind a long-winded message from a random old guy in Texas (I apologize - don't want to be here). I shared the message below with Chris (Waavy_Cactus) and the folks at BBAC, and I just wanted to share it with some folks in his community.
I will be 60 next year; I lived in Visalia in the Central Valley until 2009, and never, ever heard of the Salton Sea. When I came across it during some YouTubing I was doing about the Mojave in 2018, I was immediately fascinated - and am even more so today. I have a small container of Bombay Beach fishbones w/ GPS coordinates where I got them on my office desk.
The history, the weirdness, a sea that is jaw-droppingly beautiful…and an environmental disaster at the same time. I live in southeast Texas now (again, I apologize), but my wife gets me back to my beloved California at least every 18 months. We have been looking at property in the 29 Palms / Landers area for retirement in 48 months, and the reasons are 1) my love of the Mojave and its peace, and 2) to be close to the Salton Sea.
And it was during my search for all things Salton Sea that I came across Kevin Key on Facebook about 5 years ago. His enthusiasm and ability to find the beauty in this area were infectious - even my wife enjoyed watching him. I loved interacting with him in the comments - he was incredibly kind and very funny.
And we watched every video, every time he posted…until I bailed on all social media around late 2022. But then he apparently was booted from FB - and there he was, on YouTube. This was even better because now I could watch every one of his videos on a 70” TV from my couch! He was my link to Bombay Beach and the Salton Sea, and I had alerts that notified me every time he posted.
My wife and I visited Bombay Beach again in 2022 and planned a return for this spring. In February, we booked our flight into Palm Springs and our Airbnb in Landers. I asked my wife what she thought of me emailing Kevin to see if he would mind meeting us for a coffee at the new coffee bar he shows in videos- so I did. Here is the response that I received literally in less than 5 minutes from him:
Kevin Key <kevinkey@gmail.com
Hey Greg,
Awesome. I'd love to show you around Bombay Beach. I'm often free and in town from Friday to Monday, so I'd have plenty of time to show you around. and all. There's so much to see here and nearby. Kevin
I let him know our dates in town (5/13-5/19), and that 5/15 would be great. My wife will tell you that meeting him and taking a tour of “Kevin Key’s Bombay Beach” was the biggest thing I wanted to do on our visit. In the weeks leading up to our trip, I had been on the road for work for over a month, literally up until the day before we left, so I had not watched YouTube, and, as I mentioned, I have no social media (I just got back on Reddit). This is relevant as you will read.
I texted him on the morning of 5/15 to say I couldn’t wait to meet up with him. I told my wife that if I could get a boat ride on the Salton Sea with Kevin Key, I would have checked off a major bucket-list item. I did not hear from him.
I told my wife that Kevin was frequently open about his Asperger’s, which I have as well. I told my wife that he must be either busy… or just didn’t want company today, which I fully understand. My wife and I went down to Bombay Beach and spent a few hours that day, but something seemed...off. On our way out, I saw a stenciled / spray-painted silhouette of Kevin's face with "LiT!" on the side of the "Metro Station" entrance. I tried to find his camper, and that's when I figured he must be working.
I had no idea I was in Bombay Beach...and he was gone. And had been for almost three weeks.
I returned to Texas (again, I apologize) and had a major new project at work that immediately took all my time and about 3,000 miles of driving on truly ugly Texas back roads over 3 weeks to complete. I finally got a day off Friday, 6/12, and sat down to catch up on all the Kevin LiT! videos that I had missed over the past month.
Except there weren’t any.
And then I scrolled down and noticed the memorial video.
Then I began reading month-old posts on Reddit and Facebook (from Google links) about what happened. I was and am crushed. I had so hoped last month to get a ride with Kevin on his boat out onto the Sea, but that will never happen now.
This is a man whom I have never met in person, but I am grieving as though I had. He encapsulated the idea of being your authentic self and showed how a place society had forgotten could be filled with beauty, wonder, and awesome people when you knew where and how to look. I am so sorry he was hurting this much. I have fought mental illness my entire life; it is insidious.I hope he now has peace among the stars.
I read that his ashes will be spread in the Salton Sea on his birthday, 12/15. I've attached the design that I made for the t-shirts my wife and I will be wearing, and we plan to stay the week in Bombay Beach. If you can/want to use it, it is all yours as well.
My heart hurts for the BB community - as much as I am feeling his loss from half a country away, I cannot imagine how it feels to have lost your ambassador. Please know that all of you are in my thoughts, and I can’t wait to see you guys on 12/15 to remember Kevin.