2/5/17

Plane landed at 6.30 and by the time I got my bags, immigration etc M+Ds plane arrived in from Brisbane and we got this trip on the road!! I didn’t say yesterday but this could be the last major US road trip this team take together. We’re doing the last bit of the US that we haven’t yet seen- bottom of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas! Cowboys + Deserts here we come (for the Weary Feet purists, the only real part of the US that we haven’t seen is Alaska so I guess technically this isn’t the last bit of the US).

So, uneventful check in to the USA, grabbed the car (Ford Taurus—twenty years after we last hired a Ford Taurus in California!) and hit the LA freeways…. Boring first hour driving our way out of the concrete jungle, LA, and up into the San Bernadino hills. The hills to the west of LA are spectacular and pleasantly cool (28 today in LA). Apparently we’re driving along the rim of the world.. Seriously, I’m thinking the California’s need a bit of a reality check…. The Himalayas the San Bernadino are not! To describe the hills.. scrubby white base to the hills, topped with pines (spruce maybe?) & snow capped! Very pretty. You can tell that California is in a drought though… very very dry (apart from the lawns which of course are green and manicured….)

So lunch was on a cliff top restaurant- tacos + flautos (or something like that)… The Flautos were wheat tortillas filled with shredded beef and then deep fried…. Kind of reminded me of a giant shredded beef filled spring roll. Probably not something I’ll order again anytime soon.

By 1pm we’d all started to nod our heads so D+I took it in turns to have a snooze and keep the car moving. At the top of the pass there is a gorgeous mountain lake (Big Bear Lake) where we stopped to stretch our legs. Slightly Tahoe like, although, nowhere near as spectacular.

Last two hours of our drive was down out of the San Bernadinos (eastwards) towards Yucca, a town on the outskirts of Joshua Tree NP. The eastern side is very desert-ified.. Mojave actually. Scrubby trees, sand and rock became the norm and roads suddenly went from twisty turny to dead straight. We also started to see these strange looking spiky plants… Huge big yuccas…. Joshua Trees!

Arrival into Yucca and we went accomm hunting, after driving up and down the main drag we finally found the little motel we were looking for… Was cheap but had some interesting décor choices! Half the rooms are themed and setup to look like something from a really cheap 60s Hollywood movie set… Bloody awful! Fortunately we got a normal looking room so didn’t have to marvel at the awfulness that is Jane’s lair or a bad rendition of Elvis’ jungle room.

Two hours later and we had shopped out Walmart to collect all of our essential road tripping req’ts.. camp stove, food, pots and pans etc. This time we didn’t have to buy everything because we had brought a lot of cooking implements with us from previous trips.

First dinner was a sausage sizzle and salad whilst we watch the sun go down over the Mojave desert. Tomorrow off to Joshua Tree + onwards to Arizona.