Day 51-July 26, 2013-Through the Mojave Desert
Hot, dry-100
Drove 261 miles in 6-1/4 hours.
I stand corrected….the crazy drivers in California are New Yorkers who are visiting California and have rental cars. Of course, I heard this from a Californian.
We left the gigantic sequoias and peach, orange and even pomegranate orchards in the morning and by mid-day we were in the hot, dry, barren desert with nothing but sand and sagebrush and an occasional cactus. But it’s pretty in its own way. There are mountains and valleys in the distance and every now and then we go over a river but it’s usually dried out and the riverbeds are now used for 4-wheelers who must have a great time with all the sand dunes to drive over.
We took route 99 to Bakersfield, where we stopped at an In N Out Burger for lunch. We had never had one and lots of people I talked to said while we’re I California we need to try one, and it was good, I guess it’s California’s answer to White Castle. There must have been 20 workers behind the counter, each with their own job, one woman just pushed tomatoes through a slicer. We then turned east (yes, homeward bound, sort of) on route 58 through Barstow to a little town called Newberry Springs on historic route 66 about half way between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. They have a pistachio festival every year so there is some agriculture here but not much except for the cows we see every now and then and a few local farms, mostly growing alfalfa. They look so out of place with all the sand around them and then, BAM, a burst of green. They also have pretty Athol trees that almost look like soft pines, they’re very feathery. The campground manager said they’re hated out here because they wrap their roots around pipes in the ground and clog them. The campground is advertised as “an oasis in the desert” and it does have two bright green ponds, which are fed from the well. It also has a wonderful pool which was very refreshing after a day in the desert. There are a couple of RVs here that look like they’re staying here for a while but other than that, just us. We didn’t unhook, hoping to get an early start tomorrow. Beautiful stars out and an almost orange moon.