July 1st - Las Vegas to San Diego

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July 1

Up Bright and early for day two of the adventure. Ok…truth be told bright, but not too early! The sun was blazing and the temps were high. Our 7:00 am departure time quickly became 9:00 am but we are on vacation, so no worries! Our first stop on this amazing adventure . . . Sam’s club. Yes we are the adventurous ones! We were a bit early for their “regular” shoppers as only Business or “Plus” members were allowed in early. However, the vacation gods provided us with a lovely greeter, Miss Shirley. This older, grandmotherly lady let us slide in to buy the case of water we needed. Shirley was a sweet, pleasant lady, the kind of person that gets the day off to a good start; she even let us use her “Plus” membership card to make the purchase. Thank you Miss Shirley.

We headed out toward a restaurant Don had once stopped in the town of Searchlight, NV. We got there quicker than expected at 10:15 am, still somewhat full from the filling, if not healthy, breakfast provided at the Travelodge we continued south on US 95. Little did we know that we would not stop for food for another 10 hours.

The plan was to drive south out of Vegas to the Mexican border, then westward along the border, stopping at some point to cross over for a beer, margarita, or sandwich, just to say we were there. This had to be done on foot since the rental company wouldn’t let us take the car to Mexico. Once that was done, we planned to come back to the US and continue on to San Diego (actually La Mesa, CA) where we were staying the night.

This part of the country is quite desolate although is does have quite a bit of traffic through it. Interstate 40 cuts through the region east/west and has replaced, to some extent, the “Mother Road” Route 66. I have been on Route 66 but mostly in Arizona and very little (if any) in California. As we drove west on I-40 there was a section of the old 66 that looped south of I-40 so we thought we’d take it. After exiting I-40 we were greeted by barricades and a sign telling us the road was closed and impassable. So, we looped around and rejoined I-40. We exited at the next off ramp and were greeted by the same orange and whites signs telling us the road was closed. Well, the third time was the charm and this time we were able to drive on a short section of Route 66 before having to drive southward once more. At the village of Amboy we made this turn. Amboy, California consists of a few small, ramshackle houses, a post office, and a handful of commercial buildings in need of repair, all proclaiming they belong to “Roy”. The town is a shadow of what it once was in the days before the Interstate System was constructed. The town bills itself as “The ghost town that ain’t dead yet” although from our perspective it is in bad need of life support. For more history of this interesting place visit their website at www.amboyroute66.com.

As dark grey rain clouds rolled in over the flat landscape, we put Amboy in our rear view mirror and headed south across the salt flats toward Joshua Tree National Park. Long rows of salt piles filled the flats near the highway while a short distance to the west of the roadway was the looming black silhouette of the Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark. This is an example of a symmetrical volcanic cinder cone.

According to the National Park Service, “Two distinct desert ecosystems, the Mojave and the Colorado, come together in Joshua Tree National Park.” The landscape here is quite diverse as is the plant life here. Plants such as Cholla, Climbing Milkweed, Jumping Teddy Bears, Pencil Cholla, Desert Senna, Mesquite, and of course the Joshua Tree all make their home here.

After finding our way out of the desert we headed to San Diego via the I-10 passing exits for Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Springs, finally ending up at our room in La Mesa that we booked through Air BnB. We stayed in a beautiful house, in a sparse but neat room situated on a hillside overlooking San Diego. Our host was Rodrigo, a Colombian international who left home 33 years ago to go to school and work in the U.S. He evidently has been somewhat successful judging by the house he owns.

We had dinner in downtown La Mesa at a French restaurant called BO-Beau where we enjoyed one of the best, most tasty meals we’ve had in a very long time. The flash-fried brussle-sprouts were unbelievably flavorful as was every course of the meal. From here we went back to our room for a much anticipated night’s sleep.

Hope you are enjoying our trip so far and we apologize for getting behind in writing/posting our entries but as you can see, our days have been quite full.

Don and Jill

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Photos

Solar farm in the distance
Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of solar panels in the desert,

Roy's Motel
Roy's was a happening spot during the height of travel on Route 66.

Salt
The white substance is salt mined from the trench (now filled with water). This salt is ued for highway use during the winter.

Joshua Trees
Yes there really are Joshua Trees in Joshua Tree National Park..

Big boulders in JTNP
There are camp sites in and around these rocks