Day 2: Cali to AZ

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Hello All!!

Today has been quite a day!! I woke up at 6:30 and was really excited at how awake I was!!! Of course this was due to the fact that it was really like 9:30 in my mind since I haven't adjusted to the time change. So, YAY, I will be getting up early tomorrow too. Haha, it's kind of funny because I'm ready to go to bed right now and I looked at the clock and it is 7:45!!!!

Anyway, I woke up in Indian Wells, CA this morning and was preparing for my drive today to Tucson. After checking out of the hotel, I got my car, parked it, and then proceeded to put the top down. This was a first (unsupervised). I was pretty surprised at how easy it was to get it down.

I went to the grocery store to grab some water just in case I got stuck in the desert (see mom! I'm being careful!) and then headed towards Interstate 10.

Side note - I saw a guy in front of me buy a normal sized bottle of Simply Orange OJ and it was $6.50!!!!!! THAT'S INSANE.

Carrying on....I drove through Indio, CA, passed Coachella, and then saw a sign for Joshua Tree National Park....so I decided to check it out. It was pretty interesting....looked like a desert with lots of mountains and dirt. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to see an actual Joshua tree....but I got postcards!!! LOL! I would have had to drive further into the park to actually see the trees and I didn't really feel like getting lost today.

After the park, I got back on I-10 and headed towards AZ. I SEVERLY underestimated the heat of the desert! It was 102 degrees with a super bright and STRONG sun beating down on me. THANK GOD I decided to put on some sun block this morning. But, even with SPF 50 on, I still got a little burnt.

Speaking of sunscreen....while driving, I noticed that my ears were getting a little red so I decided to stop and grab the sunscreen out of the back and put some more on. After searching through my bag, I finally found it, put it on, and hopped back in the jeep. I noticed that my left food was really sticking to the cluth. My first thought was, "oh shit, either the pedal is melting or my flip flop is melting". Yeah, I know, who thinks that?? haha. Well I dicsovered that I had stepped in gum and got it all over the damn clutch!!! UGHHHHHHH! I had to roll into a gas station and get a paper towel and try to scrape it off of the clutch pedal and my flip flop. GROSS. I got as much as I could off and then decided to carry on.

I was going to stop in Phoenix and get some food since I hadn't eaten since like 8 am this morning. Then I got lazy and kept going. NOTE TO SELF: Do not drive through the desert without eating....you will lose energy. Duh. I figured I would just eat when I got to Tuscon.

I was driving along with the top down and all the sudden it started raining....WHAT??? It doesn't rain in the desert! Apparently it does. However, I think my Jeep has a force field over it because none got in my Jeep!! HAHHAHA, I know that's not the real reason, it's probably the fact that the wind was going so fast over my car that it was preventing the rain from getting in....but I prefer to think of it as a force field.

Anyhoo, I finally arrived in Tucson around 4:30 and I was super hungry and really just wanted an ice cold beer and a seat in a pool. I pulled up to the hotel (Fairfield Inn) and immediatley got a bad feeling. It was a super shady area with hoopty cars and shady looking people walking around. It was weird. So I headed back towards the airport and ended up at another marriott which is actually pretty awesome. I have a suite with a kitchen (not kitchenette) and king size bed! Not too shabby!!!

Ok, well that pretty much concludes my day. Tomorrow I'm off to Alamogordo, NM to see the white sands!! Woot woot!

Ciao!

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