Deserts and an Ocean

Annoyed

It was funny to me that this hotel that I stayed in was easily the nicest one of the trip so far, but it was the worst stay. The sound-proofing between the rooms wasn’t all that great and the sound of what I imagined was my neighbor’s young child running laps around the room woke me up, which wasn’t a huge deal because I wanted to get an earlier start. The other annoying part was the breakfast they offered downstairs in the cafeteria. Again, it’s a mystery why there aren’t better vegan options in a complimentary breakfast. Add to this another customer’s children running amok and I just returned to my room for a peanut butter sandwich.

Heading-Out Into the Desert

The only thing on my agenda today was hitting Joshua Tree National Park on my way to San Diego. This involved my driving through Las Vegas and a LOT of desert, which was something I’d been dreaming about for a long, long time. The drive to Las Vegas started-out on an exciting note through Virgin River Canyon during my dip into Arizona. A couple of hours later, I skirted around Las Vegas, not worrying about a better view given that I’d be returning in a week. After Las Vegas… desert, lots of desert!

Missing Route 66

As I approached Fenner, California, on Route 40, I saw a sign declaring that “Historic Route 66” was up ahead. A quick look at my navigation showed me that Route 66 in-fact took me to Amboy, California, just like my current route, so I figured, “Why would I NOT take Route 66?!?” After a couple of miles and not seeing any signs, I figured I’d missed the ramp and decided to turn around and find it. Still, no signs, but I followed my navigation and ended-up finding it. Unfortunately, the path leading to Amboy was closed and amounted to a dirt road, so R.I.P. Route 66, right? Not, so fast! After heading south on Kelbaker Road for a while I found myself turning east toward Amboy on…. Route 66! So that was cool. What wasn’t cool was what happened next.

Relying on my Car’s Range Estimation

As I’d been driving along, I’d been keeping an eye on the distance to Twenty Nine Palms (where I would find the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park) and comparing it to the range my car said I had left in the gas tank. When I first compared it, the estimated range was in excess of about 20 miles of the remaining distance, so I figured I’d just refuel once I arrived. At this point, when I got to Amboy, again there was a significant difference between the two numbers and I appeared to have plenty of gas. Then it got hot and my car apparently became a bit more inefficient. These two number began to close and I was in the middle of nowhere. A little part of me began to panic!

Through the panic, though, I really enjoyed the drive through a sunny, 90+ degree, barren landscape. A couple of days earlier, I’d thought I’d discovered the quietest place on Earth while hiking around Devils Tower, but the desert had it beat. The final stretch toward Twenty Nine Palms was interested with both sides of the road dotted with tiny, abandoned homes. Eventually, I arrived at the destination with about 5 miles to spare before finding a gas station, which was a relief!

Joshua Tree National Park

The only thing I really knew about Joshua Tree National Park (JTNP), besides the obvious fact that it’s full of joshua trees, was that it was between Palm Springs and Barstow. Why did I know this? Because 21 years ago, my aunt and I left Los Angeles for Death Valley National Park, took a wrong turn, and ended-up having to drive from Palm Springs to Barstow in-order to get to Death Valley! We didn’t go to JTNP, but I remember seeing the signs for it as we drove north through the desert. It was that trip through the blistering heat and barren nothingness that struck a chord in me and had me dreaming about return all those years. And, here I was again and it made me happy.

The rangers in the visitor center were a bunch of characters, asking me if I was military because I “had a military haircut”. There’s nothing like bald jokes from people with full heads of hair. It shouldn’t be allowed. They did help me out when they discouraged my plan to drive completely through JTNP down to Route 10 which would take me on my way to San Diego. The real jokester of the group informed me that, “Yeah, you can do that, but you’ll miss everything.” Based-on their recommendations, I decided to take a loop that would show me many of the highlights the park had to offer before dropping me back up onto Route 62 in Joshua Tree, California. It sounded like a plan that would save me some time, so that’s what I decided to do.

Again, I didn’t know much about JTNP or what to expect. After the drive and reading a bit about the park, it’s one that I want to return to in the future. Besides the joshua trees themselves, the big feature of the park appears to be the massive piles of boulders, which you’re allowed to climb. They look giants decided to make cairns throughout the landscape at random. There are also quite a few trails and the landscape is essentially flat, so I think it would be a fun park to camp a few nights and see some amazing views of the night sky while relaxing after some intense desert hikes.

Back to Civilization

As usual, the trip through JTNP took quite a bit longer than I thought it would because of all the stops I made. This meant I was going to arrive in San Diego later than I’d wanted to, which combined with my reluctance to return to civilization and filled me with anxiety. Most of the driving was on increasingly congested highways with nothing much to look at until just outside of San Diego where things became beautiful again.

Aunt Diane

For years and years, my aunt would tell me that I had to visit her in San Diego, but I’m essentially afraid to fly. To be fair, when there’s a place I want to go that you NEED to fly to in order to visit it, I will fly. Other than that, I’m going to drive. And, don’t bother me with the statistics about the danger of driving compared to the danger of flying. When I’m driving, I’m in control and if there’s a mechanical failure I’m simply sitting on the side of the road rather than splattered across it.

Anyway, after six days of driving, there I was arriving at my aunt’s front door as the sun set. After allowing me to park in her garage and get a tour of her place, we headed-out to get something to eat. My primary requirement was vegetables: I needed to eat something with fresh vegetables in it! Given the fact that Lebanese is my favorite cuisine, when it was given to me as an option, we were on our way.

Ramadan

When we arrived, the restaurant was packed and we were lucky to get seats. Once we were seated, we were ignored for about 20 minutes and when I stood up to see if I could at least get a couple glasses of water, the hostess ran over to me and explained that it was Ramadan and everyone had been fasting since sunrise. So, our timing was perfect. The hostess was a character, really hamming it up for us. When I asked for mujadara, she seemed shocked that I even knew what it was. Everything was delicious and I had a good time catching-up with my aunt and telling her about the trip there.

During our chat, I discovered that my aunt watched Game of Thones, so the night ended back at her place watching the latest episode over a nightcap. As usual, I was exhausted by that point and had a hard time keeping my eyes open. As I laid down to bed, despite being back in civilization, I looked forward to sleeping in a little and not having to spend an entire day in a car until the following weekend.