Well, after years of only being able to take a few days at a time to travel, we are finally on the road again. This time we are headed for Monterey, California to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. We will follow that up with a drive up the California and Oregon coast. After living in Arizona for the last six years, we intend to feast on seafood along the way. Then it's over to Bend, Oregon for a few days before heading home.
With a short travel day ahead of us, we didn't leave the house till 7:53 (that's a late start for us.) Our first problem of the day was our direction of travel took us was away from all local Starbucks. Bummer. But we headed West on Interstate 10 dodging trucks and the usual would be race car drivers. 132.5 miles later we found the often-visited Starbucks in Blythe, California. Sharing a Grande Mocha and all was right with the world.
Taking US 95 North out of Blythe was great for about 35 miles, with peak-a-boo views of the Colorado River trying to offset a lot of mostly dead palm trees. After that we ran into a lot of truck traffic, which on a two-lane road slowed us down considerably. Ok, we weren't in a hurry today.
Lunch was to be at a Subway in Needles, But I decided I didn't like the looks of the place and accidently ended up on Westbound Interstate 40. Five miles later we were able to reverse course and ended up having lunch at the Wagon Wheel restaurant. Great place. Outstanding club sandwich and onion rings. Leaving Needles on Interstate 40 was again something like a truck parking lot. And it was hot. 116 degrees hot. By the time we got to our overnight stop in Barstow temps were down around 110. A real cooling trend.
Along the way we found that the Historic Route 66 has been renamed, at least in California, to the National Trails Highway. Think I'll stick with Route 66.
A good deal of the afternoon conversation centered around where to have dinner. After the lunch we had it was decided to have something lite, like maybe soup or a bowl of chili. When we checked into the motel, they gave us some Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookies and two bottles of water. Those added to the two hard-boiled eggs we brought along made a dinner of sorts. The decision has already been made for Black Bear Dinner tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow we are off to Paso Robles, which means wine country and one step closer to the coast.
402 miles today
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