April 16 - 17, 2011 Undulations, undulations, undulations, un….

Probably time we cleaned the windshield. 

We are on the road by 8:30 continuing west on I-10. There are various ways of getting home and we debate them endlessly -- with each other, the GPS, the Droid smartphone, the computer’s Google Maps, and our paper maps. No matter our choice, doing it with only one more night would require at least one day of towing over 400 miles so instead we resign ourselves to two more nights on the road. This will get us home the day before the memorial.

This makes some things easier – we overrule the machines favoring freeways and branch from I-10 to AZ Hwy 72 about 26 miles east of Quartzite, and start heading north-east on a two-lane road with just us and a few trucks. For a while we are paralleling the tracks of the San Diego Arizona Eastern Railway; in the Sierra Club we used to hike the canyons behind Anza Borrego where you could see at least one old wooden trestle, and the remains of a freight car that fell into the canyon (spilling cans of beer). Fires and landslides have plagued the railway and I thought it was no longer operating.

The road undulates, like a serpent, into the distance.

We cross the Colorado River at Parker and begin to taste the end of our journey. Hwy 62 connects us to Hwy 95, and we again head north passing Ocotillo still in bloom with occasional views of historic Route 66. This is classic desert driving: the road undulates with the topography, saving the cost of culverts. Storms happen rarely, and when they do they simply wash briefly over the low parts of the road.

At Needles, we die, and not because of the heat, which is around 88-92 degrees. Diesel is $4.99. We have paid from $3.13 when we started east in January to around $3.50 in February and $3.79 in southern Florida. By the end of March the price was up to $3.98 and in Van Horn Texas we paid $4.05. In Tonopah AZ yesterday we paid $4.16. $4.99 in Needles? We decide to hold off hopefully until Bakersfield, hoping for a better price. (Marcia figures our trip home from the caravan end point in the Florida Keys will cost us over $1000 just for fuel.)

Having kicked the diesel question down the road, we need to feed our souls. Driving into Needles on Business 40/Route 66 we find an old place called Burger Hut and split good hamburgers, fries, a soda, and a milkshake. It is Saturday, but the Burger Hut and the fast food joints along the freeway seem to be the only life in the town. Not likely much more on weekdays.

 

We hop on I-40 west and having done well recently with Passport America we head for Newberry Springs and the Twin Lakes RV Park. This takes faith; it is at least 7 miles off the freeway, the last ¾ mile on a dirt road. We arrive and an Asian woman apparently living alone meets me as I exit the truck. She immediately accepts Passport America so we pay $16 for a space with electric and water (rather than the posted $32) and because there are so few people she suggests we park across two sites along the small lake so we don’t have to unhitch. (The larger twin-lake is dry.)

After hooking to the utilities we go outside to split a beer and pretzels when coincidentally another Airstream enters and parks near us, Dennis and Bonita from Santa Rosa.  They are returning from a trip to Puerto Vallarta and have been on the road since November, even longer than us. They report no problems in Mexico, and a great trip. We conclude they would be excellent additions to NorCal, our Airstream unit of WBCCI. We will work on them.

We leave Newberry Springs by 9am Saturday now on I-15, fueling in Barstow for $4.69 and our first cup of Starbucks since Florida. By Tehachapi on Hwy 58 we are ready for lunch and stop at Kohnen’s Bakery. For a bit of time symmetry, we share a Cubano sandwich; the last (and first) time we ever had a Cuban sandwich was in St Augustine, Florida. I never expected to see one again, let alone in Tehachapi. It is good, but not as good as the one at the Columbia in St Augustine.

While in Tehachapi we tour a nice railway museum local railway geeks established in a replica of the old Tehachapi depot. Then back on the highway to Hwy 99, where we go north and settle for the night at the Sun and Fun RV Park in Tulare – adequate for the night, but not really a good place for sun and fun. Tomorrow we drive for home.