Oh, my goodness, how I love driving on the highway, out of the LA Basin - the "open road" has always called me and I have been missing it the last year or so. The five plus hour drive to Lake Havasu City seems more like being on a road trip than my drives north on I-5 to San Juan Bautista and Pacific Grove. I think it is due to the miles and miles of uncultivated desert and the rough, rocky mountains.
Of course, one must first get out of the basin. This image is on I-15 (which starts at the Mexico border and ends just south of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada) and we are all stopped quite near where Hwy 60 crosses - the high roadways you see are part of the Interchange. Just beyond this point all lanes of the road were closed due to a seven or eight car pileup with serious injuries - all northbound traffic had to exit either Hwy 60 East or Hwy 60 West. I chose west because I had an idea how to go around the blockage on surface streets. And I did fine. But instead of 1 to 1-1/2 hours it took me two hours and twenty minutes to make the drive from my house to Lenwood just south of Barstow. I really can't sit that long without suffering great pain in my hips and back, so when I got out at the Arco station in Lenwood I had to hang onto the car at first. Pitiful! I felt I needed a special lunch with lots of protein, so I lined up at the In & Out Hamburger drive-thru. One thing about In & Out, they know how to keep things moving. And the burgers are cheap and delicious. The last time I had one was late August when Liz and I stopped before I did the program in the garden for Westside Quilters.
Then I was on the road again, At Bartsow I turned off busy I-15 north to Las Vegas and took I-40 east which usually has light traffic, but lots of big trucks. This sign where I-40 begins always starts me daydreaming about driving across country again - "Wilmington, NC, 2,554 miles". I-40 follows the old Route 66, crossing and recrossing and sometimes it is the same roadway. The first time I drove/rode this route it was a great deal of Route 66 interspersed with short sections of the new Interstate. That was a lot of years ago.
Because I was delayed today, Corky's parents and grandparents left for Laughlin, NV, where they had tickets to see Debbie Reynolds in concert - she is 78! - leaving Corky alone for maybe a half an hour. He was glad to see me, but spent most of his time sitting in the front window looking for his parents to return. They got home about an hour ago and the three of them are sound asleep.
While I was unloading my car Corky wanted to go out back to do some business and this is the view I saw. I had been too busy to even look out the back windows. I have taken a zillion pictures of Lake Havasu sunsets - so many of them are spectacular. Almost as good as the South Pacific, but not quite so gaudy. I have more pictures to share with you, but I cannot keep my eyes open and keep typing on the wrong keys, so I'll post more travel views on another day.
1 comment:
Route 66 has now become part of my visual lexicon -- I should do more research. It ran through the center of the Petrified Forest (as does I-40) and I painted at one of the Park Pullovers, an old car, the remnants of 66 ruts in the grasses, and I-40 in the back ground. The signage talked about Rt 66 and its major impact on the Park. As an east coaster, I wasn't aware of much but the song. But I see I should do more thinking about this place/space/ribbon of use.
I really missed driving when I had to stop for medical reasons. And driving in the desert would be twice as good because there's so much sky and so much land -- it's a bit like flying without the TSA and stale air. Glad you are back on the road again. Stopping every two hours is a good idea, regardless of the reason.
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