Day 8 - "I know a pretty little place in Southern California down San Diego way There's a little cafe where they play guitars all night and day"

Today's Route:

151 miles

Heading down to San Diego...

Last set of mountains before heading down to sea level

Finally made it!

2865.3 miles later, Maddy and I made it here to San Diego.

Thanks everyone for following my blog, keep in touch!

Day 7 - "California, a prophet on the burning shore California, I'll be knocking on the golden door Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light Rising

Today's Route:

290 miles

Great drive today from Phoenix to the north side of Joshua Tree National Park

The Promised Land

There are some pretty mountains once you get into Cali

Joshua Tree National Park

Here's the driving route through Joshua Tree, it's about 70 miles or so

All the pictures above are from the southern part of Joshua Tree, which is part of the Colorado desert (and there are no joshua trees in the southern part). The northern part, below, is much higher in elevation and there are lots of joshua trees.

Joshua trees

Very rocky in parts of the northern part

Views from Keyes View (you can barely see Mexico in the top picture)

At the campground

Lazy Maddy

Views from the campsite

Sunset

Last campfire before heading to San Diego tomorrow

I've got lots more pics of Joshua Tree, which I'll be putting into an album.

Day 6 - "JoJo was a man who thought he was a woman, but he knew it couldn't last JoJo left his home in Tucson, Arizona for some California grass. "

Today's Route (planned):

440 miles

Starting out with a grand slam

5/23/10 - 9:30 Pacific Time (or Arizona non-Daylight Savings time)

If I had to describe today's drive in 4 words - Absolutely beautiful. Incredibly terrorizing.

Left Albuquerque this morning and it was possibly the windiest day of the year.

Western New Mexico, leaving Albuquerque

Heading through the rocks

A small town in western New Mexico

Passing over the Western Continental divide. Though I'd hit 7000 feet again a couple times this drive.

Welcome to Arizona...

... put on your tin foil hats.

Along I-40 in Arizona

Road closed?

Oh s@#t, it's a dust storm.

So up until this point, it was scary enough driving along I-40. The winds were 30 mph blowing right into the side of the Jeep. But it got so bad that they shut down the highway for 35 miles. So I had to take a detour on side roads to 95 miles.

Detour:

Winding 2 lane roads, driving a Jeep with a trailer, 30 mph winds, tractor trailers blowing right by me. I've never gripped a steering wheel so tight in my life. But I got some great pictures:

Coconono National Forest

Through the mountains. These was a very beautiful drive, but quite stressful as there were lots of hills and winding roads, plus a 6% downhill stretch for about 10 miles.

Out of the mountains and onto I-17 into Phoenix.

There was an accident on I-17, we were stuck for about 1 1/2 hours. Here are some cacti.

Finally got to Rob and Brenda's in Phoenix (with Ozzie). Had a great time here having dinner and a bunch of beers.