Welcome to California!

After just over 1700 miles, we have arrived in California. Slight tardiness on writing my blog as I had a Long Island Iced Tea with my Caesar salad and that was enough to mean I wasn’t in a good state to write.

Bert and I agreed that the drive/scenery yesterday paled into comparison with the previous days. From a driving point of view, the roads were fab. We decided to drive south and the. through the Joshua Tree National Park which was recommended by the tour company. They also advised topping up with petrol regularly as there weren’t many places to fill up en route. I took this a little too religiously, and barely let the dial fall below 300 miles in the tank.

The drive to 29 Palms (or Twentynine Palms) was great. Long straight roads with no traffic, a few tumble weeds, the odd sand squirly/sand storm but tiny, and a number of unmade side roads that made us think we were in Breaking Bad territory. Even saw beaten up/maybe abandoned RV/potential meth lab.

There were two exceptionally wide loads we had to overtake early on but given the visibility this was easy. Looked like people were moving their actual houses. Odd.

We got close to the border with California quite a few times and Bert was ready with the camera to snap the ‘Welcome to California’ sign. He had to stand down a few times. But eventually we crossed the state line and began the last miles through the final state.

We stopped in 29 Palms which was a bit more like a 1 Horse town. Everywhere looked closed but it was 115 degrees and no-one in their right mind would walk around. There was a bar called The Virginian and I suggested we try it for lunch. Was hoping to see Trampus behind the bar. I loved watching The Virginian when I was young – and remember watching it with my grandma.

It was a bit like that scene in American Werewolf when the tourists enter the pub in Yorkshire and everything goes quiet. There were three people seated at the bar a few stools apart. We asked if they did food and the woman behind the bar said they didn’t. Bert popped to use the facilities and I stood there trying to work out what to do. I saw it was cash only but I had no cash. No-one spoke. When Bert emerged he saw the ATM inside the bar and got some dollars out. We ordered and coke and a lemonade, and the woman behind the bar said there were places to eat but further up the road. First time I have felt a bit nervous.

We found a lovely cafe just round the corner (google maps is very useful when you are in a furnace and just need to find a good place to stop). It was called ‘Kitchen in the Desert’ and served a delicious cucumber, cilantro and house-made lemonade. My egg, bacon and cheese roll was ok and Bert had a smashed burger. It was as far from The Virginian you could get but less than 500ft away.

So onto Joshua Tree National Park. Because it was so hot, we agreed just to drive through as spending longer than a few minutes outside the car was just a bit too much, even for me. The landscape was very different and I guess if we hadn’t seen the Rocky Mountains, Moab Arches, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon already, it would be awe-inspiring. I loved the yucca trees and the weird shaped boulders scattered randomly. It did look like a set from Star Trek (the first and really the best) – half expected Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and some random-soon-to-be-killed extra to be beamed down in front of a loads of rocks.

Joshua Tree done, we headed to Pioneertown which was a town built as a set for the Westerns in the 1940s. I was expecting a sort of ongoing film set where we could swagger into a saloon through half-doors and walk up to the bar and order a double. Where we would see horses tied up outside the bank and stage coaches rumbling up and down.

It was out of season. We saw no horses, stage coaches, cowboys, spurs, or gun slingers. So disappointed. We parked up in our Nissan Rogue outside the Red Dog which looked like a bar. The guy came out and asked us to park somewhere else as we had parked where the horses tied up. So maybe we would see horses! But they never showed.

Bert had a Whistle Pig whisky and I had another coke. That was Pioneertown done!

So 35 minutes later we checked in to the Renaissance Palm Springs hotel. Such a culture change. We are in room 4215 – luckily it was hard to find so I was able to increase my step count given we had been in the car all day.

A swim in the warm pool and then dinner in the bar. As I said earlier, the Long Island Iced Tea was all that was needed to lead me to my bed.

And Spain beat France. I am Spain.