Blythe, California

 

9am, a rest stop atop the Grapevine, elevation about 4000'.  About 3 hours of driving in the fog and boom -- sunshine!  To this point, I had a leisurely, cruise-control trip with very little traffic other than the big rigs, who kept to the right lane.  Miles and miles, acres and acres of agriculture -- orchards of one kind or another, mostly.

From here, another 30 miles of travel through the mountains then downhill on the other side to what I think might have been Saugus, Santa Clarita.  I wasn't paying much attention to signs because off to my right was some amazing thing that was clearly an amusement park of some kind -- huge roller coasters and such.  Turned out to be Magic Mountain. 

But, beyond this, I descended from a world of light traffic and cruise control to 5 or 6 lanes of crazed Los Angeles traffic.  Nothing gradual -- once I got to the Magic Mountain area, there it was.  Where did they all come from? They hadn't been at the top of the mountain.  This was at 9:30am -- by 10am I was deep in the heart of Los Angeles in traffic such as I haven't seen in many a long year.  Thankfully, my old instincts came back and I was able to 'go with the flow' in comfort.  More or less! 

By 10:30 the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles were off to my right and I was merging onto I-10 headed east.  Whew!  I don't have to get off this one until some point in Texas.  Around 11am the traffic eased off to at least some point below terrifying and I could relax.  Sort of.

 

At noon, I found a rest stop near Beaumont and made myself walk and rest for 30 minutes, eat a little lunch from my cache, before continuing east.  More snowy mountains, with the addition of palm trees!

I remember when there was a good long stretch of desert between where L.A. left off and Palm Springs began, but that just doesn't exist any longer.  It's all one long stretch of 'civilization'.  And the smog to go with it.

Blythe, for those of you unfamiliar with this area, is a hair's breath inside the California state line from Arizona.  Next stop, Phoenix, around 150 miles.  I did 485 miles today, about the same as yesterday, and while I'd probably have gone further if something was available, I didn't feel up to driving to Phoenix.  And there is absolutely no reason to do so. I'm on schedule, no need to rush.  

There wasn't supposed to be a Motel 6 in Blythe, so I'd decided to head for a Days Inn, using a coupon from a travel book.  Not a lot more money -- but free internet, coffee, and other stuff that's a bit of an upgrade.  When I arrived, there IS a Motel 6 but I had an unpleasant internet experience at the Motel 6 last night and really wasn't ready to try again --- didn't even know if this location offered internet.

So -- I arrived here at 2:30 in the afternoon -- way too early to stop, really, and yet....the only other option is Phoenix, and I'm not ready to go there.  So it's the TV and Oprah and the internet for now, maybe a nap and dinner and then.....hopefully lots of sleep tonight.  I want to force myself to leave later than 6am tomorrow, so I don't have such an early day.  But then, it really doesn't matter what time I start and what time the day is over.  I'll do the miles, reach the next stop, whatever time that happens to be.

The goal for tomorrow is Deming, New Mexico, around 510 miles from here.  We'll see what the day brings.