Tuesday, May 17, 2011

North to Alaska!

Today was Day 1 of John and Zoe's Alaska Adventure!

We thought we'd be leaving last week, but we had to wait for John's new CPAP machine to be delivered, which happened Monday. Doesn't he look like a cute alien from the planet Fintlewoodlewix?



So early this morning (at least early for us), we finally headed out of Jojoba Hills, waving to friends and neighbors while our speakers blared Johnny Horton's "North to Alaska." We eventually got out of the hideous SoCal traffic, and soon found ourselves almost alone on the pencil-straight desert roads, Death Valley to our immediate left.



Along the way we saw lots of interesting rock layers that have been pushed up and twisted by eons of mountain building (officially called orogeny -- sounds dirty, doesn't it?) and the inevitable erosion that follows:



We crossed over a bit of the old Route 66 near Barstow, where signs, like this vertical Big Boy obelisk, remain as testaments to those kitschy days before superhighways:



When we left the Temecula area, gas was $4.25. We filled up along the way for $4.05, and were ecstatic! But when we got to Nevada, the prices started with a "3" -- things are looking better and better!

About 4:00, we made it to Pahrump, home of this huge Robin Hood-like realtor mascot. He has truly seen better days.



We'll stay in Pahrump for a couple of days.

Wow! 298 of around 10,000 miles already in the rear view mirror!

1 comment:

Diana said...

That John is really a good sport. I guess he realizes how hard it is to get good blog fodder. You better hang on to him!