Drive through Mojave Desert

To get to Vegas, we had two options: 1. Take I-10, which drives around the Mojave Desert, thus a longer drive, but with highway speeds; 2. Drive through the Mojave Desert National Reserve, which is scenic, shorter and quicker - if you don’t obey the speed limit.  We went with option #2.

Dust storms

 Kelso Depot

Abandoned house along route with Joshua Tree

An explosion of Joshua Trees before leaving California.

Joshua Tree: Camping with Coyotes

Joshua Tree National Park: Inspiration to a pretentious band's album and possibly the first tree-hugging kid's book.


Joshua Tree is one of the few places we could camp on this trip.  Winter camping is hardly an enticing endeavor when most campsites are frigid and barren.  Joshua Tree is one of the few places we planned to camp, because it wasn’t that cold and there were plenty of other campers that night.

Arriving after dusk, we set up the tent only with the light from our car’s headlights.  Luckily, we practice setting up the tent at Ayk’s apartment in Baltimore before we left.  Once the tent was pitched, Ayk built a solid campfire that kept us toasty. That is until we went to bed in chilly temperatures.

 You try setting that up at night.  We are wilderness badasses!

The weather didn’t bother us that much since we came prepared.  The local wildlife, on the other hand, was a cause for concern.  In the middle of the night, I heard coyotes howling.  I woke up and turned to see two brown eyes starring right at me.  Thankfully they were just Ayk's.  We were both a little scared (I was actually terrified).  Some nearby camper turned on his car to scare the critters off.  Kudos.  I was too frozen from fear - from both the coyotes and leaving my snuggly sleeping bag - to do anything.  I’m just glad we weren't coyote snacks that night.

 View from our campsite

Skull Rock.  Probably remains from a coyote attack.

Let's end on a happy note.

Day 19: Drive to Joshua Tree

After our short tour of San Diego on Friday, we headed to Joshua Tree National Park that afternoon.  We stopped in Coachella, which other than a music festival every summer, really has nothing going for it.  Maybe windmills.

I would have gotten more pictures of this drive, but it was really windy and taking pictures only makes carsickness worse.

Palm tree farm (not sure what they're cultivating) and Salton Sea in the background. 

Day 16: California Coastline

Late Monday night after Big Sur, we got to Gwendy’s house in Paso Robles, which is in the middle of nowhere.  She spends most of her time in LA (she has three houses along the California coastline… craziness!), so we had the house to ourselves.  It was pitch black when we got there.

She told me any animals noises were from the neighbor's livestock and we didn't need to worry about coyotes.  I didn't even think I needed to worry about that.  Good to know.

Living next to a vineyard will definitely bolster your wine collection.

 There were so many baby shoes strewn about.  Adowable.

We left Paso Robles on Tuesday.  The rest of the drive to LA went mostly through the mountains rather than the skimming coastline, like Big Sur.

At least we found an avocado stand on the drive.  Too bad they cost just as much as they do back in Maryland.  No thanks.

Cathedral in Santa Barbara

Ventura Beach

Blocking out the sun with an M&M 

Day 15: Big Sur

I had never heard about Big Sur until Ayk told me about it.  This windy and beautifully picturesque road to Southern California was at the top of his list of things to see on this road trip.  I get carsick easily, so I’m just relieved I could fully enjoy this trip without getting nauseous.

My carsickness dates back to the Maui trip when I was a senior in high school.  We went on the amazingly curvy Road to Hana.  My dad, trying to be funny, would speed up on the straightaways then slam on his breaks at the curves carved into the side of a mountain.  I got carsick.  Twice.  When I wasn’t trying to hold back my food from coming up, it was the most amazing drive I had ever been on.

Thankfully Ayk drove slowly on this drive so I didn’t have to worry (that much) about carsickness. 

We tried to get a picture of ourselves with the self-timer, but it looked awful.

At the next pullover, we asked a woman to take a picture of us, and she said that from she saw us trying to take a picture of ourselves. Fail.

Blogger is being annoying (typical) and this image won't show up unless I keep it at this size.

Far away: White specks 

Close up: Birds!