Day 19
Wednesday, 25th June
London Bridge and Palm Springs
Morning broke and we went downstairs to look at the pool. There weren't many people there, and it *could* have been quite peaceful - apart from the piped music coming out of the flower beds ... We gathered our stuff, put one more dollar bill in the slots (avoiding 'Panda Pays' this time - although panda never paid and neither did the Cougar) and we got outta there!
We got a little lost in Vegas, but, stopped at a McD for coffee and perused the map. Then we knew where we were going! Our first stop was to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, although we drove over it, we didn't get to actually see it! We didn't stop at the Visitor Center on the Nevada side, thinking there might well be one on the Arizona side - but there wasn't - just a view down over the Colorado from somewhere or other!
The roads were good today, but they were all desert roads and it was a long way to drive. Firstly, we drove along through Kingman and then took the I-40 down to Lake Havasu City. At one stage, along I-40, we were driving parallel to a train (see banner above) - almost like we were in a race with it! The stops along here were HOT - the hot wind from Vegas was following us and we hoped it didn't follow us all the way to Palm Springs!
Jasmine's thermometer told us that Lake Havasu City was 111 degrees F. It was a pleasant enough place to walk around though and we enjoyed ice-creams down by London Bridge. A lot of places were shut - I don't think they expected too many visitors at this time of year and in this heat! Paul bought a top. It was a designer something or other and he said that it was much cheaper than it would've been at home, so he had to have it.
From LHC, we drove down, past Parker (dam was shut) and the Cactus Plain. There were heaps of saguaro growing wild, but wherever we stopped, there weren't any to photograph, except (not growing wild) in a garage!
Once over the river and into California, the cacti suddenly stopped growing! We made a couple of stops along I-10, each one hot, with real sand and, no doubt, many nasty critters waiting to pounce on the unwary!
By the time we were driving along the Coachella Valley towards Palm Springs, it was dark. We stopped at a supermarket (Ralph's) which was just around the corner from our rental house on Mesquite and Calle Marcus. When we arrived at the house, it was boiling hot inside, as the A/C had been off. We had to kick away several cockroaches at the front door and there was one huge one outside the door to the swimming pool! Eek! But the house was very nice and comfortable (once it cooled down), with no evidence of any infestations, and we soon got organised, chose our rooms and had a rest! There was a large sitting-room/dining room - a large kitchen, with all the appliances (including 2 ovens?), a HUGE garage with floats and a washer and dryer, 3 bedrooms with 3 bathrooms. We would have to wait for the morning to explore the outside.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ Introduction ]
[ Day 1 ]
[ Day 2 ]
[ Day 3 ]
[ Day 4 ]
[ Day 5 ]
[ Day 6 ]
[ Day 7 ]
[ Day 8 ]
[ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ]
[ Day 11 ]
[ Day 12 ]
[ Day 13 ]
[ Day 14 ]
[ Day 15 ]
[ Day 16 ]
[ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ]
[ Day 19 ]
[ Day 20 ]
[ Day 21 ]
[ Day 22 ]
[ Day 23 ]
[ Day 24 ]
[ Day 25 ]
[ Day 26 ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~