August 14, 2011 - Bakersfield

Great Googily Moogily, today was a very long day.  After a dismal experience in ABQ, we left town at 6:50 local time.  Breakfast at the hotel was NOT as expected, but after making Jay his waffle, I had a banana with cream cheese.  I'm so used to more protein but did what I could.

Jay let. me drive from Flagstaff to the California border.  WOW, what a car!  Very nice and very powerful.  So after gassing up the car at the last Arizona gas station, we headed across the Mojave Desert.  Jay wanted to go to Bakersfield, but that was way too far so we compromised [I thought] on Barstow.  About 50 miles east of Barstow both lanes of westward traffic came to a complete halt.  It's the Mojave Desert!  It's barren!  It's freaking HOT!  And the line of cars and trucks as far as the eye could see at a complete standstill.  The view out my passenger window:

The view directly in front of our car:

After about 20 minutes, I ventured out of the car to see what I could see:

Not a whole heck of a lot.  Jay spoke with another motorist who recommended getting off I-40 and taking old 66 but when we inched our way to the exit, the jam appeared to be clearing up.  We stayed on I-40 and after another 30 minutes or so [total of about an hour], we were out of the mess. 

So I thought Jay would be about ready to pull into a hotel in Barstow but NO, he had his heart set on Bakersfield so on we went.  We got to Bakersfield at a little after 6:00 local time, checked in, stowed our gear, and walked two blocks to a Roadhouse where we each had a lovely adult beverage and a protein filled meal.

Believe me, Jay's proud and happy to be sipping his scotch and he absolutely deserved it.  I, on the other hand, enjoyed my Cosmo completely.

We're now in our jammies - Jay's eating the brownie Malu, the Concierge, gave him.  The internet is fine and dandy and I'm happy with that.

Tomorrow, we'll be in Carmel in time for lunch.  We can't wait for the cooler weather.  Bakersfield is HOT but dry.  ;0)

'Night all.