SLO to Blythe, CA

I am a week behind in writing my entries, and, in hindsight, I have to say this was a rather ill-fated week of traveling. Granted, we arrived safe and sound in Colorado, and there are always high spots and low spots, but the week didn't get off to the most auspicious beginning.

I had been slow in putting the final details on my planning and felt rather un-prepared from the beginning. I traveled to San Francisco on May 12 to pick up my granddaughter, Grace, from the airport. After several hours of delay, she finally came through the international gate from New Zealand, sans one large backpack that had been checked in and never made it onto the plane. 

Over the next few days, I tried to make the final arrangements for the trip, doing the shopping, laundry, and miscellaneous errands while Grace made phone calls to locate her baggage and access her locked bank account. Things don't always work like they should when you are backpacking halfway around the globe.

Grace taking off kayaking from the dock at Avila Bay.

We had very hot temperatures that week, which just zapped Mom, so we didn't see much of her at all. I took Grace to the beach where she kayaked for over an hour, and, also, downtown to our renowned 'Bubble Gum Alley' (just Google it) and Farmer's Market, where we purchased some fresh fruit for our trip.

Saturday finally cooled down enough for Mom to come over for an afternoon of New Zealand pictures and dinner. That was a very nice visit for all of us. Late night food prep and last minute packing on my part, and some more last minute fridge cleaning the next morning, added up to a rather disorganized and late departure from my house. Made a stop by Mom's to say good-byes, and took off, again, forgetting her ice-packs that we intended to borrow for our cooler.

Grace adding her gum to SLO's 'Bubble Gum Alley.'

I recently got a new phone and hadn't been able to get the GPS to work on my trip to SF. Fortunately, I knew my way there and back, and it didn't cause me any inconvenience, but I made a special trip to the phone store downtown in SLO to get it fixed before our road trip. I was told what to do, was assured by the staff, and sent on my way. 

Well, wouldn't you know, we couldn't get it to work on Sunday, and I wasted an hour driving up and down Harbor Rd, in Ventura, trying to find the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center. I asked strangers, hotel desk clerks, and called the Visitors Center twice, with very inadequate results. We finally got there, and it is well worth stopping for, but it was foggy and we couldn't get any pictures of the islands, themselves. I was pretty frustrated.

Grace and I in front of the Joshua Tree NP entrance sign.

We had a light lunch, and got going, again, but the delayed departure and wasted time meant we ran into much heavier Sunday traffic through the LA basin. I had scheduled a stop at the southern-most visitor's center of the Joshua Tree National Park, rather than driving through the entire park (which really doesn't interest me that much after living in the high desert of SoCal for over 5 yrs). We got there a little after 5pm and found out it had actually closed at 4 (the two northern centers stay open 'til 5).

We stretched, walked around a little and took some pictures, anyway. There isn't much out there in the desert and nothing between the park and Blythe, CA, where we planned on staying the night. So, being low on gas, I knew I couldn't make it much farther east and decided to backtrack 23 miles to Coachella to gas up. Headed back east, and, lo and behold, there was a station just a few miles beyond the park entrance. Exasperated doesn't describe how I felt.

And that was just Day1. (Oh, and I didn't get any pictures of Grace at the airport, or with Mom, nor any of Channel Islands Visitor Center).