Tucson or Bust!!

 Oh my aching sciatic!!!  At least the first leg of the trip is done.  Cooper and Jonathan didn't know what was in store for them.  Cooper played his hide the ball game until I started packing up the truck in earnest. He knows when I'm leaving and he doesn't want to be left behind.  Can you say bark bark bark??

I try to be careful about packing.  It just never seems to work out right.  I put all the dog and bird food in the camera case and remembered to bring frozen water for both.  Too bad I forgot MY dinner food.   At any rate, we were off, expecting to stop before Bakersfield at the rest stop.  

But first ... let's dump a chunk at the gas station fueling up.  The price of fuel may have dropped in other states, but California has kept it at $5.95 up to $6.35.  I never saw it cheaper anywhere.  I only got $100 worth, enough to get me to Quartzsite.  It looks like fuel there is $4.91.

You know what happened at the rest stop ... it was CLOSED.  The sign said next stop 100 miles.  Yup that's California for you!!  I decided we really needed a stop to rest.   Jonathan was sitting in the water cup, holding on for dear life with his beak.  Poor guy ... this traveling is NOT up his alley.

I pulled in to the Orange Grove RV Park and walked to the office.  It was closed.  Cool ... that meant we parked under a tree while I walked Cooper in the dog walk.  I gave it 15 minutes, before heading off to Tehachapi.  Boy was I surprised at the smog over the mountains.  Maybe there's another fire, I don't know, but it was hard to even see the mountains.  We passed Boron at 108 degrees and drove through Barstow at 107.  

That's when I slowed down and turned south on 247.  It's a nice drive with little traffic.  We were all happy that the temperature went all the way down to 99.  That's when I got stuck behind the big truck and the very slow bus.  Just my luck there was never room to pass.

I finally hit Hwy 10 into Indio and stepped up the pace.  By now my butt is killing me, Cooper is thirsty and Jonathan looks like he's dead.  I ran into the motel lobby, to find the same wonderful lady I had met previously, who gave me the best room in the place and two bottles of water.  It took three trips to get us all in here.

Jonathan was revived and began to eat ... and Cooper drank up a storm before eating his dry food alone ... which he has never done before.  I guess we're all a little worse for wear.  

Yes ...  this is dinner.  I thought about stealing some of Jon's sunflower seeds, but he wasn't sharing,  

Sleeping in hotels doesn't work so well for me, but Cooper crashed.  I saw just about every hour before becoming a spy.  That's a new one!  I guess I didn't get caught, because I'm still here.

I do have to say people are not kind any more, nor respectful of anyone else.  Two men came in next door and turned the TV up, laughing up a storm until about midnight.  Then there were slamming doors right and left, followed by the ice machine at 3:30.  I gave up telling Cooper not to bark at them.  

If I can find a McDonalds within a few blocks, I'll get something for breakfast.  After all, I've got another 7 hours of driving to get home to Tucson.  I definitely need to make this a three day trip next time.