We have spent the bulk of our first 4 months of RVing in Southwestern deserts. We love these deserts as they can be so beautiful, serene and unique. It has such strangely shaped cactus and amazing wind shaped rocks and gorgeous canyons and mountains. You also get day after day after day of clear blue skies and lots and lots of sun. Of course, this is the primary reason the desert is what it is, a dry and a very hot environment for about half of the year. When we lived in Southern California (which is also a desert, that most people who do not live there don’t realize), we had the most perfect environment. Lots of sun, lots of warm weather and the beautiful Pacific Ocean just a few steps away. The cool ocean keeps the heat down so rarely does it get too hot along the coast. In fact, our house did not have any air conditioning simply because if was never needed. I got so pathetically spoiled that if it became overcast and rained during the weekend, I got grumpy because my day off from work was limited to staying indoors. Boo hoo!
For the last month, we have been in the San Francisco Bay Area, staying at the Del Valle Recreational Area near Livermore. It was a beautiful setting with lots of trees, a large, green, grassy open area in the center of our campground with lots of animals roaming free throughout the area. Contrasted to our time in the desert, we had many cloudy days and some rain and temperatures that rarely got above the low 60s during the day and many times dropped below freezing during the night. Now, do not get me wrong, I am not complaining. Compared to the much of the country that is being blasted by snow and subzero temperatures, such weather wound be welcomed. But, after living on a sailboat in the tropics for the last 10 years, I have become a spoiled warm weather fool. Thus, today, as we climbed up and over the Tehachapi Mountains and entered the Mohave Desert, I had a big smile on my face because we were being greeted by blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. Whoo Hoo! Winter time in the desert can be so nice!
We have decided to slow down our traveling pace going forward. We already have over 8000 miles on LeuC and that was done during our first three months. Thus, we will now try to drive under 4 hours a day, resulting in covering about 250 miles a day or less.
With this goal in mind, for our nightly stop today we chose a rather different type of place. We have literally pulled right off of the road (State Route 58) and parked in a large dirt area which is about 10 miles east of where State Routes 395 and 58 intersect. It is in the middle of nowhere as you can see from the photos that I have posted. It is an area where the 58 turns from a 2-lane road into a freeway. It is huge! You could easily fit 100s of trucks or RVs here and still have plenty of room. You can find in on Google Maps or Google Earth by plugging in the address of 10399 Barstow-Bakersfield Highway, Rialto, CA.
We have to whole place to ourselves. We do hear the big rigs driving by but the noise is not so bad and will not interfere with our sleep tonight.
Tomorrow, we will continue our journey east with our goal being a wonderful little park located right along the Colorado River in Needles, California. It is just 170 miles away, so it should be a very easy and short drive.
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 