The first desert drive!

Aug 1

Ladies and gentlemen, normal blog service is resumed now we have access again to the internet!

Left Long Beach this morning and began the long drive east. Cloudy in Long Beach and the smog as we travelled toward LA was unbelievable. Wouldn't want to live there permanently. The queues on the freeway make our rush hour look positively leisurely! The number of trucks is amazing, can't quite make out where they all come from or where they're going to...

We finished the day in Lake Havasu City and, at time of writing 8:50pm it is still 112 deg fahrenheit so, when we arrived about 6:30pm and walked across London Bridge it was obviously hotter still. The bridge has been preserved beautifully including the original lamposts. The overnight low is expected to be a 'cool' 94 deg!! All I can say is - 'thank you' to whoever invented air conditioning!!!!

We have travelled through some stark countryside today, but saying that it is also quite moving. The land is obviously very brown scrubland (desert don't ya know) but the flatlands are surrounded by mountains and at one point we had climbed to an elevation of 4000ft! Had quite a bizarre experience because in the middle of all this desert, near Barstow, we encountered a huge discount outlet - just had to stop, no question. June could not miss the chance to shop, now there's a surprise!!! However, I made not a single purchase, that's not to say that no purchases were made, just not by me! All the big names are there, paradise really.....

Sad to say we have been travelling with the top up because of the extreme heat, think we'd be in a dreadful state if it was down. Still as we head further east the heat is not quite so intense so there's time, there's time...