Day 11 - Eastward ho!

Today I leave Twentynine Palms and start the trip back to Julie's for Christmas. Before packing I drive over to Larry and Dana's house to for a short visit. Larry is almost back to normal from his big nugget high. We visit a while, and I head back to the motel. After packing and checking out, I stop by Dana's frame shop to take a couple of pictures, then head out across the desert. I see one of those "salt flats", and a road leading to it, so drive out there to investigate just what all that whiteness is. It smelled like salt, but I was afraid to taste it to confirm. I drove back to the highway and headed east.

Highway 62 across the Mojave is mostly rolling and empty. Leaving Twentynine Palms there are some houses and a small airport, but these quickly pass. Nothing else until I reach Vidal Junction, 90+ miles away. There's very little traffic in either direction, and no wildlife that I could see. The odometer passed 3,000 miles for the trip so far, and I would guess there's almost that much left. The temperature today is in the mid 60's, much better than the 105+ during our walk. What took 5 days walking passed in a couple of hours in the car.

Reaching Parker, AZ, I decided to divert from the plan and visit Lake Havasu City, AZ. It's about 40 miles north of Parker, and the home of the original London bridge. The lake was created when the Parker Dam was built on the Colorado River. The drive there is beautiful....hilly and winding. There's a golf course beside the highway, and the bright green really stands out alongside the mostly browns of the landscape. I located the bridge, took a few pictures, looked around a little, and headed back to Parker. Once in Parker I changed back to the walking route and started southeast toward Salome.

There's not much along this route. A few small communities: Bouse, Vicksburg, Hope, then Salome. I met some people here during the walk, and wanted to try to find them. That's not so easy out here....people live some distant from each other, many driveways have locked gates or "no trespassing" signs, and houses are far back off the road. I asked lots of people for directions, finally one woman knew about where they lived...."go past the Centennial wash, then the Centennial sign, then about another mile, and somewhere in that area. If you see a house, stop and ask". So I did all that, and finally someone knew where Dawn Patterson and her mother, Ina Cremer lived.

I pulled up to the house, knocked on the door, and a voice from inside said, "come on in". I didn't, and soon Dawn came to the door, I introduced myself, and she remembered me from the walk. Her husband David was also there and we had also met along the walk. Dawn's mother lives next door so we walked over there and visited for a while. Dawn and David were getting ready to go to a neighbor's house for a campfire, so invited me along. We went next door and sat around socializing and enjoying the fire and night sky. One neighbor, Ted, is an avid camper, and hikes/camps all over the SW deserts. He had lots of interesting stories. I told him about the SPOT tracking device I used during the walk, and he seemed interested in something like that to take on his hikes.

Before long it was time to leave, and Dana and David invited me to stay in their guest house. But, because of the late start this morning, plus some diversions in my route, I decided to get in a few more miles before stopping. Probably not the best decision, but.....! I left some Virginia apple butter with everyone, and set out. There's not much between Salome and Phoenix, which is about 2 hours away. And it's dark, on windy roads with signs warning to watch for cattle in the road....but I finally found a Best Western west of Phoenix. Checked in, unloaded the stuff, ate a sandwich, sat down to update the blog, and woke up several hours later. I decided the blog could wait.....all the changes in time zones, plus the strain of driving at night had taken its toll.

Pictures:
Larry and Dana....she is covering her chimney with different tiles, and you can see some of it behind her;
Dana doing her thing in the frame shop;
A slat flat in the Mojave;
Typical scenery in the desert;
The original London bridge;
South end of Lake Havasu;
Dawn and Ina....she put on the hat because she had curlers in her hair!;
By the campfire at neighbor's house.....that's Ted, Dawn, and Janie around the fire.