Road Trip, Day 13

We got in one last game of Clue before I had to leave for Palm Springs.

The drive was interesting.  Went up Highway 95 which connects I-8 with I-10.  Out in the middle of nowhere there is a boarder control station.  Everybody must stop.  There are drug sniffing dogs, etc.  I'll bet the people who smuggle immigrants and drugs in took about three minutes to figure this out and now use alternate routes.  Your tax dollars hard at work.

Also encountered a MASSIVE gathering of RVs just before 95 intersects with I-10.  All sorts of flea market activity going on and traffic jams (all in the middle of nowhere in the desert!!!)  I wouldn't pick that as a gathering place, but apparently it works for the RV folks.  The city there is called Quartzite.

Left turn on I-10 and on to California.  Welcome to California!  Pretty soon another of these great border patrol stations--everybody must stop again.  Somehow, all this doesn't make me feel safer and it doesn't seem to be stemming the flow of either illegal immigrants or drugs, but what do I know, I'm just an ordinary citizen and taxpayer, not a government bureaucrat.

I visited Joshua Tree National Park--interesting to see the Joshua Trees.  Will have to look up how they acquired their name.  Very interesting rock formations in the park once you pass from the Colorado Desert to the Mojave Desert.  Also a great overlook where you can look down on the San Andreas Fault--they describe how fast it is moving there.

Heading to Palm Springs had to drive into blinding sun, not an easy task while keeping track of all the speeding Californians around me!  Also heading toward snow-capped mountains--gorgeous!

On arrival in Palm Springs, discovered the main drag is closed for some sort of street fair.  Of course my hotel is located on the main drag, so Mr. Garmin had fits as I drove around and around trying to figure out how to get past all this.

Was pooped by the time I got to the hotel, so asked for a recommendation of a good local restaurant, went there and had dinner, came back and tried to get on the internet, but their connection wasn't working.  It said it was on their network, but it wouldn't take me anywhere on the web.  Gave up and went to bed.