Day 5

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Today we were sick of the same old breakfast at La Quinta so we went to Coco’s Bakery and Restaurant. It was a nice way to start the day.

We drove west out of Flagstaff to Bakersfield, which was only 6.5 hours away. We chose to take a detour down historic Route 66 from Kingman to Oatman, AR. It was quite a scenic drive. I lost count of how many switchbacks we made through the Black Mountains. The mailman was booking it down this road. Even he passed us. There were abandoned and active mines.

Oatman, Arizona is a small former mining town on Route 66. Wild burros freely roam the town. The burros once were used inside the mines for hauling rock and ore. After the mines closed the burros were released into the surrounding hills. The burros on the streets today are descendents of these same wild burros.

Chance did not think the burros were so cool. It was interesting trying to shoo them out off the road so we could drive by while she was growling as loud as she could.

From Oatman we drove in the Mohave Valley by nice golf courses out in the middle of the desert. Crazy.

Once in California, there wasn’t a thing for miles. We ate snacks in the car for lunch since we weren’t hungry enough for the random food stops in the middle of the desert.

The gas stations were over $4.50 a gallon here!

We went by the Tehachapi-Mojave Wind Resource Area which has more than 4,500 wind turbines. They can generate the annual needs for 300,000 homes!

The terrain soon changed to lush green rolling hills. I can see why people like California so much.

We checked into the hotel in Bakersfield and grabbed Vietnamese at Saigon for dinner.

Tomorrow is another day we have really been looking forward to. We plan to drive up the Pacific Coast on Highway 1 as much as we can. We plan to see Carmel, 17 Mile Drive and Monterey before heading up to San Francisco for the night.