September 19th & 20th 2009
Saturday afternoon we left Chicago and flew over the vast desert on our way to Los Angeles. We spent a night in the Rennaissance Hotel at the airport which was real luxury compared to the hostels and treated ourselves to a really lovely meal with a bottle of wine to celebrate arriving in California.
After picking up the hire car on Sunday morning, the rest of the day was spent driving to our overnight stop in Barstow.
We headed for Barstow, passing through the San Bernadino National Forest which is a winding road that climbs to a summit of 7,112 feet. We stopped at the top to take a picture of Great Bear Lake, before heading on down to the lake which is still at about 5,000 feet.
The drive continued along some very straight, long roads through the desert with cacti littering both sides of the road.
Barstow seems to be some sort of gigantic truck stop with loads of fast food places, petrol stations and truck parks. We’re staying in a Days Inn just off the freeway, and the traffic heading towards LA from Vegas is solid at the moment. Guess that’s some people’s fun weekend over!
Tomorrow we set off to where they’ve all come from - Las Vegas.