Thursday 20^th.

Annette dropped me off at Tweed Airport and I flew to San Diego via Washington and Pittsburg. Long flight, but not uncomfortable. Leila met me at the airport in San Diego and we took a taxi to the J St Inn where she had booked us a room for the night. Leila had been staying at The Maryland right in the middle of the Gaslamp district, which although it had a great location it was a little cheap and nasty. The Inn was only two blocks away from there anyway. In the evening we walked around the Gaslamp district for a while, looking at all the night-life and we had a very nice mexican dinner at the Redfish Cajun Grille & Bar on Fifth avenue. Great margaritas too. We were both feeling a bit tired, Leila's week of conferencing was catching up with her and my travels that day were also taking their toll. Slept ok, but I woke too early in the morning.

Friday 21^st.

Woke early and, leaving Leila to sleep a bit more, showered and went to have breakfast at a nearby deli. Nice morning, sunny but a bit breezy. Still I managed to enjoy my first outdoors breakfast for the year. Went back to the hotel room to find that Leila was awake and ready to go. Walked into the Gaslamp district so she could have breakfast. While sitting at our table and watching the morning pass us by we discussed our plans for a while, deciding to rent a car after lunch and head east. Back at the room we rang Thrifty and organized to pick up a car at around 1pm. To kill time and have a look around, Leila walked me along the waterfront, looking at the marina, some kites, grabbed an ice-cream and basically just wandered along the marina towards the airport where the car was waiting for us. Got there at about noon and picked up a beaut little Dodge Neon. Drove it back the hotel, checked out, packed the car, and then did a little food shopping at Ralph's (smaller upmarket version of Shaws or Woolworths) before heading east along the I-8, passing through La Mesa and El Cajon. The countryside outside of central San Diego was very dry. Stopping at Pine Valley for gas and to have some lunch in a nice little park, we looked at a tourist map we had. After some discussion we decided to drive up to see the deserts north of Pine Valley. So up the S1 towards and then through Julian, at which we headed east again along route 78 and into the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Brilliant blue skies and a hot sun kept the car very warm, so we were using the airconditioner on and off. Strong winds had started to pick up at this point, so it wasn't very hot outside of the car. We stopped at a small campground at the junction with route S3 and took a short walk into the hills across the road, taking a look at the plantlife. The breeze was pretty stiff here, so we kept our jackets on as we wandered up a dry creekbed looking at brilliantly flowering cacti and enjoying the first real sunshine either of us had seen in weeks. Took a bunch of photos before returning to the car. Following the S3 we soon found ourselves passing through choking dust-storms near Borrego Springs some of them so thick and heavy that visibility was virtually nothing for a few seconds at a time. Leila, who drove through all of this, was completely unconcerned. We emerged from the Anza Borrego at the shores of the Salton Sea (235 ft below sea level), and turning north on highway 86 we drove for a while before stopping at Desert Shores to have a closer look at the big lake. Wouldn't really want to swim in this one. Looked fairly lifeless, and the picture wasn't helped much by all the dead and dessicated fish lying about on the shoreline. The town was pretty depressing. Mostly demobilized mobile homes, clustered together and squeezed between harsh deserts to the west and an ocean of undrinkable water to the east. We continued on up through the Torres Martinez Indian reservation and Mecca, passing date and citrus orchards along the way. The irrigated green landscapes provided a sharp contrast against the desert mountains to the west. Stopped at a motel just south of Indio, and had dinner at a really cool little mexican café (Taco Loco) nearby. The wind was still blowing, so dry you could almost feel it stripping the moisture away from your skin if you stood around in it for any length of time.

Saturday 22^nd.

We headed up the 111 and stopped for breakfast at the Rincon Norteń. Good food, great service and the owner talked Leila into paying for it! Funny guy. After driving in circles for a bit we finally figured out how to get onto the I-10 east and headed for the south entrance to the Joshua Tree National Park. Fantastic area. Stopping first at the Cottonwood visitor center we picked up our pass and a detailed map of the park. We decided to drive into the Ryan mountain area. On the way we noticed a field of big white granite boulders, as we got closer we saw that there was a campground right in amongst them. So we parked and rockhopped for the better part of an hour. Losing ourselves in a very large field of giant stone piles that had been eroded smooth by the desert winds. Speaking of which, the breeze had finally dropped and for the first time we felt pretty warm, and then hot, as we wandered around. It didn't take long to escape the few other people who were also having a walkabout, and for a while we could have been the last humans on earth. Beautifully stark place, took many photos here. Got lots of sun here too, perhaps too much. On to Split Rock where we found a quiet place far from the madding crowd (actually, there weren't that many people around anyway … but you know what I'm getting at) and had a really nice lunch together in the shade of a large, split (of course), boulder. Foolishly deciding to sunbathe a little more. After this we drove on to Skull rock visitor area, there was a rock there that looked remarkably like a skull, but we didn't pay too much attention to it. Plenty of other people were doing that. We walked the nature trail through Jumbo Rocks to the campground about half a mile away. Pretty good, but the rest of the trail, which looped around back to Skull rock on the other side of the main road, was even better. No people, lots of plant life, some birds and even a couple of lizards catching the spring sun. We did see a couple of rock climbers attacking an isolated bluff off the trail some distance away, but apart from them, no-one else. Leila had sensibly brought some water along with us, so we remained comfortable even though the conditions were very warm. Back to the car and on to Keys View lookout (elevation 5185 feet) where we had an amazing look at the desert valley below, which was partly obscured by a significant amount of smog drifting down from the north … Los Angeles was making its presence felt already. Back down the mountain, we took a final stop near Hidden Valley and took photos of a forest of Joshua trees. Really sunny, not too windy in the park, a really terrific day. After leaving the park we had dinner and much-needed margaritas in Joshua Tree at Alejandro's Mexican Restaurant, mexican food again … hmm … the margaritas were very good though. While we were there we decided to try and get close to Death Valley before stopping for the night. So we drove up route 62 to Twenty Nine Palms and then took a long circuit route along the Amboy road (driving like a bat out of hell) going around the Marine Air Ground Combat grounds, turning left at Amboy on the other side and then looking for Bagdad (of the Bagdad café movie) on the old route-66 … but the place has vanished! Absolutely no sign that there ever was such a place. Really lonely stretch of road. Got to route 40 at Ludlow where we stopped for a break before Leila took over behind the wheel, finally stopped having driven past Barston and on to Four Corners on route 58 at the "Relax Inn". I was so tired by this stage that I paid for the room and then promptly forgot about doing that, which lead to some confusion and embarressment in the morning.

Sunday 23^rd.

Drove into Boron, a little further west along route 58, for an american diner breakfast and a short look around. Headed back to Four Corners where we turned left onto route 395 and headed north. We passed an enormous field of mirrored reflectors (some sort of alternative energy electric generator plant we think), a high-security prison and some pretty desolate looking country. At Johannesburg we turned right onto route 178 and headed towards Trona, looking for "The Pinnacles". We had to stop and ask some friendly people at a gathering of off-road motorbike racers for some directions, very helpful they were too, before we eventually found the Pinnacles. These were a line of striking rock formations in the middle of a broad and dusty plain, accessible along a bumpy unsealed track through a salt-pan. Really empty, lifeless and yet amazing looking place. We parked the car right amongst the formations and had a short walk around. Took a few good photos here too. We headed back along route 178 west through Ridgecrest, where we stopped to look at what looked at first glance to be an airforce waste facility (but was actually an open-air airforce museum, run by an interesting and friendly guy who could easily pass for John Goodman's brother) which was cool enough in a peculiar way, then we continued on to route 14 and headed back south a bit looking for Red Rock Canyon and ended up looking at a nearby place called Red Cliffs instead. Leila and I looked at the cliffs for a while before we hiked off into the desert canyons (following old paths and then a dry river bed), quite a good, long and satisfying hike actually. The colours were brilliant. After getting back to the car we headed back north to rejoin route 178 and headed west into the Sequoia National Forest. We're not sure, but we think we saw some sequoias, not terribly large ones though. We had a very nice lunch at Lake Isabella, then took a rest stop in one of the small forest parks. Beautiful, quiet, trees, grass, small stream, a complete contrast to the deserts. After this we got in the car again and drove a seemingly endless distance, aiming to reach the coastline. We followed the 178 to heavily industrialised Bakersfield, where we took photos of some of the dozens of working oil-pumps we saw there, and then route 58 across some very pastoral land (treeless pasture that stretched forever) … this seemed to take an eternity. By evening we finally got to highway 101, very near the coast and stopped at San Luis Obispo. There we booked into the local Days Inn, sampled the jaccuzzi and heated pool before dinner somewhere in town and then, finally, sleep.

Monday 24^th.

Pretty lazy morning. We were determined not to repeat yesterday's driving marathon. Had breakfast in the motel lobby (free bagels, coffee and OJ) and then headed down to Pizmo beach. At Pizmo beach we lay down and sun-worshipped under a blazing blue sky for a few hours. Felt good to be not driving anywhere for a little bit. We then walked a mile or two along the beach looking at all the people and 4WD vehicles. Not too many people where in the water, only a few, Leila explained that the water is fairly cold because of upwelling water from the deeps offshore. A few minutes down the road from Pizmo beach we had lunch at a really cool diner that was composed of two refurbished box-cars. We then decided to try and get to Santa Barbara before it got too late in the afternoon. We reached SB fairly quickly and went to see the Santa Barbara Mission and spent the best part of an hour looking through the small museum there and learning about its history. They had an Australian Fig tree growing in its garden! After Santa Barbara we continued south along route 101 for a while, then deciding to get back to the coast line we thought we might switch to route 1. Got lost, a bit, but soon found ourselves heading along a spectacular coast road squeezed between cliffs and the sea. We saw some kite-boarders (yep, these guys had a sort of surfboard strapped to their feet and used a giant kite to drag them around the water, occasionally sailing up into the air (!), looked like incredible fun) do some amazing aerials just offshore from Malibu. We continued to follow route 1 into LA, traffic got heavy, the traffic lights got frustrating, it was getting dark and our progress had slowed significantly. Wanting to get past LA before we stopped for the night, we switched over to the 405 freeway in El Segundo. Leila actually did all of the driving from Malibu right through LA and into Orange County, where we had a mexican fast food dinner before (eventually) making our way back to the coast and finding a motel in Laguna beach. Absolutely stuffed.

Tuesday 25^th.

In the morning Leila asked the manager where a good place for breakfast was and he recommended a place just down the road called "The Cottage". This was definitely pretty sort of good, nice place, nice food, service … typical … good once they realized you were there. After a largish breakfast we wandered down to the beach and had a look. Very very foggy, it looked way cool. Tried to take some photos of the fogged-in shoreline. Walked along the beach and into the mist for a while, then sat down and watched the morning sun slowly burn it all away. Beautiful. We had to check out of the motel at around eleven, so we walked back through downtown, stopping to check out a couple of swimwear shops on the way. The day was proving to be extremely good, clear sky, no wind, hot sun … I was bare-foot most of the time. Got back to the hotel and packed up the car, the manager kindly let us leave the car there as we decided to stay in Laguna Beach for a little longer. Back in town I managed to buy a pair of speedos to replace my ageing boardshorts. We went back to the beach and sunbathed for a bit before walking along it for quite a distance. We turned back at some rocks near the south side of town and climbed up to street level again for a bit more window shopping. Leila looked for swimwear in a number of places, but didn't find anything she liked. We stopped at a small café and had mexican style shark-burgers (these were good, believe it). There was a hemp shop above it which we also checked out, I managed to score a cool looking T-shirt. The day was getting on and we reluctantly left Laguna Beach some time in the mid-afternoon.

Leila relaxes on Laguna Beach

Driving south we followed the I-5 to Oceanside before turning onto route 15 for the Orfila Vineyards in Escondido. The directions given in the guide book were bloody awful, however Leila managed the navigation very well and we eventually found the place anyway. We tried a few of their wines, I wasn't very tolerant but Leila did find some kindness for their Sangiovese. Beautiful place, took some photos and walked into the vineyards a little. The weather was still hot and relatively still, so it was pretty pleasant. We headed back to the coast, reaching Salona beach around 5pm. The first place we stopped at was no good because the beach was, well, gone … must have been washed away or something. We drive down to Del Mar, just a few minutes away and found a beach there that was ok. Lay down on the sand and soaked up the last of the sun as it started to sink into the Pacific. Time was getting on and we thought we had better make a move, so we went back to Salona beach to have dinner (pasta) and then back onto the I-5 into San Diego. Dropped off the car at Thrifty and hitched a ride on the courtesy van to the airport … from there we got home, eventually.