Thursday, 11-20-97

We got away from home at about 8 o'clock this morning. We stopped at the grocery store and got a breakfast at McDonalds. Ahhh, road food, the right way to start a trip. As a reference, the price of gasoline was $1.35 per gallon.

We finally entered California Highway 85 at about 9:30 and headed south. Shortly after getting on the freeway, we saw a small pickup truck on its side in the fast lane on the northbound side of the highway. There was a California Highway Patrol (CHP) cruiser already on the scene and a tow truck was just arriving. The CHP officer was talking to the driver who appeared to be uninjured. The drive over to Interstate Highway 5 (I-5) seemed very quick and it felt as if we were really taking a trip when we headed south on I-5. It seems as if I must get farther from home each year before I get the feeling we are truly out of town.

After turning on to I-5, we had a pleasant surprise; the roadway is nice and smooth all the way to our turn-off to Bakersfield. In fact, we experienced very nice traveling conditions all day. The low level of traffic we encountered on I-5 was a pleasing experience. In years gone by we have seen very heavy traffic on I-5 and I-40 at this time of year. We stopped in Bakersfield to fill up the motorhome fuel tank and to get something to eat. Then it was on to Barstow.

The sunny day gave way to a cloudy sky from Bakersfield to Mojave. We saw the fields of wind powered generators on the hill east of Tehachapi. Each time we come this way, there seems to be more windmills up on the hill. From a distance, it is beginning to look like the hill is covered with animated flowers. The sun came out again as we approached Mojave. We saw the sun set as we were crossing the desert heading for Barstow.

Surprise, there is a new bypass to get from State Highway 58 to I-40. It is now very easy to bypass the city of Barstow, unlike our last trip when we had to drive on city streets to get from one highway to the other. I wanted to top off the motorhome gas tank in Barstow, but I didn't know how to find my favorite gas station from the new bypass. So I made my best guess and turned the wrong direction when we got off the highway. I ended up getting us lost on the side streets of Barstow and it was very dark by this time. We drove around for about 10 minutes when I recognized a landmark. Because we have made this trip several times, I was finally able to find our way back to my favorite fuel stop.

I liked this station because it always had the lowest price. Unfortunately, since we last came this way (5/97), the station has changed to a major brand of gas and the price is no longer the lowest in town. The lowest now is Arco at $1.32 per gallon. From here it was back to I-40 where we headed east toward Needles, California.

As we drove into the night, we saw only one unusual sight. About halfway between Barstow and Needles, we saw an eighteen-wheeler, throwing sparks from the rear of its semi-trailer. As we got closer, we could see that the left rear tire was flat and had worn down to the steel cords. The cords were the source of the shower of sparks we saw. The driver was apparently aware of the situation because he was driving with the hazard blinkers turned on.

We arrived at our usual first stopping point at 7:45PM. The KOA campground in Needles is very familiar to us now. It felt good to stop early rather than to try to continue into the night. The air temperature is very comfortable. I turned in a little early so that maybe we would be able to get underway in good time tomorrow.