Thursday, 12-4-97

I was up this morning early enough to see something I very seldom see, a sunrise. Normally I like to sleep late, so this was an unusual site for me. After getting to bed so late last night, I decided it was too early for me to get up and get around. So I took a picture of the sunrise through the back window of our motorhome and went back to bed.

Sunrise over Laughlin, Nevada, seen through motorhome rear window

We finally got up a little later in morning. We took off following the signs directing us to I-40. This took us right by the KOA campground in Needles, CA where we usually stay. We stopped in town for a quick breakfast and headed out on what would be the last leg of our trip.

Shortly after leaving Needles, we saw several vintage automobiles traveling on the east bound side of I-40. These were the first of many more groups of old cars we would see all day long. The year of manufacture for the various autos ranged from the late ’20s to the 1950s. The oldest of the cars all seemed to have a small amount of customization; while the cars from the 50s all seemed to be stock.

The sky today was clear most of the day. In the morning, the sky was clear except for an occasional vapor trail of an airliner. As the day wore on, each vapor trail provided the beginning of a growing cloud. By afternoon, there were a lot of high, thin, and very straight clouds criss-crossing the sky.

Clear skies over the Mojave Desert

As we were heading toward Barstow, we came across a very serious accident. There were police cars, fire trucks, an ambulance, and a wrecker on the scene. And what a scene it was. The accident happened on the eastbound side of the highway, so we couldn't see everything clearly. What we saw was a tractor-trailer rig that must have rolled and flipped. The tractor was upside down in the dirt on the far side of the highway. The trailer was spread out along the side of the road in the form of hundreds of pieces of shredded aluminum and torn fiberglass insulation. The trailer looked as if a bomb had exploded inside. In the center divider there was another pile of shredded aluminum and fiberglass insulation. It appeared that the tractor-trailer might have been a double trailer rig.

Also in the center divider was a class A motor home that seemed to be undamaged. It appeared as if the motorhome was probably forced into the center divider to avoid the 18-wheeler as it rolled and flipped. Not far from the motorhome was a minivan that probably was there for the same reason as the motorhome.

As we traveled toward the town of Mojave, we saw a black jet plane circling and making touch and go landings. The plane looked like it may have been an older delta-wing plane that was restored. I wondered why it was painted black. Then just after the plane landed, I saw a small light aircraft also coming in for a landing and it also was painted black.

After leaving Mojave, we headed up the incline that would take us over the Tehachapi Mountains. It seems the crop of wind powered generators has grown bigger every time we come by this way.

Tehachapi wind powered generators

Once over the pass, we had a long, fairly steep downhill ride to Bakersfield. We stopped, just north of Bakersfield, to refuel before making the drive to home. The rest of the way home was driven in the dark. I enjoyed driving on the new, smooth surface of I-5. We reached our homeport at about 8:30PM. Now we will be getting ready to take off tomorrow for our RV club outing.