After few days on normal roads I have grown weary of Interstates, thus I decide to alter my route to LA, instead of travelling all day on the I 40 I will take some state roads and rejoin eventually the I 10 which I had left in the middle of Texas.
Thus I get out and follow a road that heads south following the Colorado River. There is a lake, a tourist resort, I see the first palms.
A new landscape. South of the lake there is a spur road that traverses the Colorado passing over the dam that I suppose creates the lake. It is a scenic route along many summer resorts, with summer houses and people practicing water-ski on the river.
Eventually it takes me to Route 62. When I enter California there is a Car Inspection Station. Like a border control, they look at your car and let you pass. this is the first time I encounter this in the US.
Route 62 runs for more than one hundred miles in the California desert, (how many forms has the desert!! this one is sands and low shrubs). Invites you to drive off road, I wish I had a cross motorbike on a trailer behind the car.
For about 80 miles there is absolutely nothing. Then as you get to Twenty Nine Palms, south of a military base, you enter the Yucca Valley, and it becomes more populated, here I see the first cactus like palms.
Actually, overall it does not look much different that western Sicily.
The I-10 welcomes me about one hundred something miles from LA. Forests of windmills for the production of energy populate the hills around. Quite high mountains in the distance, I did not know about them. I am a little nervous about getting around, in the legendary forest of freeways. I have read carefully the directions to my destination, but will I be able to find them? I have kept the computer in stand by since I could not print them, but I press the power button one extra time and it shuts off. Google's maps cannot be saved as html pages, thus I am on my own with my memory.
It would not be LA without a blocked freeway, is Sunday afternoon, people getting back after the weekend?
More than one hour for the last 3 miles. However it is very straightforward and I arrive home without any problem. When I park the car, it is 4 30 pm, local time, the odometer marks 126012. The entire journey has lasted 4152 miles long, more than 6500 km.
No comments:
Post a Comment