Winslow, AZ to Idyllwild, CA

Day 11: Friday, August 1: I woke up, made some PB&J sandwiches for the road, had hotel continental breakfast, and headed out to Meteor Crater. It's so close to the highway that you can see the crater rim from the road (although you wouldn't know that's what it was unless you had been there). It looks exactly like the pictures. The museum is actually pretty good. I did not do the guided rim tour, as by then I really needed to be on the road. I did stop at the gift and rock shop. I've seen rock shops advertised across this entire trip and I'd resisted entering one until now. Man, I had forgotten how much I like rock shops. I did pick up a couple things.

Then the long drive. I left Meteor Crater at 10:30am and headed west on I-40. The big honking mountain that the sun had set directly over the night before is actually an old volcano: Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. I didn't stop.

I had a small incident at the agricultural inspection station. Right after I passed through it, my car started overheating (the temperature idiot light came on). I pulled off at the next exit, stopped, and turned off the engine. After it cooled down a bit, I started it again and got going. It happened again. It dawned on me that it probably had something to do with running the air conditioning in the 120º heat. So, I stopped using the A/C.

I decided to wait until Needles, CA to refuel, which was stupid because gas prices were a lot higher in CA than AZ. It was so hot in Needles that they had wrapped a towel around the metal door handle of the gas station so you wouldn't burn yourself.

And then I drove through the Mojave Desert, without A/C. It was not too uncomfortable, actually, since I had plenty of water and the sweat evaporated instantly. I saw baby joshua trees and ocotillo, which was cool. Once I hit I-10, I decided my A/C restriction was stupid, and was probably more a result of my having been running the A/C while the car was idling in the heat, so I turned it back on. I haven't had any issues since.

I did actually measure the temperature using a small digital thermometer I had brought. It stopped working once it read 122.6º. No wonder everything in the car was hot to the touch. My iPod, in the shade, burnt my fingers when I touched it.

So, the desert was intense.

The view coming down into the Palm Springs area from the desert was incredible -- another instance of a flat plain with a massive mountain range behind it (Colorado Springs and Albuquerque being two others).

Got gas in Banning before the climb up the mountain, and made it to Scott and Doug's at 6:20pm. It was great catching up and spending some time with them in the midst of the chaos of expanding their store, Mountain Harvest Market. I got to see an incredible sunset off their deck, which, on a clearer day, has a view to the ocean 45 miles away.