Miles to Nowhere

Interstate 40 crosses the Tehachapi Mountains and the Mojave Desert before entering AZ

We took a 1,100 mile road trip to Lake Havasu, Arizona to visit Dennis' mom last week. The Colorado river widens into a man-made lake at this location because of a downstream dam. So the location is popular with the boating community and those who want to see the London Bridge which was relocated brick by brick to become a tourist attraction. In summer, the temperature can easily reach over 115 degrees, cooling down at night to a mere 104. At least that was our experience when we visited 3 years ago for mom's 75th birthday, and so we nicknamed the barren area "Gates of Hell".

This visit was very nice, including delicious meals and play time with siblings, cousins, aunts, nieces, nephews and (of course) dogs. A paved 4-mile trail is well organized with bicycles going clockwise and walkers going counterclockwise. On skates with dogs, we considered ourselves walkers. Roman actually sustained a 4-mile trot as I skated beside him on the second day. The family members who walked completed the loop in about 1 hr and 20 minutes, a pretty good pace indeed.

Cyndie, Paula, Roman and Josie on the 4-mile path

Cousin Paula made the most hilarious observations of the topography and local community:

• "This place is just like Afghanistan, only without the bullets!" (referring to the rugged, treeless terrain)




• "Bin Laden is probably hiding in the Model homes!" (as we passed an abandoned new housing development with only 3 model homes built and no activity whatsoever, who would think to look for terrorists there?)


Abandoned new housing development with 3 hearty palm trees attempting to survive




• "Mr. Bunny was surprised!" (referring to the cottontail rabbits who routinely traverse mom's backyard and did not expect two dogs to be there, the rabbits left quickly and dashed into the "wash", a gully designed for flash floods. Perhaps the coyotes got them.)




• "It's time for pee-pee NOW!" (this is the universally understood road-trip cry when there are no rest areas for extended periods while crossing the desert)

I was struck by the lack of solar panels on homes. Of all the places I have visited, Lake Havasu would be the ideal location to generate electricity from the sun, especially with the heavy use of residential air conditioning (even the garages have their own, separate swamp coolers!).

On the ride home, I took the snapshot below of the airplane storage area in the Mojave desert. Presumably, planes are stored here because of the low humidity....they don't deteriorate as quickly as they might in a wetter location.



Roman is a great traveler and never once complained about the long stretches. He just slept in doggie business class, the entire backseat being given over to him.