Last night I learned that there is a training I need to attend tomorrow at 1:00 pm, so we pushed today to get to Phoenix.  We left Wheeler Ridge this morning at 9:05 am.  The temperature was 59°.  We try to avoid Los Angeles as much as possible even in the best of times, so today we came up with our own route to I-10.

We climbed the Tehachapi Mountains on the Grapevine (I-5).

Then we took 138 along the mountain ridge.

Solar panels

The economy up there appears to be solar power and wind power.  There were miles and miles of solar panels.

Just north of Lancaster, California, we turned south on 14, then east on 138 again until we got to Highway 15.  We caught I-10 east at San Bernardino, and we followed it all the way here.  This route was uncongested, pretty, and the roads were in better shape than the roads in Los Angeles.  It was also much less confusing.

When we came down from the mountains, north of San Bernardino, we began to see Joshua Trees.

Looking out across a valley

A selfie!

This is the biggest wind farm we’ve ever seen.

A touch of color at a rest stop

This looked kind of like a palm tree orchard.

Crossing into Arizona

Quartzite is famous for being a place where you can park for free in the desert, but there are no hookups. Boondockers congregate here.

Cacti

Another selfie. We’re wearing T-shirts!

Sunset

Downtown Phoenix, at last!

The Walmarts in the Phoenix area don’t allow overnight parking, so we ended up in a casino parking lot.  We are squeezed in between an RV and a semi.  We weren’t able to put our bedroom out very far.  We did, however, have a decent meal in the casino.

The temperature got up to about 75° today.  We ran the fans all day.  This is more like it!