Quote:
Originally Posted by mantis
im way out in san bernardino, i take the 10w,57n,210w,134n,101n to the 1n costal access at emma wood, and just cruz the 1 the rest of the way
california awesome to drive in the winter/spring so beautiful
done that DV to reno a few times, definitely not a fun summer trip, lol
old 395 has great stops along the way
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I didn't know driving through the Rockies to Cali could be so dangerous in the in the winter time.
Flew into Denver and it was snowing. Not bad. Some flakes. Then started driving to Vail along this mountain road and it started snowing like crazy. It was dumping snow. And my mom was with me. And it was 6pm. It was nerve wracking. Got to Vail around 8pm. I was relieved. I paid $$ for a space at that hotel, but its wasn't worth our lives to keep driving.
The next morning I paid $25 for a latte and breakfast sandwich. I was just, WTF?? $25 ?? Then it turned out to be one of the best lattes I ever had, and the breakfast sandwich was the size of a damn whopper. Huh. So this is how fancy people live!
Colorado turned out to be just gorgeous. But roads were blocked because of the weather. Eventually we made it to Arches National Park and Monument Valley. It was great!!! And Moab ended up being a really cool town to visit.
A dusk we just checked into a hotel in this town called Tuba. it is a depressing area. A few gas stations, some food joints and a hotel, that's it. I tried ordering a beer and found out alcohol was illegal in that area. I had read about this, that the locals suffered from high rates of alcoholism. Tragic. Speaking with the locals, I found that a lot of them lived without power or running water. Passed by their high school. I will say the well-to-do in DC would never tolerate those poor facilities for their own kids. And what was hilarious was that these Navajo told me some of their so-called tribal leadership lived in Flagstaff. It was a rich town about 50 miles west of Tuba.
The worst was driving out of Navajo country. Its a two lane, opposing traffic, highway going out of their territory. Traveling at night on that thing was risky. One woman tried pushing through, and she ended up hitting a cow. Because there was no cell phone signal, she was stuck all night with this wrecked car and dead ass cow she just smacked into.
Finally someone found her in the morning. The authorities sorted things out. Because the cow was pregnant, this woman ended up paying damages for 2 cows. The whole affair was just a mess.
Later got to Vegas. My mom and I got to enjoy Vegas right before the pandemic hit, which was nice. She loves slot machines. But damn, those areas outside of the strip don't feel so safe. Stayed for 2 nights and dropped my mom off at the airport so she could fly home. I continued on to Death Valley.
Death Valley was creepy in the winter. There are people who live in their RVs who like that time of year there! Not for me. I remember stopping my car halfway to the Death Valley. I got out, and there was just silence. No planes, cars, or anything. It was maybe 50 degrees, and there was a layer of fog all around me.
Then I started thinking about where this is typically the part in movies where half-dead people start appearing out of the mist with arms out stretched. I was thinking, NOPE. Got back in my car and kept chugging along.
395 was awesome. Eventually made it to Reno and San Fran. I wish I were back there.