Bakersfield, California

We pulled away from our friends, Irene and Doug, about 830 this morning. Made a stop in Quartzsite and let it rip. Teri stopped at the post office but the line was too long to wait.

Crossed the Colorado river at PArker and into California, where gas price jumped one buck. Glad I filled up in Parker.

So, we found this post office. Pretty neat. Teri ran in and mailed the post cards from here and I grabbed a couple of pictures. Reckon Wyatt Earp was ever in this post office?

The pictures are not loading properly again so I have no idea what they will look like when I finalize this.

Needles California. Must be the nation's highest fuel right here. Was about 4 dollars a gallon. I did not slow down except to get on I-40 and roll toward Barstow.

Interstate 40.

Teri wanted this picture with the Joshua Trees in it. I hope it loads.

See those clouds?

We drove right up and into them near Tehachipi, Ca.

Almost like looking down from an airplane at 4,000 ft. the temperature dropped from 65 to 44. It was cool up there.

Oh, I wanted to stop and grab a hand full of these oranges. Just before we got into Bakersfield.

Oh yea, there is oil out here. My mother's brother came here to Bakersfield back in the 40s and worked the oil fields til he died. I have kin here somewhere.

The real thing. Home to the late Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and Dwight Yokum.

We eased on up 99 after taking an hour to find where they moved Walmart. What a trip. Anyway, we filled up here at Flying J and they told us to park it back here with the big trucks. We are here right between 2 big boys. We are just about 3 miles south of 46 and we will jump on that when we pull out. We want to run over to 101 and up into the Bay area. Will be our first time across that route. I beleive that is the road James Dean died on back in 53, before my time.

We had a blast in Quartzsite. Hated to leave but it was time. Doug and Irene were heading to Yuma today so we said goodbye to them. Our plan is to visit them when they get home. Not far from San Francisco. Very good people.

Today's ride was great. We could not have picked a better day to run 400 miles. The GMC did not miss a beat and pulled that long grade out of Needles like it was not there. In fact, we pulled several mountains today but that one was the biggest. I always enjoy flying down the Tehachipis, just east of Bakersfield. We dropped about 3,000 feet in 10 miles. I just let her rolls.

Hope you checked the tracker. If not, take a look. You can see just where we were and where we are now. Will drive the last 250 miles tomorrow. I love these 2 lane roads.

Dan