Thursday morning we prepared the van for the cross-desert trek to visit my folks outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thanks to Jake & Erin, I stored at their place our car top carrier with all of our camping gear, as well as two large bags of winter clothes and the blankets we had bought in Pendleton, Oregon. We must have lightened our vehicle weight by at least 100 pounds, plus streamlined the vehicle profile somewhat. I'm sure that will help gas mileage, but that's not been something we've been able to worry a lot about.
We left about 2:30pm, heading the back way out of town. This involves taking CA118 through Simi Valley to the 405N, which turns into the 5N before we exit on the 14 towards Victorville and Palmdale. Then we get on the Pearblossom Highway (CA38) which takes us the rest of the way east to Victorville where we catch the 15N towards scenic Barstow.
We rested in Barstow for dinner. We had been surprised earlier to pass through several thunderstorm systems that drenched us in a pleasant way. It's amazing how in the desert you can drop from 105 degrees to 75 degrees in the span of about half a mile, and then be back up in triple digits in another mile or two. It was beautiful and unexpected. We hoped to get more rain as we took US40E across the Mojave, but we never had any.
We stayed in Flagstaff, Arizona - arriving about 11pm. It was good to get to sleep!
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