Road trip to Florida

Well, here we are on our fifth day of our road trip to Florida. I wanted to write a blog each day about our trip – but we have not had enough Internet time to do so. Then I realized that I could write off line and send this when we get an Internet connection. So, here goes!

We left Santa Monica about 3 p.m. on Sunday, October 7, 2012. I had participated in the St. Monica mini-boutique, so had to rush home to be ready to leave. Our first stop was Crestlne CA to visit Chris and Murrah (son and daughter-in-law). They are getting settled into the house they recently purchased and we enjoy visiting and seeing all their latest projects. We went to dinner in Arrowbear and had a nice visit with them.

We left Monday morning about 9 a.m. and headed down the mountain to San Bernardino. We had breakfast at a restaurant we discovered on another trip; JB’s. After a stop to stock up on fruit, etc. at Staffords, we got on I-10 and headed east – into the morning sun. Oh, I should mention that Suzanne and Don are traveling with their rat terrier, Mickey, in their Dodge Sprinter, Sportsmobile van conversion, with all the comforts of home.

Somehow things always look different when you come at them from a different location. I hardly realized we were heading for Palm Springs until we were almost there. I recognized it because of all the windmill farms. We went past all the usual California cities on I-10, San Bernardino, Redlands, Indio, and Blythe. We entered Arizona and passed through Quartzsite. I barely recognized it without all the motor homes and vendors that crowd along the freeway during the months of January and February.

When we got to Phoenix we debated taking the belt loop, 17 or staying on 10. We followed the signs for Tucson which took us part way into Phoenix, but traffic was not too bad and we were soon heading east again through the dessert and Indian reservations of Arizona. We stopped in Tucson and I couldn’t help but think of the times we had been in Tucson and stayed in the driveway of my bridesmaid, Donna Leonard. I miss seeing her.

Now, I must confess that we have become lazy campers. Ever since we found out that we could park overnight in most Wal Mart parking lots, for free, we have gotten in the habit of doing that. We have a road atlas with most of the Wal Marts addresses. It is much simpler to find them when we are ready to stop driving, then to look all over for a camp ground. They are usually right off the freeways where we are driving. The price is much better and we enjoy shopping and picking up items we need for our trip while we are there. I believe it is a win-win situation for all of us.

So, we found the Wal Mart in Tucson and, after having dinner at the Texas Roadhouse Restaurant, we settled in for the night. We had driven 429 miles!

That's it for now. This is actually Saturday and we are in Gulfport LA. I will post more later.