April 25, 2015
We woke up in Sacramento and took the river walk again – but this time away from old downtown. After about 15 minutes we were treated to Discovery Park where the American and Sacramento Rivers join. The Sacramento is a muddy river having flowed down through farmlands while the American is much clearer – and colder – since it is damned up near Folsom, California. I should always carry my camera with me when going to new places – well I didn’t today and had to rely on my iPhone to capture the rivers.
We then hopped in the car for our day’s drive. After a trip down the San Joaquin Valley, through the Tehachapi Mountains, and through a windy section of the Mojave Desert we intersected Route 66 in Victorville, California.
We took US highway 99 down the San Joaquin Valley farm land instead of our usual trip down I5. It’s more crowded with more cities along the way making it a slower drive. But it is beautiful. And as a bonus we paralleled the Union Pacific line for quite a while. I got some pictures while Carla drove.
In Bakersfield we turned east on California Highway 58 crossing past the Tehachapi Loop, into Tehachapi, through Boron and then south to Adelanto and into Victorville. The drive from Bakersfield through Boron mirrored our trip with our co mother-in-law Jeanette last summer as we returned from the Grand Canyon
It was a bit stormy all the way down but the drive through the desert was a real lulu. Big winds and dust storms all along the way. The trip south on 395 from 58 was especially tough with visibility down to less than a hundred feet at times because of the blowing dust. This area is very close to my old home town of Palmdale. Now, I loved my time there as a kid and I love my friends who still live there. But driving through that wind reminded me of why I left. It was so dusty we didn’t stop at the rest stop in Boron to switch drivers. We just didn’t want to get out of the car in that swirling dust storm. And we didn’t get any usable pictures ’cause we weren’t about to stop or roll down the windows. We saw on the news this evening that it was a cold front rolling through the area. The next week in SoCal should be beautiful with temps in the 80’s for the Dodger game.
Tomorrow we hit Route 66 proper as we head over Cajon pass into San Bernadino.
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