We were sad to say farewell to our friends, but it is time to resume our westward journey and spend some time in San Diego with our youngest daughter. As we headed south on I 17 towards Phoenix, the landscape provided an interesting variety of cactus, pinon and juniper trees, mountains in the distance, and some green in the rolling hills. We also saw some yellow wild flowers, possibly desert marigolds.

  As we headed south and west from Phoenix, the terrain became mainly desert like. It certainly felt like we were driving through the heat of the desert with the top down and full sunshine. Just outside Yuma the road cut through jagged rocky hills/mtns. It could have been a scene from Lord of the Rings. Shortly after we crossed into CA, we drove past sand dunes.

Around El Centro, CA and for about 80 miles west we encountered high winds. We drove past a large windfarm that was harnessing the energy. About 20 miles west of El Centro we went through Devils Canyon with high hills of nothing but rocks/boulders. Peggy thought a better name would be Boulder Canyon. A few miles later we crossed over Boulder Creek.

We have been watching gas prices slowly increase since leaving TX. We paid $4.50/gal in Gila Bend, AZ. Diesel was actually 90 cents cheaper than gas! And as you would expect, gas was $5.20/gallon in El Cajon, just east of San Diego.

Sign.of the day

Bloody Basin Road