After a few wonderful days with our friends, sadly it was time to continue our journey. For most of the day, we again traveled through the unique southwestern dune colored landscape dotted with small bushes, various types of cactus, and mountains in the distance. We saw a large solar panel farm and a few large windfarms. We were again reminded of the importance of trucks and the railroads in our everyday lives. We shared the roads with many 18 wheelers and saw several very long trains pulled by 2 or 3 locomotives. As we got closer to our destination, we had wonderful views of the San Joaquin Valley and fruit orchards.

Since our route took us through sparsely populated territory, there were few road options other than the interstates for today’s route. Like in Tennessee, we again found ourselves on interstate 40. A section of Historic Route 66 paralleled part of I40. Since we had been on that section last year, and we had already exceeded Peggy’s 6 hour/day travel limit, we continued on the faster interstate to Bakersfield. 

We found a Hilton Spark Hotel and decided to try it. The room was very comfortable, and the staff were very friendly. We would stay at one again. As a bonus there was a Chinese restaurant across the parking lot, and it’s been a while since we had Chinese food. It was a great choice with a wonderful sushi selection which I rarely get.