Sunday, July 29, 2007: We Rode Through the Desert in a Van with No Name

Scott had the option of going back to Comic-Con for its final day today, but decided not to when Anna asked, “Do you want to say goodbye to all of your little comic book friends?” We all laughed and decided to take the scenic route to get to Las Vegas.

We drove through the distinctive hills east of San Diego, which are all steep, very rocky, dry and
barren. We passed through an area that had burned a while ago in Cuyamaca State Park, where the trees were all charred black and grey, but had green vines spiraling up them. There were actually sprinkles of rain as we passed through Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. It was around there that we started to see cacti and Anna was very interested to see how the area compared to her impressions of a desert that she had from school.

After driving past the Salton Sea, we stopped a little town called Mecca where we ate lunch at a Del Taco. The sky had been overcast all morning which made the temperatures in the drive very warm but bearable. A few times there were occasional sprinkles. Scott had a raindrop hit him behind his glasses, right in the eye, and figured he was the only person that could happen to in the middle of the desert.

As we entered Joshua Tree National Park, the sun was starting to come out brightly. We stopped in the little visitors center at the south entrance and continued through to the other side. In the park we loved seeing the Ocotillo cactus with it many long spindly arms, the dangerous Cholla cactus that were growing in a grove, and of course the Joshua Trees, which only grow in the Mojave Desert, on the north side of the park. We even saw a little grey kangaroo rat hoping across the road, but he was too quick to get video of.

It remained sunny for the rest of the day as we drove on the long strait roads through the desert valleys. One of these was the old Route 66. In these valleys, we could only see lots of scrub bushes and the mountains that box the valleys in. There were a few trailer and homes but even they vanished as we drove on into Nevada (a new state for Scott, Anna, and Emma).

We arrived in the bright lights of Las Vegas about 8:30, where a billboard announced that the current temperature was 100 degrees. We found our hotel, Circus Circus on the Strip. Scott sarcastically said that he didn’t realize that it got its name because it was such a circus to try to get in to. We had to weave through the casino and wait in a long line to get a room, then cycle through a mini-mall to try to find the elevators. It was after 10 o’clock when we settled in. The girls were disappointed that we weren’t going to swim, but we’ve got lots to do tomorrow.