Hawthorne, Nevada

Well I am in Hawthorne. After all the nasty innuendos it is not so bad.  The temperature is in the upper 80's and quite comfortable; the El Capitan Casino and Motel is plain but clean and perfectly adequate. So I am good.

I do have a cold, but I didn't want to abort the trip and it has so far not been a problem. I am a bit uncomfortable, but it is okay. The ride here had some bad stuff and some great stuff. 

I waved goodbye to Southern California at the Cajon Summit. I had this strange feeling that it could be the last time I leave that way in a vehicle. What strange thoughts sometimes pass through our minds. The next part of the ride was the pits. First of all the area is developed for miles, full of strip malls, fast food joints, endless grotesque housing developments, each trying to be something unique, achieving instead  to be simply banal,  and stop and go suburban traffic, with a thousand trucks and RV's added. When that started to clear up a bit, the wind started. For the next hour or more, all the way to China Lake, I was thrown around on the road. It was very tiring. Finally, at China Lake, as the magnificent wall of the Sierra loomed up in front of me and the road turned to parallel the mountains everything settled down and the ride became glorious.

The Owens Valley is even a bit greener than it was.  I guess they have managed to get some of the water that Los Angeles started to steal in the 1920's (Remember the film Chinatown) to stay in the valley. The iconic view of the mountains along this route is Mt. Whitney from Lone Pine.

There is very little snow. The light color is just the light granite.

I stayed on US395 until Bishop. From Bishop I turned a bit East along US6 to US95. I expected the ride to be hot and boring, not so. The ride was cool and the scenery, though forbidding and arid, was quite impressive. So I am here. Tomorrow I expect to get to somewhere in eastern Oregon.