June 21: The Journey Begins

I dedicate today's post to my family who have been a constant support and inspiration to me as I have planned this trip.

After getting all hooked up and making sure I didn't forget anything (just the dog food...yikes!) and saying a tearful goodbye to my boys, their girls, all the babies, my sister-in-law, and the neighbors, I was off on my big adventure. First stop, Cabazon Dinosaur Exhibit. It was extremely windy and over 103 degrees. The dogs were anxious to get out of the car, but when they felt how hot it was, they wanted back in the car very fast, so we just took a couple of pics with the dinos and sped off to Salvation Mountain. I was looking forward to this, I really thought that I might have some sort of spiritual awakening when I saw it and maybe the spirit might move me to do something great or important, but the "mountain" is merely a hill that you are not allowed to climb. I thought that it would be like a work in progress and possibly I would be able to add something to it, but it is just a bunch of concrete put together by who knows. It was probably the people living in the run down trailers leading up to the "mountain" and they probably saw God when they were on something illegal. The dogs were terribly concerned about the heat and why were we going to a place made of concrete when it is 105 degrees? Anyway, this tourist attraction is so far off the beaten path, which makes it not worth the extra gas at over $4 a gallon. Also, there is absolutely no where to gas up and by the time I made it to the stop just before Blythe, I was almost completely out of gas. That was kind of scary for the first day out. Made it to Quartzite 111 degrees! There were quite a few campers here, but I never saw another soul, except the lady who checked us in. Hooking up was easier than I had anticipated. All that worrying over nothing. I was very tired having not slept the night before... anxiety? true fear of the unknown? being really and truly alone? Whatever, my first night in my camper, I slept like a baby. Tomorrow - Sedona and Red Rock Crossing.