Day 16, Monday March 16th: On to California

 Monday, we left Brian and Jane's about 08:30 for Joshua Tree National Park. Our target was the Belle Campground, a first come first serve boondocking campground, a trip of about 400 miles, 6 - 7 hours at the speeds we travel. It seemed we would have plenty of time to get there and park before dark. 

Palm-Pine

As we left Tucson, we started noticing the cell towers. At home we have what we call 'Frankenpines', here in AZ they have 'Palm-Pines'. Once you see one, you can't help but notice them all....just like at home 😊.

We also arranged to meet some friends from VT for lunch at 11:30 just outside Phoenix. Lance and I worked together at IBM in Burlington in the 1990's, now he and his wife, Donna, live near Phoenix. 

Truck rollover on I10

We had plenty of time, but got slowed on I10 due to a truck rollover, we hope no one was injured. 

Despite the delay we arrived for our meet at 11:30 at the In-N-Out, but I was supposed to go to Freddy's. Doh, thanks for cell phones and understanding friends. 

We had a good visit with Lance and Donna and set off for JT NP about 11:45, with about 280 miles to go, plenty of time to get there before dark.....NOT.

I10 Slow Down

We hit a slow down on I10 that was about 2 hours, but we never figured out why. 

We realized we would not get to Belle Campground in the daylight, so we reset our target for the BLM camping area just south of JT NP.  We arrived around 06:30 and had no problem finding a place to park for the night. 

It was still about 90F, so we ran the genny with the AC for a bit to cool down the Serenity before bed. Our genny has been giving us problems so we were thankful it decided to run when we needed it. We sat outside and had cocktails, with the breeze it was quite pleasant. 

Sunset at BLM near JT NP

We were treated to a spectacular sunset and it cooled down enough to be comfortable.

Tuesday we will move into JT NP and hope to do some hiking and/or biking.