Mojave

When we left Las Vegas we made the decision to give Los Angeles a wide berth. We didn’t want to drive back in and get snarled up in heavy traffic on the freeways. Instead we turned off I-15 at Barstow and headed towards the town of Mojave. This is in the general area as the desert of the same name so for miles the road snaked through flat scrubland bordered by mountains. It looked almost as if you could reach out to the horizon and crumble them. Incredibly long trains rolled slowly through the desert as we outpaced them on the road, empty but for us and a few trucks.

We picked the town of Mojave as our guidebook said it had aircraft lying all about the place, so I sensed some photo taking opportunities. On our approach into Mojave we saw that wasn’t really the case. There were a few large aircraft, but fully fenced off within the grounds of the airport. What Mojave did have in large numbers was wind turbines. A massive wind farm covered the surrounding hills. We checked into the Econo Lodge where the guy warned us that there wasn’t anything to do in Mojave. He was right. We did venture out briefly to Jerry’s, a nearby diner, which was very much like something out of a movie. Red leather effect upholstery on the booths and waitresses that called us ‘honey’ a lot.