Previa Road Trip: Desert Driving

Tuesday, July 2, 2012

We stayed in a hotel which had a smallish room and not many upgrades. It was just fine for the purpose of sleeping and showering.

We drove through the desert from Blythe, AZ to Phoenix, Az. We saw the saguaro cactus, and the scenery turned to total desert from the previous day. The trees changed to the black, barked mesquite trees. Our van's air conditioning, which was just serviced, paid off in spades. We walked in the morning outside of our hotel room, but it was still hot. We thought morning was a better time to walk because the heat would not have hit yet, but it had.

The tuna looks ripe for eating

Phoenix is a huge, sprawling city. It seems we were just trying to figure out where we'd stay or go in this desert metropolis. We arrived here quickly. It seemed we were just at home trying to decide where we could possibly stay in the Phoenix area. We used the Google map to try and see what it was like and we decided it was not for us. However, we found Phoenix area to be a clean, arty city. The parts we were in seemed very clean, almost sterile. It lacked a certain history, character or charm. We saw only huge, new malls and buildings. The boulevard had huge saguaro cactus, other types of cactus and other desert plants. Some saguaro cactus had boards or props holding them up.

There was lots of public art to see along the freeways. Much of the art was honouring the natives of the area.

We found several Whole Food stores. One was the biggest Whole Foods we had ever been in and we have been in many. That particular one even had a lounge / bar in it.

We decided to drive through Los Cruces, AZ on to El Paso, TX. Hitting a dust storm the van started to hesitate, thankfully Ken had brought along additional air filters and did the replacement, no problems. We got a great deal on a hotel room even though it was the even though it was the evening of a USA holiday.

We drank our $1.99 bottle of Three Wishes Chardonnay. This was the wine we bought cases of for our 25th wedding anniversary party. We are not wine conisours, I guess that is obvious. It is not the price of the wine nor the glass you drink it from but the company you drink your wine with that counts (perhaps partially true). Not the best wine, I must add.

Rudy's where we ate, however, was excellent, a real taste of big, bold, old Texas, in more ways than one. Thankfully public drunkenness is tolerated in this state.

After supper we purchased a Spanish phrase book at Barnes and Noble. Back at the hotel Ken ordered the Mexican insurance for our van on-line.

I drifted off to sleep before Ken even got to bed.