Dateline: Indio, CA

A grand morning

This morning we bade farewell to the Grand Canyon, but not before waking up at 0415 hours and driving to Mather Point to see the sunrise:

The sun started to appear at 0517 hours:

I played "Also sprach Zarathustra" on YouTube and synced it with the appearance of our nearest star, but didn't receive any kudos from those nearby for my brilliance:

 

On the way back to the Holiday Inn where we had been staying, we spotted a group of feral horses in the woods. Apparently these mounts had escaped from their owner, and therefore weren't truly wild equines:

We were on the road again from 0830 hours and it wasn't long before we were back in the Arizona desert. After driving for a couple of hours, we reached Kingman, and stopped at the historic Powerhouse Visitor Center:

Inside is the interesting Route 66 Museum, which traces the development and decline of the historic roadway:

A 1950 Studebaker Champion:

Europeans in particular seem to hold a fascination with Route 66, probably because it played a key role in the creation of the American mystique:

The museum also has an interesting collection of early electric vehicles, like this 1995 Renaissance Tropica EV Roadster...:

…and 2008 Tesla Roadster:

More Americana for our foreign visitors (as well as many of the natives):

After Kingman, we stopped briefly at a freeway rest area in Yucca so my wife could get up close and personal with the American southwestern desert. This sign, plus the 99°F/37°C heat, had my daughter longing for the East Coast:

After having driven on I-40 since entering Tennessee from Virginia, we left the freeway for good to take U.S. Route 95 south. Arriving in Lake Havasu City, Shu-E wanted to sample another American icon (of the southern California variety) for lunch:

The city's claim to fame is the original London Bridge, purchased by an American entrepreneur in 1964 and reassembled in the Arizona desert in 1971. I don't know what my mother, a native Londoner, would've made of this:

I do know what Amber made of the 109°F/43°C heat as she wouldn't stop complaining about it:

From Lake Havasu City, a string of highways (U.S. Route 95, and California State Routes 62 and 177) took us through the most desolate stretches of desert yet on this current road trip:

Stopping to admire the Bill Williams River:

We entered California from Parker, Arizona after crossing the Colorado River:

Not what most people think of when they hear the name "California". Yet deserts comprise a quarter of the state's land area:

After a couple of hours driving on desolate roads while hoping nothing would happen to the car. and leaving us stranded in the middle of proverbial nowhere,  we reached Interstate 10 at Desert Center. Following a further 45 minutes on the freeway, we decided to call it a night in Indio, a Colorado Desert community of 90,000. My daughter noticed this sign in the lobby, warning in Chinese of the dangers of human trafficking, and making me wonder about the place we had just checked into:

At dinner this evening, on a windy night with dust blowing all about, I was left to ponder this question: just how bad were things in China that someone would move to a place like Indio to start a new life:

Indio on a windy Sunday evening. Tomorrow it's onward to Orange County...:

2022: A Home Leave Odyssey: