The drive through Arizona into Blythe was fairly quick, only a couple hours.  We loaded up on gas and went right back on the highway for another couple hours until Indio, where we stopped for breakfast/lunch at McDonalds and to switch driving duties.  To not waste any time, we ate in the car and again, went right back on the highway.  After Indio we ended up in a little sandstorm.  It was really windy like it had been on the way to Arizona a week ago, only this time the wind was throwing sand at the car.  We could hear it pelting off the windshield.  A few minutes into that, droplets of water started coming down too.  We drove out of the sandy area and continued on, all the way through the LA area and almost through the Grapevine before stopping.

Right before the Grapevine ends, we stopped at the rest area in Lebec.  It was cold outside, a real change from the past week.  It started snowing, with small flakes fluttering down.  As soon as they touched anything, they disappeared.  Within a few minutes, however, the snow turned into hail and the wind picked up.  It wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but it was still fun to see.

The rest of the trip home was fairly uneventful.  Hunter slept most of the way from Buttonwillow, where we stopped for an early dinner.  Lots of 18 wheelers on I5 made it slower than normal since everyone has to move over to get around them.  But we finally pulled into the driveway… and are looking forward to a relaxing Monday.

We planned on leaving at about nine am this morning, but we had a missing kitty to find.  We weren’t sure if she had snuck outside while we were packing the car, so we couldn’t leave until we knew where she was.  It turned out she was spooked by the vacuum as I cleaned the car out and she hid in our bedroom under the comforter.  Anyway, we finally got on the road about ten o’clock and headed toward I5.

Driving down the main north-south highway isn’t too exciting.  We did see some workers performing some kind of operation on one of those giant power line towers along I5.  It was completely off on two of the four corners and suspended by a giant crane.  We went by it so fast we didn’t get a chance to see snap a photo.  Hunter slept the whole three hours to Coalinga before waking up and then played with his toys until we arrived in Buttonwillow for lunch.  We ate at Tita’s Mexican and had awesome bean and cheese pupusas.  It was our second time visiting Tita’s on an I5 drive.

After that, we decided to change up our travel itinerary.  Instead of driving down I5 to 210 and over to Ontario, we decided to head east through Bakersfield and over Tehachapi to Mojave.  It was a different drive than the urban 210.  Pretty views, though there was a lot of smoggy air so we could only see the outlines of the mountains in the distance until we got closer.  Heather was disappointed there wasn’t more sand.  Instead it was just lots of shrubbery.  South on 395 we made out third stop of the day to feed a hungry little one and stretch some legs.  We drove by Maverick Stadium on 395, the home of the High Desert Mavericks, the Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.  We expected it to be warmer in the Mojave Desert, but it was quite cool.  Probably just the time of the year.

Shortly after that, we drove through the Cajon pass and into the LA area.  Our hotel is in Ontario near the Ontario Mills Mall, which reminds me of the Great Mall in Milpitas.  Unfortunately, the room smelled like someone had been smoking, which was odd because the entire hotel is a non-smoking facility.  The second room is much better.

Overall, not a terribly exciting day, but it was neat to drive through a places we’ve never driven before and see the difference scenery.  Up tomorrow, we go east up Highway 10 through Blythe and into Arizona.  We should be in Phoenix by the afternoon.

You can see some pictures here on Facebook.