A
free breakfast was proved by the Hampton Hotel this morning and this makes a
nice change from sitting in the bedroom with a bowl of cereal or fighting an American
breakfast made up of four eggs any style, hash browns, bacon, sausages,
mushrooms, tomatoes and baked beans plus toast. This breakfast will put you in
a grave quite quickly.
We
had booked this Hotel on Hilton points and much to my surprise this morning there
was a bill for US$110.00 pushed under my bedroom door. Damn it they have mucked
it up and so I went to complain to only find that the bill was not for me but
our neighbour and ours was free.
We
left the Hotel and went to find the car wash which was quite efficient and 20
minutes later we left in a clean car with windows you can see out of which does
make driving easier. We took a series of roads starting with route 166 from Santa
Maria and drove through some really great mountainous country complete with
lots of tumble weed which you had to look out for. We also a field filled up
with portaloos, two per trailer and there must have been a couple of hundred of
them??? . Well soon after we started going through mile after mile of orange
trees and every now and again you would see one of these trailers by the side
of the road for the workmen. Then there were miles of vines and more porta loos
so if you ever get short in this area no real problem.
During
part of the drive we entered a dust storm which really does close down the visibility
so you have to watch it as last year in New Mexico there were over 150 trucks involved
in a sand storm induced crash. From the 166 we moved North avoiding Bakersfield
and then joining the 58 towards Barstow. We stopped at a wayside garage for a
Subway sandwich which was good and easy to nosh.
The
route 58 winds through hills and also wide open spaces where you can see for
miles and miles. Although at one very hilly area there were many hundreds of
electric wind generators all turning away and we have never seen so many propellers whizzing around at the same time.
We
arrived in Barstow and found a supermarket for some milk for tea and then
arrived at the Hampton Inn and Suites, yes another free night and checked in
and the room is a lot bigger than last nights. We checked email and then trip
advisor for restaurant recommendations, one we like the sound of called Polo
Loco which does lots of chicken and the menu looked good on the web but the
place was like a bad McDonald's. So we ended up in Denny’s and were surprised
how good our food was.
There
was a large out of town branded name outlets mall behind the restaurant and
also behind our hotel and so we needed a walk after a day in the car and
Jennifer found some nice shirts in Tommy Hilfiger so although the food started
out cheaply the evening cost a little more than planned but the shirts look
nice. We found a Dryers ice cream joint and that was our desert.
Now
Jennifer seems to be getting better she was happy to start doing some route and
Hotel planning for the next few days and after lots of investigation we have
booked again somewhere in Phoenix called the Legacy Golf Resort where we have a
one bedroom apartment complete with full kitchen so we can go shopping and cook
for ourselves.
Tomorrow
we do the second part of the trip to Lake Havasu see link http://www.golakehavasu.com/ and will be spending two nights there in a
condo again with self catering.
