Mojave Desert, CA

California!  We made it at last!  After freezing our butts off in the Grand Canyon we were now in the California desert and it was WARM!  Finally!  Instead of wearing layers and layers and layers of clothing we were wearing t-shirts.  We had been waiting for this moment for what seemed like forever.  What a difference a day of driving makes.  We were so close to the West Coast we could feel the energy.  No offense to the other states we've been to so far but for some reason California literally felt special.  Maybe it's because this state is featured in so many movies and maybe that's because most movies are made here but whatever the reason we felt good to have finally made it this far in our journey.  We were destined for a night in the Mojave Desert and we were so excited!

Cool campsite and it's free! (no bathrooms...)

Getting to the Mojave National Preserve was a little nerve racking.  People had warned us about making sure not to run out of gas but they were talking about Texas.  This was the place they should have warned us about.  At no other point in our travels have we felt so alone, so in the middle of absolutely NOWHERE.  We were headed towards an official campground within the Preserve but the map we looked up listed several designated 'off-the-road' camping sites that we were going to try and find.  The map gave clues like 'past the wash several miles near a pile of rocks'- it was like a treasure map!  First of all, there were rocks everywhere- we were in the desert.  Second of all, what's a wash??  Somehow we found the spot (or a spot) and did a little off-roading to get the van situated for the night.  We were parked next to some rocks in the middle of the desert, at least 20 miles from the nearest sign of civilization.  It was kind of creepy at first but when we realized we literally would not see a single person all day or night it was amazing.  Having been born and raised on the East Coast where there are humans EVERYWHERE, this new feeling of isolation and freedom got us super pumped.  We were going to be camping in the Mojave Desert!

Little tiny Kimberly, alone in the desert...

We hopped out of the van and started exploring our surroundings.  Scraggy little mountains rose up from the lunar landscape and we scaled those mountains to survey the scene.  More nothingness.  We screamed as loud as we could and laughed.  The sun was starting to set but it wasn't going to be nearly as cold as it was in the Grand Canyon, mid 40's was the predicted low temp.  We cooked a meal of eggplant and quinoa in the van and drank some Grand Canyon beers we picked up (at the Grand Canyon).  We got to bed early but not after doing some spectacular desert star-gazing.

We woke up to the sunrise and decided to get an early start.  Our next destination was San Diego to see our friends and the Pacific Ocean and if left early we'd be there just after lunch.  We were a little worried about when the next gas station was going to be, but after the amazing night we had just experienced, nothing was going to derail us!  And then the van broke down...

Just after we had updated our friend Ellie with our ETA Kim began smelling gasoline (why does she always have to do that!?)  When we noticed the gas tank meter dropping at an alarming rate we pulled off the side of the highway and hopped out.  Now the last time something like this happened, Curt whipped off his shirt, crawled under the van and reconnected a dangling fuel line.  We were back on the road in pretty much no time.  This time around, the problem was not as obvious and Curt kept his shirt on.  Always take the shirt off!  At this point even if we could have fixed whatever was broken we had dumped enough gas onto the highway that there was no way we were going to make it to the next gas station.  Time to call a tow truck.  AAA covered the first 7 miles but since we were in the Mojave Desert the nearest repair center was about 50 miles back in the wrong direction.  Oh well, at least the tow truck driver was cool.  At a Shell station in Needles, CA we were dropped off and left at the mercy of our mechanics.

Even though we ended up spending a lot of money that day, it could have been worse.  Our mechanic was a weathered old man who knew his stuff and gave us a fair deal.  He fixed a broken fuel line cheap enough and talked us into buying a new set of tires.  Based on our records, the current tires were about 6 years old and definitely worn thin so we knew it was time.  There was a quick scare when the mechanic almost crushed our roof box (thereby endangering our whole roof) but everything turned out to be fine.  After bumming around in the desert for about 6 hours we were back on our way driving through more California desert en route to San Diego!  Check out some pics of the desert on Facebook and there's also some video clips on our Vimeo page.