Great Transcontinental Circuit Day 1 April 23, 2018

Great Transcontinental Circuit – Day 1 – April 23, 2018

After much thought, but not a lot of specific planning, we pulled out of town for the first leg of our trip. Our goal:  Joshua Tree National Park, about 150 miles away. It’s funny how the normal points of friction between the two of us seemed to fade away as the miles began to pile up. Example: we had some disagreements as to the best way to pull out of the driveway to start our trip. By the time we were backing the Aliner into our campsite, we were well on our way to being in synch with regard to how best to back a trailer. We have about another 9500 miles to go on this trip, so it will be interesting to watch (and more importantly, to experience) how our teamwork develops.

There was lots of traffic on I-10 coming in west from Palm Springs. Karen thought it was because the two week long Coachella Music Festival was ending today and it turned out she was correct (as usual). The park ranger at the West Entrance to Joshua Tree told us we were likely to get a campsite at the Ryan Campground and after a trip around the loop, we got one of the last remaining sites. After getting set up, we went back out of the park to visit Betty and John’s sister, Bonny.

Bonnie lives on a couple of acres in the hills above the town of Joshua Tree. She wasn’t home when we got there, so we headed into town for some lunch. On the way, we stopped at a small artist’s enclave right on Highway 62, where Karen toured the ‘World Famous Crochet Museum’. 

 I don’t know how the rest of the trip will be able to live up to the thrill we got here on our first day! We found some food at the Joshua Tree Saloon, where we were served by a bartender who looked just like Robert Downey, Jr/Tony Stark (he told us he actually has an agent who gets him some types of gigs that rely on this resemblance).

After lunch, we had a nice visit with Bonny, who showed us her home and let us visit with her three horses. We’re glad we got the chance to see her.

Back at the campsite we ate some leftover pizza and salad, photographed the sunset, did a quick hike to the ruins of the Ryan Ranch Adobe, and played a little uke and guitar.

Tomorrow:  a little morning hike, then exit to the south through the park and back to I-10 toward Pichaco Peak State park near Tucson,