First week on the road, Husum to Susanville to Joshua Tree

Tom Changes the tire in Lone Pine

Joshua Tree National Park

Sign in Lone Pine California

11/12/10  Left Casa Rio at 1:00 pm   We are finally on the road after two weeks of preparation.  Don't know why it took us so long to launch!  When we got to Bend (in the dark) we called our friend Deb Henry and spent the night in Tortuga in her driveway. As a bonus, Gail Phares was there for the weekend and we went out to good Thai dinner at the Typhoon Restaurant with Deb's friend Jim the builder/photographer.

11/13/10  Bend to Susanville
Got up around 8:00 and went inside for a fabulous breakfast cooked by Deb. Headed out at around 10:00 south through LaPine and off to Lakeview. Weather is cold with some light snow on the  hills. Beautiful muted winter desert colors:  Yellow grasses, multicolor brown hills, cottonwoods fading into their bare winter branches,  empty homesteads long forgotten along the way.  Highlight was the stop near Summer lake to see 100 or so swans, and a myriad of colorful little ducks on a large pond.  The butt ends of half the geese and ducks eating weeds off the bottom of the lake was all you could see.
Got to Susanville after dark.  Looked around for camping spot and settled on the free parking lot at Wallmart. (We promise not to make a habit of this, but it is FREE.  Went in and bought a trailer hitch lock and checked out a Redbox DVD for $1 for the night. We ate TacoBell and watched Robinhood. Ah America!

11/14/10 ‘Susanville to Lone Pine
Left Susanville and headed south down the Eastern Sierras.   Viewed some big vistas coming out of the pass down into Mono Lake, reminiscent of Polychrome pass in Denali.   Nice sunset over the Sierras.  After making burritos in Tortuga on a side street in Lone Pine (This is what we like about carrying our home with us) we headed south in the dark.  Jan was driving and we got a flat tire about 5 miles out of town.  Tom checked it and we drove on to where we could pull off the road for the night.  It turned out that we toasted the outside left rear tire.  The wind was ripping (Maybe 50 mph gusts) and Tom didn't want to repair the tire until daylight.  So we slept on the side of the road to the rocking and rolling wind.  It was noisy and Tortuga felt like it had gone back into the ocean for a surf.

11/15/10 Lone Pine to Joshua Tree National Park
Got up about 7:00 to sunny skies, no wind, and warm!  We've finally crossed the "cold line" where we can take off our long underwear. Tom put the spare on the van and we headed back the 8 miles to Lone Pine for a new tire.  The first place we checked wanted $200 for a tire. So we looked around and found a $20 tire that will get us to Palm Springs. We walked around Lone Pine while waiting for the tire to be put on the rim.  It is a cute little western town with a DROP DEAD backdrop of Mt. Whitney and the Eastern Sierras rising right behind the town.  I guess Lone Pine is famous for shooting Western movies there, and we did see a movie crew out, with a director wearing a beret and all. Very classic. Drove south along the East Sierra to Joshua Park. Arrived about 4:30 and found a campsite at Ryan just before dark. Great boulders and wonderful joshua trees which look like alien, furry creatures.  Had wine under the stars and the quiet of the desert night to celebrate finally being somewhere warm.