August 31st, 29th day OTR

We have arrived in Needles, California for the night.  It was another day of lots of driving but this state is so big you don't get anywhere fast.  Currently the temperature is 99F and is not due to cool down too much

We drove Highway 99 to Bakersfield and then got on the 58 to Barstow.  Much of our drive today was through the Mojave Desert, a whole lot of nothing. 

At Tehachaphi, there were hundreds of windmills on the hills.  We also discovered that this town exists for the prisons it contains.  We passed the town of Twenty Mule Team and yes, they mine borax there.  We saw lots of Joshua trees.

In Barstow, after a stop at Walmart to replace our cheap styrofoam cooler we got off the Interstate and onto old Route 66.  We drove about 100 miles of it, in fair shape, and counted maybe a dozen cars.  At times you can see the interstate on one side or the other of the old Mother Road.  In Ludlow we stopped at a Dairy Queen for ice cream and after we left here we were stopped at a railway crossing by a 121 car train.  that is about the average length for trains here.  You see them passing each other on the tracks and you sure hear them at night!!  We also drove past an old volcanic crater at Amboy.  There are lots of lava fields around us in this part of the desert.

We are on one side of the Needles campground and there is no one else over here.  The RVs are on the other side.  If you don't remember the Route 66 song and reference to Needles, it is also the place where Snoopy's brother lived!!  Haven't seen him, though.