Today was another travel day and we were happy about having the opportunity to escape the dreadful, soul-sucking temperatures in Las Vegas and, hopefully, heading into some environment where the temperatures are lower. Unfortunately, it ended up with us leaving the 106 degree heat in Vegas only to head into the 112 degree temperatures in Barstow, CA. It is plainly evident to us why real estate in Barstow is cheap.
I-15 south from Vegas moves along well until crossing the border into California where we were obliged to stop at the state fruit stand where well-armored produce inspectors didn’t ask us if we had any fruit. The gatekeepers merely made the traffic stop and then waved the drivers through the alfresco shade structure. Unfortunately, this makes all those towing trailers or operating other heavy vehicles lose all their engine revolutions right at the bottom of a 2,000 foot climb. Peggy figured this is because it makes it easy for the fruit police to run down rogue banana smugglers who somehow made it through the rigorous inspection.
Although the desert was miserably hot, we had superb air conditioning on our side so we were able to enjoy the unique and dramatic desert landscapes along I-15. Crossing this desert is certainly more interesting than passing through the I-8 corridor between San Diego and accursed Yuma, AZ.
Arriving in the hothouse of Barstow, we pulled off I-15 and into the Shady Lane RV Camp which does not actually have very much shade. They do have full hookups, cable TV, wifi and ample rest- and shower rooms but no pool. It looks like some of the park tenants are never to leave, instead choosing this spartan torture chamber as the place they will spend the remainder of their lives unless they forget to pay the rent. The park operators are very sweet, however, and made every effort to get us into our RV space quickly so we could get the air conditioning in the trailer turned up to full blast.
We have a Vegas-mobile and Barstow temperature reading photos you can see by clicking the asterisk *