Day 12, Thursday, Aug 11, Mesa, AZ to Los Angeles, CA

This morning we woke up in the air conditioned hotel (did I mention it had air conditioning?) and had a bite to eat at the hotel pastry counter.  We had a nice chat with a gentleman who worked there and then we were off to pick up Bella.

Here's Bella with Jordyn and Jordyn's brother Adrian.  Her other bff, Julia, lives in Maine (did someone say another road trip!)

Jordyn, Bella and Adrian

We did a lot of driving today to get to LA where we will stay for 3 nights.  Our plan is to do road trips from the campground to area attractions.  

Getting into California was interesting.  It was like crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S.

The agent actually got down, flat on the road to inspect our undercarriage.  I felt violated :)

She said she was looking for gypsy moths.... but I'm thinking drugs.

We went past the Joshua tree National Forest.  We stopped here and tried again when we saw another exit many miles down the road.  Unfortunately - we did not see a Joshua tree, so Joshua had to settle for having his photo taken in front of the info booth which claims that Joshua trees exist.

Just before we went through the dessert we stopped for gas (next stop was 60 miles!).  This was not good planning on my part.  This place won the prize for most expensive gas $3.99 per gallon and stinkiest bathroom.  There was a windfarm like nothing I've ever seen also.  And there was, of course, wind.  The Pearl was like Winnie the Pooh's piglet in the Blustery Day.  I thought we were going airborne.

We got into the campground late, but directions to our site were taped to the door.  Unfortunately, they forgot to give us the code to get into the bathroom.  And more unfortunately, Pearl doesn't have a bathroom.  So we had to lurk around the bathroom until someone came by who was willing to give us the code.

The last bleary eyed photo taken by a bleary eyed little girl

We were all tired, so we ate Spaghetti-o's and mac and cheese and went to bed.