California Love

This morning we embarked on the final long day of driving for the week. We had just crossed the 2000 mile mark on our trek the night before and were ready to see the California sun. We stopped in Kingman, AZ, for gas and coffee because we had been told ahead of time that fuel exits would soon become rare. When we reached the California border, we were met by the agricultural custom agents, looking for rogue fruits and vegetables that might carry non-native insects. Or so I assumed. It might be possible that they simply wanted to assert their dominance over us. We showed them our apples and blueberries we had been carrying in the cooler across the country, and, once they deduced the apples were from New York, the fruit was deemed dangerous and confiscated. Something about insects in the apple cores. We were told, in no uncertain terms, that we had been eating maggots in our apples for years. "It's that bitter taste around the core," they said. No explanation was offered for the blueberries. I guess they just don't like those things. Then we stopped in Needles, CA, the LAST stop for MILES. The temperature was 104 at 11:30 and the attendant told us it would reach over 110 by the afternoon. They say a dry heat doesn't feel as hot, but in Needles, that isn't true. It was so hot that the car was radiating heat IN THE CAB and making the AC almost useless. We didn't reach the California Welcome Center until Barstow, where it was located in the Tangers Outlets, for some reason. When we left the welcome center and headed back to the interstate, we saw dirt roads with state road signs. It seems California could identify the road, but couldn't be bothered to pave it. The traffic was heavy in Barstow, and little did we know it would last ALL THE WAY to San Diego. That's two hours and over 100 miles of traffic.

We were greeted in San Diego by a temperature of 68 degrees. We on the east coast take the Gulf Stream, and the warmth it brings to the ocean water, for granted. The Pacific is cold, all the time. After we checked into the hotel in Point Loma, we took in a bite to eat at Pizza Nova. The marina was incredible and people packed the waterfront as they waited to board commercial fishing boats and, judging by their gear, head out for some SERIOUS offshore fishing action. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel only to discover the WiFi service there did not work, and were told our computer settings needed to be reset...again. Savannah swam in the heated outdoor pool, but Rebekah thought it was too cold to use the pool or the heated spa, since the prospect of walking from the room to the spa in her bathing suit was too much to bear. We went from 104 to 68 in the same day, and turned in for the night with high hopes for an amazing zoo experience tomorrow.