I left San Francisco later than planned, but I had to take care of a few things like some postcards before officially heading out. Once I got on the road I drove until I needed gas the first time and then got some lunch. Then I drove until I needed gas again and got some dinner. Then, I got out my laptop and figured out my best location to stop for the night and found a pretty inexpensive hotel in Palm Springs. It’s a Quality Inn and it’s pretty nice. I’ve stayed in a few of these throughout my trip and they seem to be the best bang for the buck overall. I think my room cost was under $60 total.
The drive here was fairly uneventful. There was definitely some LA traffic to deal with despite not being rush hour or a weekday. I took US-101 down instead of the interstate. It was the scenic route and passes through some well known cities like Santa Barbara whereas the interstate doesn’t pass through anything. Besides I’ll be driving interstate most of the way back so it was nice to get some final fleeting glimpses of the Pacific Ocean.
Today I’ll be doing a lot of desert driving. I would like to make it past Tucson but we’ll see. Tucson looks doable from Palm Springs on a single tank of gas, but I think I want to make it further than that today. I’ll have to evaluate my options for stopping when I’m further down the road. There’s not a whole lot of big towns other than Phoenix and Tucson for awhile, and they both seem too soon to stop to me. But I’ll see what kind of time I’m making after I’m a few hours down the road and see where it looks like I’ll be getting to.
Well time to pack up this operation and get on the road.