Driving

 You definitely need more than two days at Disneyland, but by the end of the third I kind of had had enough of it, and ready to move on.  The day was upon me that I was pretty apprehensive about – driving.  Thankfully the car, a Toyota Corolla has Android Auto built into the screen so I could easily navigate about the place.  Considering the temperature today got up to 42c I didn’t really want to attach my phone to the windscreen.

I managed to cock up the first turn off, missing it thanks to some damn roadworks but pulled off a masterful U-turn to sort myself out and before long I was on the freeway!  8 lanes each direction, with pedestrian crossing diamonds on the left hand lanes (they mean carpooling lanes only), massive trucks all around and the worst road surfaces this side of an old farm track.  The speed limits here are so much faster, with a lot of city roads at 70km/h and the freeway often at 110km/h.  It gets pretty jumpy when the surface is all cracked and uneven, and I don’t think my blood pressure or heart rate will recover for some time.

One of my planned stops – at the outlet mall.  I discovered I know nothing about clothing, and walked around the whole place and the only thing I bought was lunch.

Speaking of lunch; one of the best burgers I have ever had.  The beef patties are made and cooked fresh, just so juicy and delicious.  Plus another lemonade,  I really like this stuff.  I’m going to have to find a supply in NZ.

Just down the road was the Cabazon Dinosaurs, another on my to do list.  If you’ve played Fallout New Vegas or GTA V you might recognise them.  On the short drive from the mall to the dinosaurs I managed to bugger up going around my first roundabout.  I went around the right direction, but managed to miss the lane split and ended up almost cutting someone off when I looked in my right hand wing mirror and only saw the dashboard – stupid left hand drive cars putting you on the other side of the car.

A big old pink dinosaur with a Burger King and an abandoned Mexican Restaurant.  Pretty normal for this part of the country.

An allosaurus.  Apparently a peaceful one.

This is what is mostly between LA and Palm Springs.  That building in the distance is a Casino just built in the middle of nowhere along the interstate.  It was about 40c here so I didn’t stay long.

Before long I was in Palm Springs and staggered out into the hotel.  During check in the assistant asked where I was from and she said that my English and accent were very good, and I’ll fit in well here.  I didn’t really know how to respond so I just said I’d been practicing for a while.  The heat here is unbelievable, it’s stronger but less humid than LA so it’s a bit easier to put up with.  It does make the air seem thick though, and it’s not much fun being out in it.  I really like Palm Springs area, very weird but the people seem more laid back and friendly than LA and definitely New York.  The city just seems to stop and then there’s desert and suddenly a mountain rises up.

City, desert, mountains.  You know where you stand around here.

There is a street market every Thursday night so I went for a swim and enjoyed air conditioning until the sun went down and surely it would be cooler.  No.  At 7pm it wasn’t much cooler and by 9 it had plummited to a balmy 37c.  As I type this it’s just after 11pm and it’s still 34c outside.

I knew she was a big star, but bloody hell I didn’t know she was this big!

The food is so good here – beef hotdog made in the area BBQed (or grilled as they call it here) by some poor bastard who had to stand over the bbq in this heat.

Market, a lot of tat, two different SPCA fundraising stalls and some pretty dubious “natural remedies”

I got some dried mango, which was so good.  The guy was also selling dried Kiwis which looked far too bright green to be good for either it or me.  I tried joking to the stall owner that I’m a Kiwi too and he agreed then tried to sell me some dates he grew himself. So much for my English being good, he clearly didn’t understand my excellent joke.

This guy was playing some sort of stick / violin combination, but seemed more interested in adjusting his fan speed than playing – which I don’t blame him for really.

Tomorrow I’m off for a drive around the Joshua Tree National Park and maybe a visit to the Salton Sea.