Travel Tales: Day One of LA to Akron 2013

After watching the Weekly Planner on the Weather Channel, I finally saw my window of opportunity. After weeks of blizzards I had an opening of four clear days to make the trip to Akron. My daughter had flown in to LA for a week and would leave on a Monday night. After her departure I closed down her apartment and went to bed at midnight. After a fitful sleep I decided at 3:30 to start packing the car. At 4:30 I got on the road so I could avoid the LA rush traffic, but I was tired.

Tuesday was a beautiful cloudless day. The book on cd for that day was Certain Girls, which was a light-hearted story that was fine to pass the time. The weather was really windy, but I stopped several times to take photos of the Mojave Desert in the morning light.

Two things made this an incredible day for driving. The first was the Mojave Desert. I love the beauty of this place and driving through it is the favorite part of my trip. The second aspect was the fact that I can drive 75 mph. I can travel a long way at that speed.

By driving this section in the morning I avoided the heat of the desert in the afternoon. I also avoided any construction that would be happening on the interstate.

After hours of looking at the sand of the desert I enjoyed seeing the green of the pine trees near Flagstaff. The San Francisco Peaks, the highest mountain range in Arizona, are near the town and this year they were covered with snow.

I was coming into Albuquerque at rush hour....as always. Since I was tired, I decided to try once again to try to find a place to stay that I would like. On TripAdvisor I saw a highly rated place - Sandia Peak Motel. Even though I did not read the reviews themselves, I decided to stay there for the night.

(Photos taken in 2013)