Our last day we had about five hours of driving. Because we got in bed early the night before and because we were still adjusting to time changes, we were on the road by 8AM.
There were lots of mountains. This part of the drive was in yet another desert.
We started seeing mileage signs to Los Angeles:
We actually were planning on skipping Joshua Tree National Park because we didn't have a lot of time due to all our travel delays, but we hit the exit for it right around lunchtime so we decided to have a picnic lunch there.
Because we only had a little time, we didn't actually get to drive up to the northern part of the desert where the Joshua trees are. There was road construction up that way, and we already were cutting it close to making it into LA at rush hour. The ranger recommended that we go look at an oasis where we'd find cottonwood trees that were thousands of years old.
For scale, Patrick's not even at the base of this tree:
We're definitely planning on coming back one weekend and possibly camping out for a night. The ranger said that the stars are incredible and that the Joshua trees are worth seeing.
All the other states had nice welcome centers as soon as you hit the border. California's "welcome" was an agricultural inspection station, and then 50 miles later there was a welcome center--not even on the interstate! We didn't stop at it.
And finally, finally, around 4:30, we saw the Pacific Ocean!
Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and support over our trip! It was quite a memorable adventure! And for those of you who have been biting your fingernails thinking about all our car trouble as we have journeyed, know that we are considering other options for getting back home. We'll keep you posted as we decide, but for now we're going to enjoy staying put for a while!
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