I was starting to feel that it was time to wrap up this trip. And ironically, I would end it by leaving the water and heading to the desert! Friends Jon and Tina invited me for a visit to their home in Henderson NV.
I had been thinking I would leave Carmel, then spend a night in Paso Robles, a night in Barstow, and then arrive in Henderson. But, I just couldn’t find a place I wanted to stay at in Paso Robles. And I remembered my cousin Ted mentioning Tehachapi CA. I looked at a map and it was pretty much halfway to Henderson, so I decided to stay there and do the drive to Henderson in 2 days rather than 3. And that gave me one more night in Carmel! Bonus!
Here are some photos:
This is the view from the front of the hotel – I stayed at the Fairfield Inn.
And the view from the back of the hotel.
Free hot breakfast in the morning. The biscuits were like rocks!
Tehachapi is a small, quaint town. I should’ve checked it out more than I did. Oh well, next time!
Some views from a rest stop on the way to Henderson
I arrived at Jon and Tina’s in the early afternoon. We hung out in the backyard the first day. Next day we went to check out Hoover Dam.
Then we went to their cabin, about an hour away, for a night. It’s at 8000 feet elevation in Lee Canyon, on the north side of the mountain and totally off-grid. Beautiful! I went for my first snowmobile ride ever! (and perhaps my last – it’s definitely not my thing)
My last full day there Jon and I went to Meow Wolf. It was kind of neat, but, we didn’t grasp the concept right away (you walk thru various doors and look at things trying to solve a mystery, and you can get points by using your “boop” card at different locations, but we didn’t figure that out until we had missed a bunch of places to boop.)
And then just like that, it was time to get to the airport and fly back to the east coast. There was a nor’easter hitting the east coast while my plane was in flight, but the pilot went around the storm and by the time we landed the storm had moved off. There was a little slush on the roads but that was it.
So now I’m at my beach house, trying to figure out where things are (since I moved right before leaving on the trip), purging more stuff, and trying to figure out what my next steps are. I’m really feeling like Pacific Grove / Carmel is my place to be, so I need to figure out how/when to get myself there.
I’ll wrap up the trip posts with one more post with as many of the little miracles I experienced that I can remember. Stay tuned!