Today was a long driving day.  We left Lake Havasu City at 9:20 AZ time and traveled 314 miles.  The entire drive is divided highway through the Mojave Desert.

There are very few towns, three rest stops and no scenic or historical points of interest.

The only striking thing we commented on all day were the trucks.  Trucks, trucks, trucks.  Hundreds of them, going both ways on the highway all day long.  The highway has a dedicated truck lane for the steeper hills.  We were going up a hill and caught up with three big semi’s traveling side by side in all three lanes up the hill.  One truck was in the designated truck lane, another one decided to pass it so moved into the left lane.  A third truck decided to pass them both and moved to the far left lane.  Unfortunately both of the passing trucks did not have enough oomph to get past the one in the truck lane so all three lanes were blocked for several miles until each one managed to get by and move over.  We were making good time so near Edwards Air Force Base west of Four Corners and Barstow so we took an exit to a frontage road and found the first 20 caches of a series honouring The Duke, John Wayne.  The frontage road came to a dead end where a railway line cut across the road so we had to drive back to the exit where we left the freeway and resume our journey.

John Wayne made 146 films. I think the series has a cache named for every one of them.  They are hidden for several miles in both directions on frontage roads beside Highway 58.  When next we come this way we will have to find a few more.

The hillside and hilltops for the next few miles (know as the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm) were covered with thousands of wind turbines. This truck has two trailers full of lemons. We passed two large mining outfits today.  The first was at Daggett and is a borax mine.  The second was a cement plant located at Tehachapi and the tailings, as at the Daggett mine, were creating an entire new series of hills. As we neared Bakersfield the flat, scrub desert was replaced with greening hillsides and then acres and acres of orange groves.  The very air smelled of oranges. I have been a country music fan my entire life and I well remember many of the hit records put out by Buck Owens.  In Bakersfield, on Buck Owens Boulevard, is located the Crystal Palace; a museum, restaurant and performance theater.  We arrived at two minutes to four o’clock and for some strange reason they close from 4 until 5.  We were tired and hungry so we went to the hotel and hope to stop in and check out the inside before we leave tomorrow morning for Modesto.