The Reluctant Road Tripper: Day 14

Nevada→California

This is it! We are on the final leg of this amazing trip and you know where the final stop is going to be...home sweet home, California! Coming out from Laughlin, there’s a narrow road that you would pass through and if you are feeling a little bit insane and ruin your car, you can go a little bit faster to feel the rollercoaster-like, uneven road. The engineer who built this road was definitely on some good shhh or he was a toddler...or a toddler on some good shhh.

See how freakin' uneven the road is? Man, I hate rollercoasters.

And here we are cutting across the Mojave desert.

Did you know that there are actually volcanoes located in the Mojave desert? They have been dormant for thousands of years but you can clearly see the vast land filled with dark lava rocks. I really had no idea that volcanoes existed in deserts. What the heck was I doing back in elementary? Playing Nintendo, that's what! Listen to your teachers, kids!

If I am not mistaken, this is the Pisgah crater.  The lava rocks make quite a contrast against the sand of the desert.

Thinking that we were in the middle of nowhere, I was really surprised to see some trailers and small houses scattered around (like, yeah, in the middle of the damn desert). And I can’t help but wonder…where the heck do they get their supplies? There are no establishments within 60 miles or so and what if they forgot to buy toilet paper on their last trip to the grocery store? Do people visit them during the holidays or family gatherings? What if the Texas Chainsaw massacre guy paid them a visit, where will they run to? What if they get the munchies and they ran out of Doritos? I'm sure you were thinking the same thing too, right? No? It's only me? Mmmk.

We were so close to home but we decided to do a quick pit stop at the Barstow Station where they had the usual fast food haunts such as McDonald's and Panda Express...they even had a little kiosk that served Filipino cuisine, what a sweet surprise!

And tadaaaa...

I AM FINALLY HOME! I'm so happy to see this big baby but I'm not sure if he's happy to see me, he looks mighty comfortable on my bed, non?

I’d like to make a special shout out to Skyler’s dog sitter who took special care of Sky for two weeks. Thanks a lot for keeping my baby alive and healthy! I hope Skyler didn’t give you any more headaches than you usually have and I hope he only kicked you out of the bed once! Hehe!

My overall experience with the road trip was simply awesome and I understand now why a lot of people in the U.S. like to do it too. The interstate roads are well-maintained, there are plenty of clean rest areas spread across every state and they even have huge grass areas for your pets to relieve themselves and get a little bit of exercise. I recommend bringing a GPS system with you for easier navigation and make sure to check up on the weather so you'll know if there are any storms, tornadoes, hurricanes that you need to watch out for.

This pretty much concludes the Road Tripper series and all I can say is that I enjoyed every single feet-cramping, pee-holding, junk food-bingeing moment of the journey, and I couldn't have enjoyed it with anyone else but the company of my family. I hope this journey has inspired some my fellow readers to plan their own little adventures once in a while despite having a bustling, busy life and see the world with all its wonders. No adventure is too great or too small, it's all up to you to make the journey worth remembering.

And to all you wide-eyed wanderers out there...

May your travels be filled with wonderful surprises and sumptuous food, and may you be blessed with a newfound perspective in life!

Toodles!