LA to Kingman, AZ

Up pretty early and packed up all our things. We didn't seem to have too much stuff, thankfully. The woman at Carls now knew us quite well and wished us a nice holiday. We wanted to get to somewhere between LA and Flagstaff so went looking for the Automobile Association in Anaheim. Got lots of maps and info and wondered why we didn't come here sooner.

Thought we'd better prepare ourselves for the desert so looked for a supermarket. Bought plenty of drink and a one gallon flask. Also phoned through to Kingman to arrange accommodation for the night and then we were off. Pete also bought himself some glasses.

Found our way to highway 15 and began to drive and eventually found ourselves in the Mojave Desert. Stopped at Jack in the Box in Bairstow for lunch. The air was quite warm out of the car.

Went to have a quick look at the ghost town of Calico but decided to give it a miss when we found we had to pay $5 to get in! On we went. With 120 miles between us and the next main town we topped up with petrol and headed off. We passed a lot of volcanic looking territory like we had done in Hawaii. One range of mountains was actually called Lava Bed Mountains. We were actually surprised driving through the desert. We expected it to be dry and hot of course, but unlike the Aussie desert there are mountains dotted all over the place.

We pulled off at a rest stop and it was a hive of activity - probably because there's no civilization either side for ~80 miles. Intrigued at the sign warning of rattlesnakes. We eventually reached a high point and then descended down to the Colorado River and the town of Needles. More greenery in evidence around the river, but not much of the river to see. We crossed into Arizona and journeyed on to our stop for the night in Kingman. Very widespread with the main street being "Andy Devine", elevation 2000 ft.

The furnishing in the Days Inn was sort of Navajo style. To me it had a Mexican look about it. The kids were dying to get into the pool so we unpacked and let them. Pete & I soon followed. An American living in Kingman struck up a conversation with us. He was an insurance salesman who had visited Sydney when he was with the Marine corps. Wee talked to him for quite some time as we relaxed after our swim and spa.

The children decided they wanted Burger King for their dinner so we went to the drive thru and they ate it back in the room while Pete & I went to Denny's on our own: the first night we had done so since the beginning of the holiday. I couldn't finish my meal.

Sean was asleep when we got back. The kids all slept in the same room, but we got a visit from Joel in the night.Read more