Some of you may be aware that I endeavored to start a travel blog last year. Well, life got busy and writing about where I had traveled wasn’t as appealing as actually traveling. My apologies.
I am making a second attempt by documenting our fiftieth wedding anniversary trip from which we just returned. Bear with me as I get you from Knoxville to Phoenix, Arizona.
We really wanted to try one last road trip across the U.S. for our anniversary. Since it is our fiftieth, well, you can guess that we are a bit old to attempt that type of trip. At least we decided we are. So, we flew from Knoxville to Phoenix, rented a car and continued on the road from there.
We recommend staying at the Hilton Phoenix Airport for your first night. Flying is tiring. So is driving, so a fresh start after a good night’s rest is not to be sneezed at. Speaking of sneezing, we did almost none of that in Arizona. Upon our arrival at the Phoenix airport, we were greeted by a temperature of 114 degrees. But it’s a dry heat. Right. It’s still hot! Our rental car was waiting and the people at the airport were beyond nice.
They seemed to be waiting behind every corner to ask if we needed anything. Don’t worry. California changed all that.
When you hit the road the next morning, you’ll want to make the short drive to Peppersauce Café for a hearty breakfast. From the outside it may make you think of a dive on the wrong side of town, but trust me, it isn’t. And the food was fabulous.
From the café we headed toward Joshua Tree National Park. This is one of the most scenic landscapes you will ever encounter. That is, if you haven’t explored that part of the country. Everything out there is scenic.
There are cactus and rock formations that will fuel your imagination. On this particular day it was still blazing hot, but Joshua Tree is mostly a drive-through type area, and we had it almost entirely to ourselves. You don’t start seeing Joshua Trees until you’ve driven most of the way through, but they are beautiful, and very different from anything we have growing in Tennessee. The landscape here can go from barren to green in the blink of an eye.
We spent most of the day in Joshua Tree National Park before traveling into the actual town of Joshua Tree where we discovered an amazing barbecue place, The Rib Company.
We circled the building looking for the entry, only to finally ask the guy out front who was handling the smoking and grilling in one-hundred-degree heat. He directed us around back where we entered through a floating screen door into the kitchen/dining area and chose our own seat. No putting on airs here. Everyone but us seemed to be local.
Pretty much everything on the menu was either grilled, smoked or both. You gotta try the fall-off-the-bone ribs.
We traveled on to Yucca Valley to spend the night at the Best Western. You don’t need an address. It is the only Best Western in town. One day in and we’re already pretty tired. Temps remained above 100 degrees.
Tomorrow it’s a trip to the grocery store to stock up on coolers, drinks and picnic supplies for our day trips, then on to Bakersfield, California.