I'll try to finish the California trip

Monday- Nov. 17,2008 This morning when we left Ventura, Ca at 8:30 it was a nice 58 degrees. We turned back on to hwy 1 to go to Malibu. The temp rose to 85 by the time we make it to Malibu , we start shedding our long sleeve shirts. Stop at the beach, take the view of a few good looking natives jogging by. When we get to Santa Monica we miss a turn trying to get up town so we break out the GPS. I punch in Beverly Hills and the only street I know is Rodeo Drive. We follow the GPS directions which take us to the start of the fancy stores on the street. They had a few Christmas decoration up at that time. The street is 4 lanes with a medium down the middle.The street lights hanging on eachside of medium are Chandeliers inside glass boxes. I had never really thought about it but the shopping area is not but 3 bl;ocks of stores then you run into residential area. We turn around and head back up the other side of the street so not to miss anything. Leaving there we head to Hollywood Blvd. We try to turn north on the the Blvd. but the street was blocked off. They were setting up the red carpet for the premire of Bolt that night. We had to go down 2 blocks to get on to Hollywood Blvd, found us a parking space in front of a Greek Deli and took a walk to check things out. The Bolt premire was at the El Capitan and next door to the theater , Jimmy Kimble had his live talk show going on. Checked out the stars on the sidewalks, went to the Chinese Theater to see the fet & handprints in concrete. Went back to the Greek Deli to get a bite to eat and afterwards the owner came out to talk to us some more and told us what route to take to get to the Hollywood sign. I was checking the map for a route to I10 after we had taken pictures of the sign when a guy walking by gave us the directions we needed. This route took us by the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre. Later on during our trip we hear on the news that a guard kills a sword welding intruder after we pass by. We take I10 East to get around the fires and smoke in Orange county south of L.A. We go through this valley with hundreds of wind turbines along the road stretching some 20 miles by Palm Springs to Palm Desert where we stop for the night. This is the same town 2 guys kill each other in the Toys R Us the day after Thanksgiving. I get a salad for supper and afterwards go to Walgreen to get sinus medicine to try to head off the head cold I think I caught from Joe.

Tuesday--Nov-18
This morning we leave Palm Desert too head out to Indio where we turn south on hwy 86. We drove something like 40 miles along the Salton Sea which is 235 feet below sea level, 47 feet higher than Badwater Basin in Death Valley. At the south end they have the Sonny Bono Nat. Wildlife Refuge. South of the Salton Sea we start to enter the Imperial Valley where they are growing vegetables, cotton, milo, and lots of alfalfa hay. Turning on I-8 at El Centro, we head to Arizona. All along this route if they have access to water, they were growing a crop and if there was no water, there was nothing but desert. At on point we can see the tall steel fence along the Mexico Border. Make it to the west side of Tucson at dark that night where we get a room.