Second to the last day of vacation
Trip Start
Apr 02, 2010
1
35
36
Trip End
May 01, 2010
Where I stayed
Barstow, California
Friday, April 30, 2010
Greg's Version:
Today is the second to the last day of our trip. I will drive from Williams, AZ to Barstow, CA on I-40. About the only reason to leave the interstate today is to buy gas and eat lunch.
The day started out with breakfast at the hotel buffet. The buffet today was different than a couple of days ago and again I had to pick and choose because there was so much good food. We were tempted to hang around to see the Wild West Show again and watch the train leave for Grand Canyon but decided that we really should get on the road. But first, one last visit to the gift shops to make sure we had everything we needed to haul home. I don't remember what it cost but we carried more stuff to the car.
A local police car accompanied us to the Interstate but must not of thought a hybrid from California to be of much interest. Out on the interstate we worried for awhile about the effects of yesterday’s snow storm. We had heard that I-40 had been closed for awhile last night but all we saw was clear dry highway. Soon we were down below the snow line and back out into the desert.
We stopped in Kingman for gas at the same place we bought gas when going east nearly a month ago. Lunch was at a a cute little place in Needles.
It has been a few years since we had been to Barstow and I did not recognize the place. New highways had been built around the town that brought us into town from a very different direction from our last visit. I don’t think I could have found the hotel where we stayed last time.
Our hotel for the night was an old Holiday Inn Express that had been recently refurbished. Unfortunately, it did not have an elevator so we needed to drag our suitcases up a flight of stairs to our room.
There was what looked like a nice restaurant across the old highway from the hotel. We thought about trying to walk across the six lanes to the restaurant but decided to drive. That turned out to be a good idea. The food was ok. The service was ok. The prices were ok. So, I guess it was an ok restaurant. About what you might expect in an small city in eastern California.
Tomorrow we drive the last 400 miles to home.
Mary's Version
I was really glad to be going home. As Greg said, there was some concern about what the previous night's snow had done to the road, and the conditions. We needn't have worried. It was all clear, and quite beautiful!
There were lots of miles and miles, and yes, we had to drag our suitcases up (and down, the next day), the staircase. The hotel didn't look THAT old, I was perplexed about the lack of an elevator.
The restaurant was large, but, kind of like a diner. Or a Denny's. I remember one of the waitresses had brought her son to work. What a chore, working, and trying to keep her son amused, while seriously making sure he didn't disturb the customers. It made me tired, just watching her. She apparently had been doing this for some time, she was cool, cheerful and efficient at it, but it still made me feel worn out. I was thinking, wow, having to wait on tables all day, apparently having no other place to take her son, and really, trying to do two jobs at once. Being a mother, trying to amuse the kid, and being a mother, trying to earn a living for that kid. It made me feel really lucky, that I didn't have that life. And then again, she seemed to be doing well, possibly not having had any other kind of life. Who knows?
Home tomorrow...
