Actual live cactii growing wild. I imagine it must be painful to brush against. Along with the rattlesnakes that are common out here.
Crossing flatland towards the mountains and the Mohave Desert. There are 205 miles between services and we’ll gas up, get drinks and walk the dog before we start.
Every few miles we cross a dry wash with names like Rattlesnake, Black Rock. A wash is a gully that drains away the rainwater flowing down from the storms in the 
mountains. Its nine o’clock and 81 degrees.
It’s not an empty land. There are lots of brush, clumps of grass and cactus growing in the sandy soil. A haze blurs the distant mountains, but they look blue and purple. Land is for sale. Passing Yucca, established 1883. Fairly big city with planted trees.
Taking a sidetrip to the London Bridge at Lake Havasu. Blooming shrubs crowd the edge of the road. I don’t know what they are, but they are sturdy to flourish here. The mountaintops look like the vertebrae of crouching monsters sprawled side by side.
The London Bridge is a surprise in this otherwise dry land. The lake is huge and an entire city has grown up around the bridge. Mr. McCullough’s idea was pretty smart after all. At the cost of four million dollars a bustling economy has arrived.
We’re heading across the Mohave Desert and I have a couple photos of the cactus blooming. It’s 88 degrees.
Coming into Barstow is an enormous power plant. Solar panels cover acres alongside the regular generators. Four high tension lines stretch over the mountains to Southern California cities.
Barbara Edwards Comments 