Saturday, July 15th, 2023

Starting mileage: 8525, Distance travelled: 370

We woke up not sure where we would end up at the end of the day, needing to travel nearly 1,000 miles to the Grand Canyon over the next two days. Death Valley was suddenly off the table as we found ourselves in a massive heat dome causing a record-breaking heat wave. We toyed with ideas of trying to speed through Sequoia National Park or hitting Las Vegas, but the extra driving distance was prohibitive. We also had to find an urgent care to get Brady antibiotics for what we assumed was also strep throat. On the road by 9am, the first 50 miles continued to plague David with white-knuckle driving along cliffs and turns until we got down out of the Sierras, including one stretch of road that had partially collapsed into a ravine along the edge, making it too narrow for the van. They laid a gravel burm on the road – touch it with your tires and you were headed into that ravine. It was hard to capture but here are a few attempts by Laura from the front seat.

We drove for about 3 hours to get to Fresno where we got lunch and got Brady hooked up with antibiotics (after a predictably positive test for strep). Laura was definitely on the mend now and Brady was perking up after a long nap on the road. When we started the van, the change oil warning illuminated for the first time, which added to our anxiety about the desert drive ahead of us.

The second half of the drive included beautifully landscaped route 58, a train that entered 4 mountain tunnels in a row, and the most expansive wind farm we’d ever seen.

The heat was creeping up the entire time and we were worried about blowing a tire or breaking down and perishing in the desert. We eventually made it safely to Barstow, CA, a crossroads of sorts between interstates 40 and 15, (and we found out in the morning also iconic Route 66) with lots of hotels and restaurants. Laura and Susan went for a swim at 9:30pm, with the temperature still north of 100 degrees.