I woke up early since I was anxious to be out of the dump of a place where we were staying. I went outside and put a few things in he car that weren't needed and grabbed my binoculars. Just standing around outside in the parking lot I managed to spot: Cassin's Finch, female Wilson's Warbler, Mourning Dove, Great-tailed Grackles doing their mating ritual and a bunch of mice with wings, I mean House Sparrows. I also saw a young jack rabbit making his way across the street. Everyone else got up and got around and we got on the road as this place didn't have a complimentary breakfast and even if it had I wouldn't have risked the ensuing food poisoning roulette that I'm sure I would've encountered. We drove to the big town of Seligman, AZ where we enjoyed a good sit down breakfast at a local place (finally!) called the Copper Cart Cafe. I had the Mexican skillet that had home-fries, egg, and pulled pork covered in a homemade green chile sauce with cheese on top...it was quite yummy.
We went next door to Seligman Sundries and checked out the store there. They had a variety of things there, we picked up a metal Coke sign for the kitchen to go with our slowly emerging diner theme. At the register they had a number of foreign coins and bills that various patrons had given to the owner. Seligman is on Route 66 and a number of foreign tourists have stopped in there as part of their US Route 66 experience. I was quite jealous of the collection, she had money from everywhere.
After our breakfast stop was complete we got back on the road and continued our westward trek. We stopped for gas around the Lake Havasu City exit and it was a mad house. Memorial Day weekend, trucks pulling boats everywhere, long lines at the pump, had we not needed fuel we would've gladly skipped that 30 minute stop. We got back on the road and drove, drove, drove. When you get to the Mojave desert part of your westward drive I would advise making sure you have a full tank and check out a map before you get out there and make sure you know where the rest stops are. We learned that by stopping at a gas station that was a good 40 or 50 miles from the last station we saw as someone needed to use the bathroom, so we pulled in. They had signs everywhere saying restrooms for customers only, which is fine, I have no problem with that, but their prices were insane...I got a 20 oz. bottle of A & W and was out close to $3.00. Luckily we were fine on gas. Within 3 miles of that stop there was a rest stop, but you couldn't see it for the hill that it sat on the back side of...ugh.
We drove and drove through the Mojave desert or we were at least near it if nothing else; lots of yucca (which I prefer grilled or fried in case you were wondering), joshua trees here and there, and the area was just absolutely barren. It had its own beauty, but after about 20 minutes of it, it got old in a hurry. We wanted to get to civilization so bad we just snacked and didn't even bother stopping for lunch. We passed hundreds of wind turbines near the city of Mojave, CA. I spotted the most random thing of the trip so far...a lamb was standing next to a guard rail right there next to the interstate, weird. Not far from there we saw the first of what we dubbed "skinny pointy trees".
We drove until we got to Delano, CA and had dinner at a western chain called Perko's, it was alright, nothing too memorable though. We drove on to Visalia, passing numerous almond, grape, walnut, pistachio, and orange groves along the way. We stayed at the Days Inn in Visalia that night and thus ended our day.
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