In an effort to pad our stamp and unit totals, we decided to make our long drive home even longer with a detour to Joshua Tree National Park. Well, even though it added almost another 60 miles, it's still kinda on the way, isn't it?! 😜
 |
| 515 miles, 8.5 hours |
Before leaving this morning, we stopped by the Williams Visitor Information Center to get a Grand Canyon NP stamp and then hopped onto I-40 west to California.
OMG, the condition of the interstate between Kingman, AZ and Needles, CA was absolutely horrendous! In contrast, the small two-lane roads from I-40 to Twentynine Palms (Kelbaker Rd. to National Trails Highway to Amboy Rd.) were fabulous. Surprisingly, lots of other cars were also taking this route. My concerns about having car trouble on a desolate road in the middle of the Mojave Desert were unwarranted, for sure.
We arrived at the visitor center a little after 1:00PM. After getting the passport stamp and asking the ranger a few questions about things to do in the limited time we had this afternoon, we found a awesome spot for lunch. And it was Taco Tuesday - bonus! The Agua de Jamaica (hibiscus tea) was great, too.
 |
| Birria ramen and tacos (barbacoa/al pastor/carnitas) |
Once we finished devouring our food, we headed into the park via the North Entrance Station, showing our annual pass in lieu of the $30 entrance fee. Our first visit here was in 2009, though we did make a quick stop on our way back from Spring Training in 2012 for stamps. *cough!*
 |
| February 2009 |
We decided to just take a scenic drive via Park Boulevard, hopping out of the car to take pics along the way.
 |
| Joshua trees |
 |
| Mojave yucca |
Fun fact: the Joshua tree pictured on U2's album was actually located near Death Valley and not within this national park. Here's R's artsy photo for our forthcoming Saiki-delic album...
 |
| Still haven't found what I'm looking for... |
We exited the park out the West Entrance just before 3:00PM and stopped by the visitor center in Joshua Tree for a different stamp. Three hours later, we made it home with plenty of daylight left to unload our covered wagon!
Final progress towards our 2024 Silver Master Traveler Award after this trip*:
Units: 36
Stamps: 87
Regions: 4
Looks like we only need one more region to earn the Silver MTA! However, a trip to the DC area will actually put the Gold MTA (and the 200-unit Silver Lifetime Achievement milestone) within reach since the Mid-Atlantic and DC regions are right next to each other and have a lot of units/stamps. Only 14 more units, 13 more stamps, and 2 more regions to go!
Time to start planning the next one!
*updated to include the stamps received by mail
No comments:
Post a Comment