The ride on Sunday was unremarkable – eight hours from Trinidad to Merced, CA. We stayed in a perfectly adequate Holiday Inn Express.]

Tuesday’s drive was similarly unremarkable – 6½ hours from Merced to Twentynine Palms, CA right at the north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. (We have never been to the Park.) We are staying at the Campbell House Inn for the night. We might just have to come back here for a longer stay and visit the National Park. It is off the beaten track and is quite alluring. We are in the Palms Room, one of three in the building that was once a barn. It’s beautiful!

The grounds are lovely too! (And I expect breakfast tomorrow morning will be good too – no pictures of that).

Dinner was at the outdoor-seating-only Kitchen in the Desert – a Caribbean themed restaurant in the desert. Exotic cocktails. Local beers. Great appetizers. Jerk Chicken Skewers and Lamp Pops. Key Lime Pie and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. OMG. Great finish.