The morning brought a quick tour of Riverside and a chance to resolve some last minute banking issues before leaving California. We saw the theatre where “Gone with the Wind” had its sneak preview, and looked around downtown. Riverside is surprisingly pleasant, although I can’t swear I’ll ever have a craving to return…

   

Then, it was off into the desert. California is an unusual place; its possible to see snow-capped mountains in the distance even in June, when it’s over 90 on the valley floor. We drove through Palm Springs — a first for me, and I’ve now done it sufficiently and see no real reason to return — and Indio and Blythe, where I visited my last California supermarket. Sadly, it was an Albertsons…

Eventually, we arrived in Phoenix, which was a bit of a relief after 125 miles of pretty much nothing. I was excited to see Waffle Houses at most freeway exits. And I spent a good bit of time trying to determine what our really large, formerly fancy (and currently adequate) Red Roof Inn had been in its earlier life. I decided it was probably a Holiday Inn or a Ramada, since it had a restaurant and cocktail lounge…

We had dinner at Whataburger, even though I’d thought we’d have to wait for Texas for that. And we drove around Phoenix a bit, rather instantly liking the place…