In my mind, I should have made Barstow, California. At times it is incredibly hard to stay on coursei. I did a bit of research before I started this journey, Google maps doesn’t follow a certan road so you have to put each hamlet into the location which, in general, will bring you to the local center of government or toutist information venue. That pulls you off of Route 66 and often sends to your next destination by a completely different road. Navigating the Mother Road, it’s basically a two person job.

The day started with a quick drive up the coast to Malibu. Not too much of an ocean view, it took a bit of an effort to find a place to pull over, windows down to hear the waves. I drove a bit further toward Santa Monica before I smelled the salt spray.

It was kind of crazy to drive on, or past, all those 90210 street names; Wilshire Blvd, and Santa Monica Blvd and Rodeo Drive.

When I got to the hotel in San Dimas, I checked in but before I pulled away from the door, a Doordash driver came out and asked me if my name was Teresa. I answered no, and they said they were supposed to deliver to my room number. Being both hungry and tired, I said that depending on what she had, I’d pay for dinner. She said she wasn’t allowed to do that and went back into the hotel. As I finished parking, she came and gave me the diner. I asked if i could tip her. She told me no. That’s how I got my free Chipotle’s salad.

I have not caught one sunrise nor sunset as I had originally planned but let me use a Disney Frozen analogy, I could either be like Elsa and Let It Go or like Olaf and have a meltdown. I chose to be like Elsa. Besides that, I have no great agenda nor timeframe that I have to meet other than to be in Kanab, Utah on March 4 for the Outsiders Photography Conference.

My BIG things for the day was Joshua Tree National Park and I wanted to shoot the Santa Monica Pier at sunset. I did make it to Joshua Tree National Park, what a diversity of plants. with the Mojave and Colorado Deserts ecosystems coming together.

And while there was a great sky, there was no place to pull over entering Las Angeles. Maybe if I made more sunrises, I’d be able to make more sunsets. Talking about sunsets, I loved finding these wind farms silhouetted against the setting sun.