decidedlyodd

This morning, I got up earlier than I had the past two days. Without a complementary breakfast, I was on the road by 8:45am mountain time.

About an hour or so in while stopping for gas, I grabbed some orange juice to go with an apple I had brought with me from NC for breakfast. Much of the day was spent crossing Arizona. The speed limits are pretty high (75 mph), which helps the time pass. At the same time though, there is really NOTHING out there, which makes the time pass slowly. Still, I saw some neat stuff here and there. After getting onto I-8 near Casa Grande, AZ there were a lot of Saguaro cactus visible from the road. Once getting into California a few miles, Imperial Dunes was also visible from the road. For lunch, I stopped in Gila Bend, AZ at a Subway where the prices were higher than what I’ve always paid in NC. Even though I had abotu a half tank left, I stopped in Yuma to get gas because as soon as you get into California the prices go up at least 20 cents per gallon because of the difference in taxes.

I was making great time and called my parents to say I would probably be arriving sometime between 6pm and 7pm. Unfortunately, that meant I would be going through San Diego during rush hour ): My dad suggested taking I-15 to CA-78 to I-5 instead of going to I-5 directly. There was a major traffic jam in Escondido though because of an accident though. Still, it may have been faster than fighting I-5 north which according to radio traffic was jam packed all the way from the 5/805 junction through Oceanside. Despite the traffic, I made it back at around 6:30. It felt great to finally get here, but even better to just be done driving for a while!