The last stop on the US itinerary was Joshua Tree National Park. This was a 200 mile drive towards Los Angeles from our stay in Havasu. Only noteworthy thing apart from the heap of trucks on the Interstate was the miles and miles of hay paddocks we drove through following the Colorado river south. Seems like every man and his dog was making hay while the sun shined.
Our intended route into the park was closed due to a flood so that added 70 miles on to the trip but we did get a close up look of the Cochilla valley and Palm Springs. After arriving at the park visitor centre, the kids picked up their Junior Ranger pack (an activity book that they had latched on to 3 parks ago) and we were off to take a leisurely drive on a hot, sunny day.
The Joshua trees themselves look like something out of a Dr Seuss book, and along with the heap of people who had come in to the park on this fine Saturday, made for a pleasant trip. To be honest, we were all a bit over another rock featured park so we didn’t do that many stops. Again we used the awesome Campendium app to find a free boondocking camp site nearby and pitched our tents.
Had a great fire that night and roasted a few marshmallows. In the morning it was onwards towards LA and our first paid campground for 2 weeks! We did 2 weeks worth of laundry, showering and also stocked up one last time at a supermarket ready for our last day in LA.
We thought we’d make the most of Sub Dog the rental car and with a late flight, took in the sights on the Walk of Fame, California Science Center (will the extraordinary exhibit of the space shuttle Endeavour) and a walk along Venice Beach. All the end of trip admin was going smoothly (rental car return, bag drop off, check in) until we were told that we couldn’t get on the plane unless we had proof of leaving Panama (our next destination)! We didn’t so it was a rushed booking for a $US160 bus ticket from Panama to Costa Rica that we will probably not even use!! Ah well, that’s travelling some times. Funny thing was the same situation happened to Bronwyn and Ross (sis and bro in-law who are joining us for the Central American section) as we boarded the plane! The Panamanian bus company did well out of us that night…
