Driving to Santa Barbara, California, for the weekend, we have to stop in Quartzsite to fill the tank before the price jumps from $2.99 a gallon to over $3.55. The drive to Santa Barbara is 510 miles (826km) and takes us about 9 hours to drive, including a stop for dinner. The majority of the road slices through the desert until shortly before Los Angeles, when the temperature drops, the air moistens, and traffic starts to get heavy.

Along the way, we stopped at the Colorado River, where the Ehrenberg Wash joins the river here on the Arizona side.

That’s Palm Springs ahead.

Here’s that stop for dinner I mentioned above, which is once again being taken at the Northwoods Inn in Covina, California.