So, we went to Vegas, pools by day, the Strip by night, and the fantastic Shania Twain residency….

And then, last minute, we decided to drive home instead of flying, but there was a snafu at the rental office….

So, what do you do when the only rental car left on the lot is a Mustang ragtop? Why, you tie your kerchief over your hair like a starlet and cruise down the Strip with the top down, of course!

It was a nice little thrill, I’ll admit.

And then we did that thing we so much love to do:

Desert Roadtrip

It wasn’t long before we were passing Lake Meade. We didn’t stop to see the Hoover Dam on this pass, but we stopped at couple overlooks, to take in our first glimpse of the lake, and then a long view over the desert along the Nevada-Arizona line, down towards the harbor at Willow Beach.

Crossing the Mojave

When I was in elementary school, we went to Joshua Tree National Park, in what I now realize must have been monsoon season, because to our great surprise in the midst of our visit, it suddenly poured rain, only for a few minutes, as we watched from within the rental car. We emerged after the rain just as the flora and fauna did the same, and it was magical. I remember watching a flower unfurl its petals literally before my eyes in real time, rabbits and a desert tortoise emerged into the roadway…. The desert landscape came alive!

Joshua trees have ever after had a special place in my heart.

So, when we began to see them along the roadside, I knew I would have to get pictures!

Interspersed between the cholla, yucca, barrel cactus and, of course, amidst the Joshua trees, there were lots of blooming flowers in the Mojave, some that were familiar to me, some that were new.

A little farther along, in search of a geocache at the feet of a distinctive barrel cactus, we ran into our old friends the white-lined sphinx caterpillars, plus pallid-winged grasshoppers and desert black swallowtails. Just before my phone overheated in the desert sun….

We didn’t start our Labor Day weekend in search of a road trip, and when we decided to end the weekend on wheels instead of wings, we weren’t planning on a ragtop, but when it came to the highway south of Kingman at sunset…. Well, it was glorious!