Barstow, Ho!
Dec. 23rd, 2022 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalker5 Days in the Desert travelog #1
Barstow - Fri, 23 Dec 2022, 9:30pm
This evening we arrived in Barstow. It's the first part of our journey 5 Days in the Desert (previous blog).
I wondered this morning if we'd leave home "on time". I was shooting for 10am but worried it might turn out to be 11... or later. I managed to be right on both counts! We actually left the house just after 10:00 but then we stopped at the REI in town because I needed another pair of hiking pants and a new flashlight. That wound up taking 'til 10:55 (I was quite irritated at how everything was slow) at which point we figured, we're here, we might as well have lunch. We ate at a favorite local joint in the same plaza as the REI. Then we got donuts at a favorite local donut shop in town. It wasn't until noon that we got more than 5 miles away from home.
Barstow is 382 miles away by the shortest reasonable route, with a driving time of about 6 hours when there's no traffic. Traffic looked clear early in the morning but then it crapped up by midday. Slowdowns and detours added almost an hour of driving time. With added stops for gas, dinner, and snacks we arrived in Barstow at 8pm.
So, how is Barstow? Understand that Barstow is basically a shit-hole. I don't think it's as much of a shit-hole as Bakersfield, which we passed through without stopping this time, but mostly that's because it doesn't pretend it's anything more than a highway rest stop town between LA/San Diego and Las Vegas. Oh, it's not literally just a rest stop. Barstow has a population of 25,000! But in California that's a small town.
Barstow - Fri, 23 Dec 2022, 9:30pm
This evening we arrived in Barstow. It's the first part of our journey 5 Days in the Desert (previous blog).
I wondered this morning if we'd leave home "on time". I was shooting for 10am but worried it might turn out to be 11... or later. I managed to be right on both counts! We actually left the house just after 10:00 but then we stopped at the REI in town because I needed another pair of hiking pants and a new flashlight. That wound up taking 'til 10:55 (I was quite irritated at how everything was slow) at which point we figured, we're here, we might as well have lunch. We ate at a favorite local joint in the same plaza as the REI. Then we got donuts at a favorite local donut shop in town. It wasn't until noon that we got more than 5 miles away from home.
Barstow is 382 miles away by the shortest reasonable route, with a driving time of about 6 hours when there's no traffic. Traffic looked clear early in the morning but then it crapped up by midday. Slowdowns and detours added almost an hour of driving time. With added stops for gas, dinner, and snacks we arrived in Barstow at 8pm.
So, how is Barstow? Understand that Barstow is basically a shit-hole. I don't think it's as much of a shit-hole as Bakersfield, which we passed through without stopping this time, but mostly that's because it doesn't pretend it's anything more than a highway rest stop town between LA/San Diego and Las Vegas. Oh, it's not literally just a rest stop. Barstow has a population of 25,000! But in California that's a small town.
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Date: 2022-12-24 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-24 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-12-24 07:24 pm (UTC)It was funnier in my head.