Made it, at last, roughly 18 hours after we left the house this morning and 6 hours after we landed. Did the dance of "wouldn't you rather have X size car, bigger and more money than the one you reserved?" at the rental car place, said no, then got the SUV she was trying to make us pay for anyway, at no extra cost, because they didn't have a car the size we reserved.  Welcome to....renting cars!  No, this is not an LA special.  Been through this many times before!

As mentioned in the last entry, the drive was horrible, until about 4:30, when we finally got onto I-10, roughly 65 miles east of LA.  If this was commute, and I suspect much of it was, these people must drive between 5 and 6 hours a day.  Horrific.

En route, passed the biggest windmill farm I ever saw, just outside of Palm Springs.  Turns out there are currently more than 2000 windmills there, but they're working on a complete rebuild with much more modern equipment, which could reduce the number to 600 or 700.  Current turbines have been there since teh 80s.  Read all about it (and see photos) here.

Staying a few nights in very funky hotel Tim found:  the 9 Palms Inn in Twentynine Palms.  All rooms funky colors.  Check out their website here.  That bottom photo is our room.

Been up 20 hours now...will report on Joshua Tree tomorrow.