Hello from Twentynine Palms! Greetings from Twentynine Palms, CA—about 100 miles north of the Mexican border. We’re here to check out Joshua Tree National Park for a day or two, before heading east to finally make our way back across the country toward home.
By the time we arrived today, it was nearly sunset (it was roughly six hours through the desert in the car from our last location outside Yosemite)—so we’ll have to wait until morning to see the park. We spent the late afternoon getting the car’s oil changed (exciting!), and then went out for Thai food and a movie at a local drive-in theater (my first time at a drive-in!).
Since I don’t have any photos from today to share, I thought it’d be a good time to update our numbers!
Roadtrip Stats as of 11/12:
| Days on the road: | 52 |
| Miles driven: | 11,551 |
| Gas station stops: | 39 |
| Speeding tickets: | 1 (Bill, of course) |
| States driven through: | 17 |
| National parks visited: | 17 |
| Different beds slept in: | 25 |
| Average daily spend: | $117.80 1 |
| Most expensive day: | $206 (Lake Las Vegas, NV) |
| Least expensive day: | $39 (Las Vegas, NV) |
| Hours of audio books listened to: | 103 2 |
| Photos taken: | 14,662 (280 GB!) |
| Hiking distance: | 283.4 miles |
| Hiking vertical gain: | 28,820 feet |
2 So far we've listened to the following audio books: 11/22/63 by Stephen King, Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris, Lock In by John Scalzi, One Second After by William R. Forstchen, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
Did you also keep track of how many p&b sandwiches you’ve had so far?
I wish I could listen to books all day long! I just discovered audible which allows you to listen to the book on your phone and then you can switch to your kindle and it keeps your spot. Best thing ever! Here are some book recs for you that I love: Things Fall Apart, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, and Oryx and Crake. I just read The Snow Child with my book club and you might like that- it’s all about a couple that moves to Alaska. Or Redeployment which is a book of short stories about soldiers in recent wars. Lori bought me The Warmth of Other Suns (NF) for Christmas last year, and it’s really great.
We neglected to count the PB&J sandwiches, but I’m sure the number is higher than we’d want to admit consuming anyway.
Thanks for all of the book recommendations! If you haven’t tried it, Hoopla is pretty great for audio books too, assuming your local library supports it.
I love when you post the stats! Christina, I read The Snow Child last month and really liked it. Would be a good book for B&L to listen to.
Just read the description of The Snow Child—sounds interesting; we’ll try to download it!