I was so eager to get to the desert that I didn't really bother to stop in the Midwest except to sleep for about five hours in Columbus. However, I took a wrong turn in St. Louis and decided I may as well stop for a few minutes...
To the top and through the glass...
...and from the other side. East St. Louis, Illinois...
It's beginning to look like the West. The Continental Divide and the desert can't be far. Straight through. No stopping in OKC, Tulsa, Amarillo. Oklahoma:
Finally near my first real stop. I spot a cactus in Tucumcari, NM...
Old-Town Albuquerque...
Poor old friend...
Albuquerque botanical garden...
Then into Arizona. The Painted Desert...
The Petrified Forest...
And into Flagstaff...
Finally to The Grand Canyon. No photograph can do it justice...
I'm heading into Vegas. Then I change my mind. Going through Bakersfield to I-5 will be faster. Laughlin to get some sleep...
They're fishing in the Colorado River. It was a warm, beautiful, windy January morning.
Into the Mojave. So glad to be in California...
Mt. Whitney in the background...
Mt. Whitney again, Mojave Valley, Death Valley beyond it...
I hit a bit of west-bound traffic and change my mind again. I'll go North first.
Finally to the east side of the Sierras.
My last night will be in Reno...no, no, no. From my hotel room...
More desert. The Oregon / California / Nevada border where the Sierras meet the Cascades...
Ponderosa Pine...
East past Mt. Lassen and into Redding...
Finally, Mt. Shasta symbolizes the home stretch into Portland...
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