2013-06-18T23-02-20_87 2013-06-18T23-02-20_92 2013-06-18T23-02-21_100 2013-06-18T23-02-21_105 2013-06-18T23-02-21_106

After driving for three days and getting in late each night, it was nice to sleep in a bit today. Also, we had much less of a drive ahead, having slept in Kingman instead of Flagstaff last night.

Regarding this, today was also a good day to drive the longest stretch of desert of our trip because it wasn’t nearly as boring as we were expecting. It was quite exciting, actually!!

First off, we really didn’t realize just how long the stretch would be! We’d heard that there would be signs informing us about lack of gas stations or at least where the last one would be. But to our dismay we had no such warning! So at 1/4 of a tank we started praying hard for God to provide a gas station, no matter how expensive it might be (they had steadily increased in price along America). We prayed even harder when we had 1/10 of a tank. The worst thing that could have happened to us would have been to be stuck in the middle of the desert, without cell service, with not much water and food and in the blazing heat (the A/C itself was having trouble keeping up with the heat!)

But to our delight, a gas station appeared in the mirages. And we were saved!!! We thanked God for the next hour for his provision. For the first time we paid for gas over four dollars, but we’d never been grateful for such a blessing!

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We arrived in LA/Topanga around 3:30pm PT. After getting situated at my aunt and uncle’s, my eleven-year-old cousin Lizzie took Cobalt and I on the most lovely/relaxing walk in their neighborhood! They live on top of a mountain, sort of like Signal Mtn in Chattanooga, as it’s very near downtown. Plus, the air quality is the best in LA; and it’s dry (unlike TN humidity) and the cool. So you can imagine that the walk was very refreshing after driving through the steamy desert.

So some of our entertainment was taking the dog Chuck with us on our meander. He loved sniffing and chasing around at anything that moved (literally). At one point, he stuck his nozzle underneath a huge rock, hoping to identify a rodent that may or may not be underneath the boulder. After about 20 minutes (Cobalt got a phone call in the middle of this exhibition, which lengthened the find) we finally pulled Chuck away to proceed down the trail. He hesitantly but grudgingly relented.

In addition, we got to pet some horses near the end of the trail (pictured). My favorite thing so far has been observing all of the cool plants. Cactus (with yellow flowers), all sorts of plants and ground cover that have water-filled leaves (like cacti), and aloe bushes. Also, my relatives water their backyard with their washing machine water: rather brilliant if you ask me! (I love resourceful ideas :) ).

This evening, Lizzie’s older brother Oliver and his friend made dinner: shepherd’s pie, roasted brussel sprouts and steamed broccoli. His younger sister (who led us on the trail) made lavender, rosemary cookies. All was lovely and home-like!

…All this to say, we’re really liking California thus far :)