She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes!

CSI Experience (Stock Photo)

Land Sailing near Vegas (not us)

One of many desert mines

Eating her curly fries

Peggy Sue's Diner

Mon 14th Jan   'Dying' day had passed and we were able to move on from Sunday.  It has given Aidan a new appreciation of what people go through when sick.  

We still got to do our CSI experience and guessed 'who done it' with the clues given and Hayley's expert forensic eye and knowledge of blood spatter types!

We said goodbye to Las Vegas and all it's colourfulness and drove out into the desert.  You would think it would be a bland landscape but we were surprised at every turn.

Beyond the mirages across the Vegas desert sands were people Land Sailing.

Every 10 minutes along the road from Vegas were signs to Peggy Sue's Diner We stopped there for lunch and were not disappointed.  It was a true 1950's experience; full of 1950's movie memorabilia including items from The Wizard of Oz, Elvis & Marilyn Monroe.  Neale enjoyed sitting up to the counter to have a slice of Pecan Pie.  (Sorry, no photo.  We were at the gift shop at the time.)

We travelled through more desert in California and although the roads were long and straight there was still some intriguing scenery including many mineral mines like Molycorp.  

Dotted across the countryside were many squiggly cactus trees that looked like something out of a Dr Seus' picture book.  After a quick google search we discovered they were all, in fact, Yucca brevifolias- otherwise known as Joshua trees.

Coming up over the mountains was the Tehachapi Wind Farm.  It was no small cluster.  There were 100's & 100's across the ridge line.

Neale was getting a bit tired of driving by this stage so I entertained him with a Susan version of "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes".  Can you remember any of the verses?  I didn't, so I made a few up.  At least it kept Neale awake.

Up over the other side of the desert like mountain we drove down into green meadows and hills with grazing cattle.  Ireland?  Soon the landscape changed again with apple orchards, citrus trees and grapevines popping up.  We were definitely back in California now.

We drove into our hotel in Bakersfield for a well needed rest and sleep after a tense few days in Vegas.  Fittingly- our hotel is called 'Sleep Inn'  and that's just what we did!