No, we're not there yet. Where ever it is we're going, this certainly is not it. Today was not a fun day, really. It was more of a "getting there is way less than half the fun" kind of day. I’m talking about the drive from northern California to the Grand Canyon. Really, as it applies here, it's the drive from northern California to Needles, our overnight stop on the way to the Grand Canyon. Needles is a small, good for almost nothing, town in southern California. But not the good LA or San Diego part of southern California. This is the "hot but not hott" part, where they have all of the heat of the desert and none of the awesomeness of the west coast. Don't worry, they still charge a ton for gas around here. So at least that's the same.

Just how "middle of nowhere" are we talking about, here?

It's pretty amazing how many middles of nowhere there are in southern California. I would think that it would be pretty much packed with people who just want to be close to Los Angeles, and then real estate developers would turn these chunks of desert into resort-style oases. No such luck. We did see one small community that looked like it was just that, though. There was a huge aqua duct bringing loads of water to surrounding farming communities, and I guess it was also supplying this new neighborhood with everything needed to turn dry sand into green grass.

Man, this post is just as boring as the day itself.

You can see what it came to. Pictures in the mirror are closer than they appear.

So we got to Needles, California at about 8:00 PM. It was another member of the Gravel KOA family. Our campsite was just some gravel with a picnic table, a few desert plants, and a small sun shelter. Check it out:

The fun part about Needles was that it was so hot that at 1:30 AM we gave up on the 94 degree, no breeze, loud by the freeway, campsite and checked into a Best Western. Yes, we failed as desert campers this night. Now leave us alone about it!!

Here’s a sunset. At least the desert is beautiful.

On to the Grand Canyon!