Road-trips are loads of fun. Trust me, I have been road-tripping since I was a wee babe of 1 and did my first cross-country trek. When planning my Southwest USA road-trip adventure, I had different places in mind I was determined to visit. It formed a triangle on a map, crossed over four states, and multiple time-zones that managed to confuse the blazes out of me in regards to arrival times. Perhaps one of the longest stretch of my SW road trip (in my mind only) was the trek between Joshua Tree and Salvation Mountain. Maybe it was the endless nothingness of the desert. Or perhaps it was the dwindling of gas in our Charger rental car getting sucked out so quickly without a service station in sight.  In reality, it was more than likely the lack of bathroom facilities when ya girl had to go bad.

Y’all — take my advice and carry it close to your heart: if you are ever making the 160 miles adventure between the two must-see destinations mentioned above, for the love of all that is holy, hit up a service station BEFORE entering Mojave Desert Preserve and use all of their amenities – the food, the gas pumps, and the restroom. YOLO is on trend and all, but I promise you will end up like me, popping a squat delicately relieving myself on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere while simultaneously hoping to not flash anyone my womanly goods. Oh, and I desperately tried to not get stranded either in the only place in the USA that had ZERO cell service.

As you can tell since I am here to share my humiliation tell the story, I made it through the preserve in the knick of time with about 20 miles to empty on our tank. But the first gas station we hit up was DOUBLE the price per gallon we pay back here in Georgia. I am not sure if they were taking advantage of their monopoly of gas in the area or if that was typical California prices but I almost had a heart attack (again) when I saw that dollar amount. I barely put a quarter of a tank of gas in because I am a frugal person who refuses to be price gauged. Plus we were close to Vegas and just knew there had to be more gas competition.

If you are still with me, thanks for letting me be real.

Hopefully my dramatics did not turn you off or this beautiful natural landscape. The Mojave Desert Preserve is definitely worth a drive through and be sure to get some middle of the road pictures! The desert landscape fascinates me since I live in the land of grass, trees, and agricultural fields.

xx,
Sami

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As always, ideas and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

Sami Mastrario

The cool aunt. Plant novice who loves to travel to cool places, eat unadventurous food, and take pretty photos.

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