Day 02 - Indio, CA - Tombstone, AZ

Seven o'clock straight up-and-down in Indio, CA. We just filled up with gas for $4.03.9 at the Valero station. Now we are off to have breakfast at Clark's Auto Truckstop on historic Highway 99. If you recall the Day 01 post, Clark's Auto Truckstop is famous as the location of the hook up for the adulterous act committed by the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart that led to his "professional" downfall (but not hers!).

They even have a brass plaque at the door commemorating the event and citing the date. The restaurant next to Clark's is called Los Primos.
Being a Mexican restaurant, Linda had a nopales burrito. John had bacon and eggs. The lady owner/cook had difficulty with the English language. Fortunatly, her consultant (that is a true statement) showed up and confirmed our order. She's only had the restaurant a few months and really needs help. Hence, the consultant. Breakfast was good.

We grabbed a cup of coffee in the lobby of our Motel 6 as we checked out. We hit the road about 8:10 AM, off to Tombstone. Interstate 10 across the desert toward Arizona is only slightly less boring than Interstate 5 in California. However, as we were driving along, John discovered a Starbucks in Blythe, CA which was only 30 miles away (we love Wilma's GPS system, not only for getting us where we want to go, but feeding us as well).

Just east of Buckeye, Arizona we took Arizona Highway 85 south and hooked up with Interstate 8 at Gila Bend which took us into Tucson. This saved our driving through Phoenix traffic and is delicately referred to as the "Phoenix Bypass".

Arizona Highway 85 is a beautiful four-lane road with hardly any traffic. Every few miles there is a sign at the edge of the highway listing a person or business who adopted that section to clean up trash alongside the roadway. We noticed that one person named "Available" had adopted more sections of highway than anyone else. The roadsides were, all in all, very clean.

We grabbed something for lunch from a McDonald's at Casa Grande, AZ. Filled up with gas for $3.79.9 (much better than in California) and continued on our way to Tombstone.

Arrived at the Tombstone Motel just after 3:00 PM. We were located in a newer section of the motel. We did NOT have Wi-Fi. We did NOT have a phone. We did NOT have a desk or work table. We did NOT have a fridge. We did NOT have a microwave. We did NOT have a coffee pot. We did have a comfortable king size bed. The room was sparse, but clean, and quiet as we were the only ones occupying that building. We were at the Tombstone Motel because the Best Western Lookout Lodge did not have rooms available. Take it from us...try the Best Western first.

After unloading and resting a bit, we went out for dinner and found the Longhouse Restaurant (much nicer than the Longhouse in Gilroy). Full bar there so John had a Jack Daniel's and water. We had driven over six hours a day for the last two days and he deserved it! Linda had a chef salad and John had a South of the Border Burger which had an Anaheim chile and guacamole on it. He had it open-face and used the lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions for a salad. The meals were good and the staff was very friendly.

We took a couple of photos of Allen Street (the main drag in Tombstone) at sunset on our way back to the motel. Hit the sack early and set the alarm for 7:00 AM.

You can view the short photo gallery for today's trip by clicking here.