It may not be our beloved Black Rock City, but the Blackrock RV Village sure shares a similarity - desert. But, I think that this Blackrock may be in a kinder, gentler desert. So far, no dust, and very limited number of freaky people.

We made another Interstate-less (almost) run today from Twentynine Palms, CA, to Brenda, AZ. It was another great drive - we had the highway to ourselves most of the time. I figured the time difference wouldn't be much, since we are allowed only 55mph in California since we are towing the Jeep. If I'm going to do 55, it might as well be somewhere nice - devoid of 18-wheelers passing me every five minutes.

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Our landing spot today was the aforementioned Black Rock RV Village in Brenda, Arizona. What? Never heard of the bustling metropolis of Brenda? Yea, me either. It sits about 15 miles east of the winter RV mecca of Quartzsite, AZ. Quartzsite is a gathering area for all things RV in January and February each year. From the looks of the place, it appears that it attracts RVers this time of year as well. There is bountiful BLM land in the area, and is a hotspot for boondocking.

We found this little RV park on RVParkReviews.com - our typical first stop when looking for our next spot to extend the slides and lower the jacks. When we pulled into "town" (village?), Ang and I were a bit amazed that anything was out here. There was a little Country Store and a bunch of RV parks. Most of them looked like they housed more park models than RVs, but I am sure the RVs fill in during the winter months.

Back to the drive - it was killer. The picture above was pretty much the view out the big windshield from Twentynine Palms to Vidal (0-2 Vidal on the map above). We were blessed with fresh asphalt, which I am convinced was a gift from our friend Michelle who wished us smooth roads in a previous entry. Unfortunately, the cheap fuel is yet to be found...

From Vidal to Blythe, we ran next to the Colorado River for much of the leg. Once we entered I-10 in Blythe, we had maybe a mile or two of the constraining 55mph law. As soon as we crossed the river into Arizona, it was all about the 65, baby

Our drive ended up having about 35 miles of interstate freeway on this part of the trip. The little part of I-10 we were on was nice and smooth - not the typical California freeway. Since we are running a bit close on time to get out to Florida, I see a bit more interstate in our future. It sure would have been nice to leave Cali a bit earlier so that we could do more of the "non-blue road" route, but we will save that for another time.

We will be here probably another night, then off on our next leg. I have a couple of projects coming up due in the next couple of days, so we will hang here so I can bang out some code.

Speaking of internet connections, did I mention that I get Rev-A EVDO in Brenda, Arizona!!??!! That is geek code for "my Verizon air card kicks butt here".

--kev