After we tore ourselves away from The Big Dune (which, honestly, was pretty boring...it doesn't look nearly as good in person as it does in my photo), we went to the Mojave National Preserve. That afternoon I got stuck in the sand whilst driving off the road to find a camping space. Not just a little stuck in the sand; stuck up to my rear axle in the sand. The whole back of the RV was sitting on the sand. If it had not been for a dear young man who spent an hour or so trying to pull me out of the sand without a tow strap (meanwhile breaking everything we tried to use instead), then drove 10 miles back to the freeway to see if there was anything we could use at the little store that was there, then rounded up another guy who had some tow chains and accompanied him back to my RV, I might still be in the Mojave National Preserve.

After that debacle, I was too terrified to drive off the road again even though it looked like a bunch of other people had already driven off the road before me, so we spent the night in Kelso on an abandoned basketball court. Kelso is ugly and depressing, consisting mostly of piles of railroad ties and miscellaneous, rusting junk.

The next day, though, we found a great camping spot and stayed there for a few days. It’s pretty much the only camping spot in the Mojave National Preserve, or at least the only one I dared to drive to.