More from the West

A few more photos from my trip last week.

Here is a view of the Salton Sea (from my exit row aisle seat, there were no passengers between me and the window - exceptionally rare these days!).  I had seen it on the way in, and was ready in case I saw it again on the way out.

The story of this inland sea is very interesting - there is quite a bit of folk lore about it; here is the Wikipedia article if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_sea.  Basically, the current version of the sea was formed due to a combination of engineering accidents and wet weather in 1905, although the sea bed here is prehistoric.

Another of the interesting sites was this sign at the intersection of I-40 and I-15, just east of Barstow proper.  This is actually milepoint zero of I-40, and the sign indicates the distance to the terminal point of the highway.

After the experience of riding a short distance on nearby Route 66, my guess is that I-40 is the highway that forms part of the setting for the back story in the Pixar movie Cars.  You definitely get that feeling of moving with the land on that part of Route 66, while zooming by on Southern California freeways at speeds in excess of 80mph only gives you a sense that you are passing everything by.

The last photo for the day is from the little excursion I had to make down to Ontario on the third day of the trip - due to logistics, a couple of the team members flew out on Wednesday night.  After we got into town, we found a drive through In-and-Out - it was truly a drive through; there were only four outside tables and they were full.  So we ate using the hood of the car as our table.

If you are interested in some follow-up here, the chain made a cameo in The Big Lebowski...here's a clip.  Mind the f-bombs!

 http://youtu.be/L9xvmpRZcyw

Those are good burgers!