Road Trip SFO -> SAT: Day Two (PSP>LRU)

Palm Springs, CA to Las Cruces, NM

We got going later than we’d planned on Day Two (as we are wont to do…), heading to ACE Hotel’s Kings Highway for breakfast around 9:30. It was already over 100 degrees, but we weren’t out in the heat for long. We ordered, and the waiter stopped me to tell me he thought my hair color was cool. Made my day. Oh, have I mentioned that I got cotton candy pink highlights last week? Well, I did, and it turned out awesome. My indie cred has now been independently confirmed by hip boutique hotel waitstaff.

Me at Kings Highway for breakfast (with pink hair!)

JR at Kings Highway for breakfast

I ordered the chilaquiles, and JR ordered granola and yogurt. My chilaquiles looked delicious, but after maybe five bites, I didn’t want any more. JR wasn’t surprised, and he shared his theory on the topic: I like each bite of something to be counter-balanced with something else; an entire meal of just one thing is too much for me. (If I run out of fried rice – with peas – before I finish my General Tso’s chicken, I either need to get a little more rice, or not finish the chicken. It’s just how I am. Luckily he loves me despite the fact that I’m crazy.) :)

We got on the road a little after 10:30am and headed for Las Cruces. At the hottest point of the drive the outside temp reached 118. We passed lots of hot desert, eventually seeing thunderstorms gathering on the horizon near Tucson, and lightning occasionally flashing against the darkened skies. The skies opened, and I could smell the rain turning to steam on the asphalt, turning it slick and black.

Thundercloud and rain over I-10

After that, the desert was surprisingly green. We’ve made this road trip so many times, and we’ve never seen so much vegetation. All the green made a great backdrop for huge red-tinted boulders. We passed miles of shallow marshes reflecting the blue sky, peppered with blooming yucca. It seemed like every time I’d try to take a photo from the speeding vehicle, I’d look at the result and it would be a huge blurry yucca in front of a beautiful view. As the sun dropped towards the horizon, the valley turned a brilliant golden orange, glinting off the trains lumbering by occasionally.

Boulders, desert, sky

Mountain of boulders along I-10

Green desert

Desert sky reflected in the side mirror

Burned out shell of a car. Yes, I checked in here on Foursquare! ;P

The trains shone in the light of the desert sunset

We pulled into Las Cruces, New Mexico a little before 9:00pm, and went straight to Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces. It had been a long day of driving; we were ready for a good meal and some tasty beverages. We dined at Cafe Espana in the hotel; their Blue Corn Fried Calamari with spicy aioli was so good that it was hard not to order another plate as soon as we had a bite! They were so delicious that we didn’t even get a photo of them! The waitstaff was so friendly, telling us the history of the hotel, and letting us know that the Hatch Chile Festival was going on the next day, not very far away. We retired to our room with visions of chiles dancing in our heads…

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