After an overnight stay in The Venetian, we spent the morning poolside then ate a hearty lunch at Grand Lux Cafe before hitting the road. With Heather B as our SiriusXM FLY DJ and OnStar AtYourService at our disposal, we smashed the drive from Vegas to LA like Tina Turner in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Determined to catch a desert sunset in the Mojave National Preserve, we drove through the Joshua Tree National Forest to the Kelso Dunes, where we once again took the vehicle off-road on a graded dirt road. Props to SiriusXM and OnStar for still working in the middle of nowhere, because Verizon Wireless left us high and dry with no cellular service. Catching that breathtaking desert sunset meant a 33-mile drive out of the Mojave National Preserve in the dark to get back to civilization. We made it back to I-15 and were on our merry way to Los Angeles.
We only had 12 hours in LA and used four of them for sleeping before getting in some last minute sightseeing. In a frenzied photo finish we hit Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica State Beach and Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood where we hung out of the sunroof like video vixens. Our last stop before LAX was at See’s Candies factory store on La Cienga Boulevard to get some chocolate treats for the trip back East.
Upon our arrival at LAX, we grudgingly handed over the keys to Quik Silva to the General Motors representative who was there to see us off. After making just one leg of the historic drive, we can’t imagine how the original sojourners stayed married after their cross country ride in their 1916 GMC truck sans air conditioning, paved roads, gas stations, cell phones, 4G LTE, SiriusXM, etc. Thank goodness times and technology have changed and the GMC 2017 Acadia All Terrain made our Path To Precision from LV to LA one enjoyable journey.
