We have left Yuma and Richard and Merrilie, who are headed to San Diego for the winter. We are on our way to Las Vegas for the weekend. As I write, we are driving through some of the most desolate terrain on planet earth. And as Tim keeps quoting from TinTin, "we are in the land of thirst!" The mountains appear very ancient and rugged, but the geological formations are fascinating. The land is barren, rocky, dry, and the mountains stand in stark contrast to our Canadian Rockies. They seem to have had much more time to errode. The road itself is long and straight and goes on as far as the eye can see. Needles, at 2:30 in the afternoon is 21 degrees in January which is also in stark contrast to 113 degrees in July at 2:30 in the morning when I was a teenager - back in the day before our vehicle had air conditioning! We are passing the long journey listening to wonderful music made especially by my Taylor School staff, and asking each other crazy, deep, and hilarious questions from a book called "150 Quick Questions to get your kids talking." (Like they don't talk enough!!!) But I am learning things. . .