Busting out of town

I'm thinking of busting out of IAH for a few days. I need a getaway. My intermediate thought right now is to fly into PALM SPRINGS, CA and rent a car, drive up to 29 Palms and hang out for a day maybe a night, go over to Joshua Tree Natonal Monument, and check out some things in town, then maybe take a ride to the Marine Corps base to see how much that place has changed, remenice a little of the old days. Show my wife a window in my past. (Hope she don't freak on that one.) I want to see the Marines march the way I used to with the California desert mountainous back drop, windy and cold weather about this time of year. I've got this driving urge to do this, and then drive on to LAS VEGAS and finish out my scenic tour. I've gotta be the only person in the world renting a car to see a Marine Corps base over the Grand Canyon eh?

it's not a bad drive. The "Santa Ana wind will get you going through Yucaipa then onto Apple Valley to the I-15. To keep "bosslady" happy, stop at the Lenwood outlets, get her a nice pair of Prada gloves and keep it moving...lol

Have you made that run from 29 Palms to Vegas? I see the map has various routes, and the most direct route on the map, shows NON major highways, more like small country roads and changing roads on a few occassions. I suppose I could GPS it, probably route me the most economical way to get there. I see one possiblility is routing via Bullhead city and southern Nevada on up to Vegas.

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Originally Posted by ddagencylv

it's not a bad drive. The "Santa Ana wind will get you going through Yucaipa then onto Apple Valley to the I-15. To keep "bosslady" happy, stop at the Lenwood outlets, get her a nice pair of Prada gloves and keep it moving...lol

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That area you mention is kind of due west from Palm Springs and in a way, a different direction to where I want to go. From Palm Springs, I head on a loop that takes you to Yucca Valley, and on up to the stumps. From the stumps, you go to Vegas cutting through the Mojave National Preserve.

Palms , if you're looking at doing some desert sightseeing/hiking, you might want to try this route.
California's Outback Highway: 2 Lanes, 200 Miles, 3 National Parks | Guides | SoCal Wanderer | KCET

Edited to add

Don’t stop at the outlets on the road, take the wife to the outlets in North Vegas, Las Vegas Premium Outlets - North
while she’s shopping you’re at a sports bar- for hours . :cool:

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Originally Posted by Migflanker

Palms , if you're looking at doing some desert sightseeing/hiking, you might want to try this route.
California's Outback Highway: 2 Lanes, 200 Miles, 3 National Parks | Guides | SoCal Wanderer | KCET

Edited to add

Don’t stop at the outlets on the road, take the wife to the outlets in North Vegas, Las Vegas Premium Outlets - North
while she’s shopping you’re at a sports bar- for hours . :cool:

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Good point. Not really North Vegas, that's downtown ( I have a home 5 miles from there).

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Originally Posted by 29palms

That area you mention is kind of due west from Palm Springs and in a way, a different direction to where I want to go. From Palm Springs, I head on a loop that takes you to Yucca Valley, and on up to the stumps. From the stumps, you go to Vegas cutting through the Mojave National Preserve.

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That's what I meant, Yucca not Yucaipa.

I was checking out the map of the Mojave National Preserve. Looks quite scenic and looking way foward to that. By the way DDAGENCYLV. Looks like my Ravens are out and so are your Steelers. I thought Pitt had it during that missed field goal with 8 seconds left. That left Pittsburgh fans with a heart attack. Tough loss to almost getting into the playoffs. I can't believe Baltimore got blown away by Cincy, but I suppose Baltimore was the paper tiger in all of this. If you cant win in December, you aint gettin in.

Migflanker, thanks for those tips. I am tempted to route to a few areas in the preserve enroute to Vegas but it all looks fine and dandy on a map, but some of those areas of the Mojave National Preserve are up there in elevation. You could literally spend all day long in the park. If there is something not too far off the beaten path, that would be all right. Only reason for my wanting to go by there would be that it seems to be the shortest route to Vegas from the stumps. But not really the only reason. The idea of going through a preserve out in the desert does interest me. I notice that in the map, the people on forums travel type mention going to Amboy, up to Cima and then on up to Vegas. So much to want to do but really not the time. Gotta get the Vegas at the end of the trip, that's the icing on the cake.