Day 1

Local Sunset: 8:51 pm

Waning Crescent Moon

We are now in a different time zone, losing one hour this afternoon. After traveling 398 miles, we reached our destination for the day and night in St. George, Utah. With a high temperature of 99 degrees, playing in the pool was the only thing Julia and James wanted to do.

Driving through 4 states (CA,NV,AZ, & UT) in 5 1/2 hours was a first experience for our little ones. Before bed tonight, Julia and James each unfolded their road maps and used a highlighter to mark the roads we travelled today. Driving on the 15 through the Mohave, Julia and James asked, "Is that a cactus?" No, that is a Joshua Tree or Yucca. Shouldn't we see cactus driving through the desert? We didn't see any cacti, but we observed many a Joshua Tree.

After mapping our journey tonight, we used The Sibley Guide to Trees and A Natural History of North American Trees to learn more about the Joshua Tree or Yucca brevifolia. Julia and James drew their own Joshua Trees as their first entry in their road trip journal.

There are some who love it from the moment they first behold it, silhouetted, perhaps, against some desert sunset sky, with the snows of far-off peaks still flashing their signals, and the twilight filled with the last cry of the day birds -- the ash-throated flycatchers and plaintive Say pheobes
--while nighthawks sweep the skies with pointed wings and the burrowing owls begin to pipe from their holes in the sand. A Natural History of North American Trees, page 314.