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Day 6

Today I left California. The bus gets really hot during the day and drives really slowly uphill. In the late afternoon, I passed the Colorado River. It was so blue and pretty, it took all my effort not to pull the bus over and dive in from the bridge! Well, on the advice of the local gas station attendant, I took the Route 66 detour around the mountains. It was a pretty boring trip. There was very little traffic, very little of anything. Finally, it was starting to get dark and I still hadn't reached the I40 interchange. I was starting to get a little worried. The sun set, and I seemed to be the only vehicle on the road. Then, up in the distance, I saw lightning.

The horizon lit up with electricity. I was heading straight for it. I never heard the accompanying crash of thunder, so I knew it was far off, but the entire sky bloomed with lightning, making me very nervous that maybe I didn't know as much about lightning as I thought. I drove along for another hour, still looking for a hotel, any hotel. Finally, I spotted a sign saying there was lodging a few miles up the road. I sped along at my top speed of 55 miles an hour. Suddenly, the white lightning was not the only color on the horizon. In my rear view mirror, red and blue lights flashed. I was being pulled over! I knew I wasn't speeding, so I wasn't too worried. The officer approached the bus and asked if I knew I didn't have any lights in the back. Of course, I said I did have lights, at least, they were working yesterday. He took my license and went back to his car. He came back and said he was issuing a warning, that I can't drive without any lights. I said, "Of course! I will pull over right away. I was just looking for a place for the night anyway." He said it wasn't a ticket and I was under no obligation to do anything else except pull over as soon as possible to get the lights fixed.

By this point, I was extremely anxious for a swim, a shower, anything to do with water. So I succumbed to the temptation and rented a hotel room again, at the first hotel I could find. It was a cute room, and pretty inexpensive too. I got my wonderful shower, but there was no phone in the room. I had to spend the evening outside the hotel lobby on the payphone. Oh well, for $22 a night, I can't complain too much.

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