| Started: | Barstow, California, 8:00am (Pacific time) |
| Reached: | Mountain View, California, 3:30pm (Pacific time) |
| Miles: | 427 (3744 cumulative) |
| Route: | California - Bakersfield, San Jose |
| Highways: | I15, C58, I5, I580, I680, I880 |
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Even at 8:00am, when we started, the morning was already warm. We wanted to get out of Mojave desert before noon to escape the heat. We left I15 and took CA58 to Bakersfield. There were lots of trucks even on this state highway. Soon after we left Barstow, we entered the Mojave desert. There is even a town named Mojave. Here we saw lots of windmills placed on a hillside. There must be a few hundred of them! Along the road there were "Rockslide" warnings. I had heard of mudslides, but rockslides was something new for me.
We went through a mountain pass at 4064 ft in the Sierra Nevada mountains. After this pass, the road went downhill all the way to sea-level. As we got out of the mountains, we were greeted by large fields on either sides of the road, with grove plantations in-between. These looked like orange groves.
From Bakersfield, we took I5, which is on the east side of the mountains. There are no towns along the road, and all we could see were huge farms. As we neared San Francisco, we again saw a lot of windmills. There were lots of gentle hills here, covered in small grass. After going through some heavy traffic near San Jose, we reached Mountain View, CA.
After eating out for seven straight days, it was really nice to enjoy some delicious homemade dinner, thanks to Ranjani, Srinivas's sister!