American Southwest roadtrip – Los Angeles, California to Kingman, Arizona

In 2015, I spent a semester in Long Beach, California. My parents couldn’t visit at the time, so in 2019 we embarked on a parents-daughter roadtrip through the western USA. Long story short, things happened and we had to cut the trip short. So in September 2022, we tried again. This time, all went (for the most part) smoothly and we had a great time exploring the land of the free.

I had it all planned so well. We were scheduled to land in Los Angeles in early afternoon and since we already explored the area last time, we would get our car and start driving east, towards Palm Springs. However, the weather had different plans.

We all know of hurricanes in the East coast and would somehow expect them there in the early fall. What I definitely did not expect were hurricane-force winds in California on the day we were supposed to land. Checking the weather few days before the trip made me very uneasy, but I still expected it to change or at least it not really being that bad.

Septemer 9, 2022. My parents are flying from Slovakia, I am flying from Denmark. We meet at the airport in Vienna and board the plane towards Los Angeles. The flight passes rather fast and soon enough (after 11 hours, that is) we touch down in the city of angels. I check the weather app and sure enough, the wind is not as bad in the LA area, but reaches 120km/h out in the desert. I evaluate my driving skills, consult with the second driver (aka my dad) and we agree that it would be too much of a risk. On top of that, it’s Friday afternoon, so everyone is trying to leave LA, and what was supposed to be a 1,5h drive turns out to be 4 hours. Combine that with jet lag and the bad weather conditions and there you have it, we decide to stay around LA and start the roadtrip tomorrow.

Guess what happens if you find yourself stranded in LA on a Friday afternoon? There is no decent room under 300USD to be found. After a quick search, I find a hotel in Anaheim. So, in the la-friday-afternoon-traffic we go!

September 10, 2022. We are awake since 3AM, fighting the jet lag. We wait for the sun to rise and walk to the Disneyland entrance, trying to get a sneak-peek, but can’t see anything. After a nice morning walk and a hotel breakfast of questionable quality, we start the car and off we go, direction Kingman, Arizona!

The drive is very monotonous. We spend most of the day somewhere on I-40, which is full of trucks. Therefore, I don’t really get to enjoy the drive, instead I try to manoeuvre in between these fully-loaded giants. We take several breaks – it’s 40 degrees Celsius, scorching hot, and the ever-present signs of “beware, rattlesnakes” are making me anxious. My dad, who already is not a big fan of the States, is losing his faith in this beautiful country. Great accomplishment, considering it’s only our second day.

Finally, we reach Kingman. We see a bunch of Route 66 signs, history all over. But we are too jet lagged to go explore, so we leave that for the next day…