Las Vegas to Visalia CA

As we left Las Vegas I realised we were going to go through the little town of Baker. This town, at the gateway to Death Valley, is significant for me as it is where our VW Kombi died in 1975, when I was travelling across the USA with Maurice and Vanessa was only 3 months old. We spent 2 weeks there and at that time, I think there was only one store, a motel (which we lived in and in which Vanessa had her first swim) and a service station. Now it has all kinds of fast food stores there, but it is still a small town, convenient for travellers to stop and eat or refuel, and it is the tie. At the entrance to Death Valley. It was quite strange seeing it again, albeit from a moving car.
There's not much to see out there in any direction.

Continued on through Barstow and on through Bakersfield to a little town called Visalia where we spent a very pleasant evening with some fellow campers and new friends around their campfire.