California root around.. (20 days in the sun)day spectacular?

[RoadTripper James Matthew]

Hi guys,
Been lurking here for a few weeks getting some great tips for our upcoming roadtrip in the US. (First one!) Me and my wife are spending 20 days in sunny California and we can not pass up Las Vegas. Have used the online map applications alot and I`m getting some widespread results. Have our 20 day route pretty much planned out, but i would like som feedback on the following day:

Escondido - I15 N - CA79 S - CA371 E - CA74 E (Pines to Palms Hwy)
Palm Springs
Joshua Tree
Twentynine Palms
Amboy
Ludlow
Las Vegas

AAA TripTik says 6h 39m and Google Maps says 7h 40m..
Are we nuts to think that this can be done in a day?
We are leaving Escondido early on a monday morning. (if that matters)
Any help, tips or warnings of holiday insanity is very welcome.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I haven't driven the route from end to end, but I would say that it is possible to do in a day, but certainly not in 6 to 7 hours. If you are happy to do a 10 to 12 hour day [presuming you will want some time from the car] then it should be a fun day out. If you are running short of time on the day you could skip Ludlow and just continue through the Mojave NP. There is a visitor centre and place to eat in the Kelso depot , a renovated rail building.

[glc]

I have driven from Las Vegas to San Diego via Mojave NP, Amboy, 29 Palms, Joshua Tree, Anza Borrego, and Julian in 1 day - it took me about 8 hours and I made very minimal stops.

Your plans are very reasonable if you just want to drive through those places with minimal stops.

[RoadTripper James Matthew]

Thanks for the welcome, Dave. And thanks for the tip on Kelso.
Good to hear that the day is doable. It`s the longest day we have planned in the car, so i guess the other days planned are safe. We were thinking of a small detour somewhere near Joshua Tree, see Roy`s in Amboy, maybe Bagdad Cafe after Ludlow on the way to Vegas. The hardest thing about planning a California/Nevada roadtrip is to prioritize without having been there before..

[Southwest Dave]

Thanks for the welcome, Dave. And thanks for the tip on Kelso.

You're welcome.

It`s the longest day we have planned in the car, so i guess the other days planned are safe.

If you want any help/tips with the rest of your trip let us know and put your itinerary up. Some days may be less miles than others, but some may be on slow going mountain roads that eat up the time and not the miles.

[RoadTripper James Matthew]

Dave,
I would sincerely like to thank you for your help here.
Unfortunately your fellow moderators do not seem to understand proper nettiquette, which i why threre are posts missing and the thread title does not make any sence.

So since posting in the correct forum, tagging posts, being polite and courteous gets me nothing, i have asked that this thread and my account be deleted.

[Lifemagician]

I think that is being a little rough on our hard working moderators who, I might stress, are all volunteers. It really is not a question of nettiquette... it is a policy of this forum. A policy developed by those same moderators over many years of experience, learning what works best. The internet, like a road trip, is not a 'one size fits all'.

Lifey

[Southwest Dave]

Dave,
I would sincerely like to thank you for your help here.
Unfortunately your fellow moderators do not seem to understand proper nettiquette, which i why threre are posts missing and the thread title does not make any sence.

I really don't think you have thought this through. We have a 'One trip, one thread' policy here and all a moderator has done was merge your questions into the same thread and politely asked that you keep all the questions here, which is exactly what the first moderator to the thread would have done, including myself. As I understand it you then started to delete posts and claim that nothing made any sense. Using proper "Nettiquette," [as you call it] would it not have been better just to ask why your thread has been merged, or read the rules of the forum, or simply have asked a Mod to change the title?

I am not sure why you think you should be any different from the other 94,000 members that currently frequent the forums, but the very people you are insulting, are the ones who willingly give up their valuable time to help people like yourself get the best from your trip.

In case you are still wondering why we have a one trip, one thread rule, it is because it makes it easier for everyone to follow the development of the trip and to use that info for their own planning purposes. It is not unusual for a trip to take on a whole different direction than in the original plan, but watching that unfold is all part of the process. With so many members and so few regular contributors giving up their time, if we did not have this rule the forums would be overrun with threads asking for minor details and it would be impossible to follow or manage.