After a couple of weeks of sleeping in, getting on the road before noon was difficult but necessary if I was going to make Mexico before dark. After saying goodbye to Norm and KD the race against the sunset southwest from Tempe was on. The road got more desolate further south, the terrain alternating between barren cacti fields and treeless mountains of rock. Halfway to Mexico I passed through the dunes outside Yuma. This is the largest area of dunes in America, a sea of sand with no vegetation miles in every direction and the location for the Desert Skiff battle scenes in Return of the Jedi, a real desert like the Sahara.