Ok, so all the hotels filled up in mojave quite a while ago, so I'm thinking Barstow, its on the way, and its only an hour from there to Mojave. (Mojave is actually quite a bit farther west than I thought, its like an hour north of Pasadena, if the mountains weren't in the way.)

So I tried all the various web sites: hotel.com, lodging.com, travel.com, ... hotel.com lists a $38 rate for days inn, but wants to charge me $5 more for doing the reservation. lodging.com can't even find any rooms for days inn at first, but eventually finds a $49 rate (and this is the Lowest Price -- 110% Guaranteed ). Finally, I go straight to the Days Inn site. After wrestling with the search tool (it can't figure out the state from the city entry; and when I specified a check in date it didn't move the check out date to be after), I find there's a couple of choices: Barstow, Adelanto, and Hesperia. Hmmm, better go check the maps.

Ok, it looks like Adelanto is 30+ miles out of the way, and doesn't leave me any closer the next morning. Guess its lovely downtown Barstow for me.