"The Mojave is a big desert and a frightening one. It's as though nature tested a man for endurance and constancy to prove whether he was good enough to get to California."
I miss the California desert. Here's a nice capture of California heat from Steinbeck's 1962 travelogue, "Travels with Charley," as he rolled through the Mojave.
Book Reference: "Travels with Charley: In Search of America" by John Steinbeck (1962)