A well-deserved kick in the sac. Just deserts in the desert!
Something I've noticed about this story. They've been up and down the west coast, and gone reasonably far inland. Yet no matter where they go, the climate almost always looks like a desert. Arizona desert, specifically. You would get a variety of deserts from Southern Cal to Nevada to the Great Basin, but also some temperate forest and high mountains. I guess the author thought "Western! Westerns are in the desert!" and ran with it.