NUVI 1450LMT Strange (dangerous?) routing

I recently made a trip from Rincon, CA USA to Laughlin, NV using my Garmin and I'm thinking it routed me in a very strange way. It's been probably 15 or 20 years since I made that trip last so I wasn't very familiar with the area. I had the Nuvi set to avoid traffic but had it also set for the fastest route. It took me over to I-15 with no problem and then north on the 15 to the 215. After that I think things got strange. It shortly routed me off I-215 and into Hemet, CA. (I seemed to remember back years ago there was a detour off the 215 because the road wasn't finished so I didn't argue with Garmin.) Anyhow, it took me right through Hemet, to the Ramona Expressway, and then up highway 79 to I-10. East on the 10 to highway 62 then north through Joshua Tree to 29 Palms. From there up the N Amboy Rd to Amboy and then east on the old National Trails Highway until it got on I40 past Essex. East on the 40 until Needles Highway and then north on that up to Laughlin. To this day, I can't figure out why Garmin routed me off I215 unless it was because of traffic up by the Cajon or by Barstow. Seems to me that the 15 to the 40 would have been much faster routing even with traffic. The real reason I'm concerned is, even though the routing never tried to take me off paved roads, the weather out through the desert caused me some concern. I know enough not to drive into a sandstorm but the wind and blowing sand from 29 Palms to Amboy was getting close to sandstorm conditions and that's some pretty desolate country. I've had other issues with the Garmin lately, especially concerning lane usage through major cities so I'm thinking seriously about trying a different brand of GPS.