End of the Road, 2016

Since I last posted from Adelanto, California, Donna and I have enjoyed a four-day weekend with my Mom and Sister, and have managed to find our way into NorCal, and home for the Holidays.

Mom/Sis are well, although Mom suffered from a short bout with vertigo. We worked around that, with Mom staying down and quiet for a day or so, but up and about on our last day with them. Donna usually fixes dinners and sometimes lunch for the four of us, so we were able to eat and enjoy each others company a lot! My sister has acquired a tabby cat, or perhaps it's the other way around, and it was a hoot watching Sasha and Felix stare at each other through the sliding glass door! I don't think that Felix has much fondness for dogs, and has learned to instantly go into an "inflate-a-cat" pose. Kinda reminiscent of Halloween, with back arched, tail at attention, and eyes big and round! They did find common ground near the end of the weekend, as long as there was a barrier between them!

We drove north through the Great Central Valley of California, once the primary source of vegetables for the entire United States. Now, it seems, most produce is grown out of the country and the central valley has suffered. Where once were vast fertile fields, dust drifts lazily across the road. Fields are being planted in fruit trees because they require less water. The historic water allotments, many dating back to Mexican Ranchos, have been decimated and the water diverted to Southern California, where ever growing cities cry for water like baby birds in a nest.

As we drove north on the last leg of our long journey, we reflected on the places we've seen and the people we've met. Big Bend National Park in Texas with it's vast emptiness, huge petroleum refineries in Houston and Galveston, plantation estates in Louisiana, incredible sunsets in the Florida Keys, magnificent mansions in St Augustine, Savannah, and Charleston. History by the bucket full, particularly Civil War era, was difficult to avoid, and we soaked it up as much as possible! Even on our journey home through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, a route we've traveled in the past, continues to provide new inspiration for the open road.

Our country is beautiful, with a diverse landscape, but more than that, the people in our fine nation are our strength. We renewed friendships along the way with Ted and Phyllis in Tucson,  Jan and Richard in North Carolina, and Dale and Lisa from Michigan who were "just passing" through Chattanooga, Tennessee!

New friends were made in Tucson, where Bill and Susan provided us with much information gathered from their years of full time traveling, and in Big Bend, with Dan and Ann becoming traveling companions off and on until our paths split in Florida. In Savannah and Charleston, we were beguiled by a Boston Terrier named Spud and his family, Jim and Linda. We spent several days with them and enjoyed a lot of fresh watermelon from the home of the Watermelon Festival, Hampton County, South Carolina! On the Space Coast of Florida, we met Larry and Debra and their owner, Max, a Pug of just about Sasha's size! Max and Sasha became fast friends, as did we with Larry and Debra. They helped us out in a time of need, and we shall not soon forget their generosity. We enjoyed a lot of conversation with Frank and Lourdes in Gaffney, South Carolina, where we were both have service work performed on our motorhomes. Free camping was offered in the back lot of the facility, so we stretched our visit to a week!

In Oklahoma, Donna rekindled her friendship with a second cousin, Barbara, who is battling a rare and severe health issue. Barbara is doing so with good grace, a positive attitude, and the unfailing help of her daughter Kanda, and her son, Scott. We're keeping her in our thoughts and prayers.

So, after 10,422 miles, 1,170 gallons of fuel, and nine months and one day, we have circled back home with uncountable memories. Worth every penny!

We are prepping for our annual desert dune buggy trip, and thinking about the holidays. We're taking a short trip to Arizona after the first of the year, but must be home for our second Granddaughter's high school graduation! And, whenever we have a moment, we think...just a little...about next years' trip!

It's a Destination, But....

Leaving Laughlin this morning, we pulled into Adelanto RV Park four hours and 207 miles later. You know Adelanto don't you?

We decided to drive out of Laughlin on the Needles Highway, which drifts into California just 15 minutes or so south of Casino Dr., and picked up I-40 just west of the town of Needles, CA. Crossing over Old Man Wash and skipping past Peggy Sue's Diner, we cruised through Ludlow and Newberry Springs and into Barstow, California, where I-40 blends into I-15, the main highway between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas. A very busy, and very important, highway!

Construction in the town of Victorville prevented us from taking the preferred route to the rv park, so Donna quickly got on the iPad and mapped out a circuitous route around town, but one which put us exactly where we needed to be! Thanks, modern technology!

Adelanto, in case you were wondering, is located 16 miles west of Apple Valley and 37 miles east of Pearblossom. No comprende? Ok, it's 76 miles south of Cantil. Now you know where Adelanto is, which is more than 99% of the population of the US can say! Adelanto RV Park is a small, older park, but is perfectly adequate for an overnight stay. The sites are gravel, but the roads are paved, and it is very clean. Roughly 80% of the sites are occupied by long term tenants, but it is quiet, yet near Highway 395, which is a major north-south route through the eastern side of California. We were instructed by the office staff as we checked in to "go down the road and turn in between sites 29 and 30. Go all the way through and you'll be in your site 46". Well, that's just what we did, but the space between 29 and 30 was where 29 parked their car!. Fortunately they were gone, so we squeaked between two rv's, and drove through into our assigned spot after moving  29's chairs and door mat so we wouldn't run over them!

Tomorrow we'll arrive in SoCal to enjoy a visit with my Mom and Sister. I probably won't post for a few days, but will catch up in a few.

Lazy in Laughlin

We've been in Laughlin, Nevada, for a week. We'll be leaving tomorrow for SoCal and are approaching the end of our '16 journey. Not much has been accomplished this past week; we've just been relaxing and enjoying the Colorado River area in southern Nevada.

Laughlin is the skinny little sister of Las Vegas. The casinos are much smaller, the lights not as bright, and the decorations not as impressive. We've managed to sample a variety of food items at them, because we still remember when casinos used inexpensive food as a gimmick to get customers inside, and we thought that we would get good food at a reduced price. Well.....not so much. We did score some tickets for a free breakfast buffet one morning, and it was good if not outstanding. In two of the casinos that we visited for lunch, the buffet was closed, and we had to settle for lunch in a small, out of the way restaurant near the parking garages. At the Colorado Belle, the restaurant was decorated to appear to be part of the engine room of a paddlewheel steamer. Not very enticing, and the burgers (the only choices) were ill-prepared. Yesterday we went to the Tropicana and found a similar situation. The small restaurant in this case was supposed to be a station on the Santa Fe Railroad line. Ho-Hum. The service was slow, the food abominable, and the prices way to high.
Rant. Rant. Rant.  Today we'll try Harrah's for lunch, but we have a backup Italian place if that doesn't work out!

We've been keeping moderately busy washing the motorhome and the car, grocery shopping, taking Sasha to the dog park, and cruising through casinos. Not too awfully busy, but we've managed to catch up on a bit of computer work as well as reading. It's been a nice, slow week.

From the off-leash dog park in Bullhead City, the evening view of the Colorado is peaceful and quiet. We'll miss the warm, quiet evenings here. Last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the wind blew at 20 mph, so we didn't get outside much for walks, but the weather on !Sunday and Monday has been absolutely perfect! With some preparation this evening, we'll soon be on the road into California to visit my sister and 96-year-old Mother. Looking forward to it. Then home after all these months of traveling!

Stars, Stripes, and $100 Bills

Our last day in Flagstaff was devoted to learning about the sky above us at the Lowell Observatory Campus. Selected as a perfect observation site by Percival Lowell in 1894, and built to indulge his passion for astronomy, Lowell Observatory is primarily an educational facility used for research by students working on their Doctorates in Astronomy.

Percival was the beneficiary of a family who became wealthy during the Industrial Revolution, and had the resources to pursue astronomy. He traveled the world searching for a good observation site, even as far away as Chile, but Flagstaff won out due to it's clear night skies, low light pollution (at least in 1894), and closeness to a railroad for easy transportation of supplies.

Our first stop of the visit to Lowell was in the courtyard behind the Welcome Center to view the sun through a hydrogen filter telescope.

We were able to see sunspots and solar flares in a safe manner. Very interesting!

Percival Lowell's car, "Big Red", was manufactured by the Stevens-Duryea company of Massachusetts, and delivered to Flagstaff in 1911. It has been completely restored and is often driven in local parades.

We were able to tour the Alvan Clark & Sons telescope, built in 1896 and shipped from Boston by rail. A local bicycle shop was commissioned to construct the building housing the telescope, and they managed to include several unique items it it's construction.

Our guide, Kevin, explained the intricacies of the telescope, which proved to be overwhelming to us tourists, but very interesting nevertheless.

The moveable dome is constructed entirely of wood, and remains much as it was when completed in 1896. A recent renovation of the telescope did not address the dome and it's mechanisms.

After a series of experimental methods to easily and safely rotate the dome, one of which involved a trough of water with the dome floating in it, the solution became obvious in the 1950's when a large supply of 1950 Ford wheels and tires were donated. With appropriate axles and bearings, and four electric drive motors, the dome today moves like a noisy clock. Amazingly, the wheels, tires, and hubcaps are all original! Kevin told us that periodically one will unexpectedly pop and have to be replaced with a tire built as close as possible to the original!

We toured the Pluto Dome, where Clyde Tombaugh used a 13" telescope to discover Pluto in 1930. A visit to the Museum Open House got us into a discussion of past and present research of the observatory, as well as an overview of the Solar System, Stars, and Galaxies. A bit overwhelmed, we left in the late afternoon to return to the motorhome and give Sasha a bit of attention. Part of the break involved a delicious lunch at MartAnne's for Breakfast. They've recently added dinner to the menu, so we indulged in a Chipotle Chicken Dinner and the daily special, which was a cheese enchilada with an egg over, and a cup of posole. Absolutely outstanding! This restaurant is located on historic Route 66, in an old repurposed building, and so has a lot of character. This is a great place to stop if you're in the area.

We returned to Lowell Observatory after dark, which was about 7:30 pm. The public is invited to view celestial bodies through the various telescopes that are open. We started with a portable 16" telescope set up to view the moon. We got a pretty good shot through the eyepiece of the telescope!

The 24" Clark Telescope was focused on Antares, and allowed us to see the various colors of the star, some 470 light years away. The McAllister Telescope was focused on the Ring Nebula, formed when gas is expelled into space by a red giant star which was passing through the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf star. 2300 light years from earth, it appears as a rainbow colored ring with a dark center, consistent with it's expanding nature. No photos here!

Our last stop of the evening was at another 16" portable telescope set up to view the Owl Cluster. Also known as the Dragonfly Cluster. The collection of stars has the appearance of both of these earthly creatures. at 7,900 years away from our sun, and with an age of 21 million years, the cluster is in the constellation Cassiopeia. Fascinating, but no photos again, doggone it!

In an isolated corner of the campus we had a great view of the Milky Way, which appeared as a great white stripe across the sky.

On Wednesday, we gathered up our toys and departed Flagstaff for Laughlin, Nevada, 189 miles west. The weather in Flagstaff, at over 7,000 feet, was a little to windy and cold for our tastes (65 day/31 night), so we wanted to warm up a bit in a place where the daytime temp is in the high 80's this time of year, and the nights are a balmy 75!

Laughlin is a casino town, built with $100 bills, and located along the Colorado River, about 35 miles northwest of Kingman, Arizona. There's not a great deal to do here if you don't gamble, but the Riverside Casino has a 700+ site RV park, and is running a $140 a week special, so here we are!

We're established on the upper of three tiers of rv sites, with a great view of downtown.

The night is alive with Las Vegas style lights.

We had lunch today at the Riverside Casino Buffet in a room that overlooked the river. There was a bit of a breeze blowing, so the water appeared to be moving at breakneck speed!

The temp was warm, so we had fun watching the watercraft on the river!

Nessie has been infested with Gremlins recently, and today we enjoyed their handiwork in large measure. If you recall, back in late July, the washing machine quit working after an electrical issue at a park. After awhile, a casual reboot got it working again! Hooray! Well, today, it quit again, but with different symptoms. Boo!  Our water heater went wacky late last night leaving D in a shower with cold water. Not good! Neither the electrical or the diesel fired heating elements worked. Ok. Then a few minutes later, everything began to work fine.....hmmmm. This morning when we got up, an overhead light was on....one that we specifically turn off when we go to bed.....The television had begun to sporadically loose it's signal....You see how this is going. So after phone calls to the motorhome manufacturer, the water heater company, and after posting questions on the internet, we were no closer to a solution than before, so we're hoping to at least name our gremlin friends, so that we can invite them for dinner....

Happy Birthday, Dad. It would have been 99 today!

Red Rocks, Pink Jeeps, and Shiny Metal

During last night the wind picked up ahead of a cold front moving through. The local late news measured over 20 mph with higher gusts, and we definitely felt it as the motorhome rocked and rolled all night long. When we got up this morning, the wind was still blowing a gale so we changed our schedule a bit and chose to take a drive south to Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona.

Oak Creek Canyon is a spectacular red rock canyon dotted with resorts, hotels, and campgrounds. The road, US 89, is a twisting, slow highway with moderate traffic and a minimum of turnouts for photo taking!

Now and again, we saw signs that Winter is just around the corner.

We met an off-road bicyclist just before we got to Sedona at one of the few trailhead parking lots. He told us that he and some buddies left Sedona this morning after breakfast and rode up the backside of the formation on the left in the photo below, then across the ridges to the right and back to the parking lot. "Just a short 14 mile ride this morning" he said!

 Sedona is a town set in one of the most beautiful areas of the southwest. Everywhere you look, the backdrop hits you like a hammer. It's hard to concentrate on the T-Shirts, jewelry, and food!

As we sat on the patio of The Outlaw having lunch, we noticed that the famous Sedona Pink Jeeps were keeping busy. We chatted with a couple from the UK who had just finished a ride with "The Pink", and had a few bruises to prove it! These tours are guided by experienced drivers and visit some of the vortex areas as well as traversing some very challenging rocks and lifts!

We decided to leave Sedona to the south, hoping to pick up I-17 out of Phoenix for the return trip to Flagstaff. A wrong turn, and an overturned truck led us to Cottonwood, Arizona. We remember Cottonwood from years ago as a sleepy little village at a bend in the road. Not any more! A series of roundabouts on US 89 south confused Confucius and we soon found ourselves in Jerome, Arizona.

Built literally on the side of a steep hill, Jerome was founded on the discovery of Copper. Billions of dollars worth of the shiny metal have been extracted from the hills, and the mines have recently reopened as the prices increase. The original buildings in town have been maintained and refurbished, and now house a thriving artists colony.

It's difficult to see, but this photo just about includes all of Jerome!

Finally getting our bearings, we retreated to Cottonwood and then east to I-17, and north to home. It's turned out to be a pleasant 152 mile day trip, with great scenery, good food, and comfortable conversation!

Nostalgia Tour Continues

Today, Sunday the 2nd, we left Holbrook, continuing our westward journey. Our destination was Flagstaff, only ninety miles away. We're set up in JnH RV Park on US 89A just north of downtown Flagstaff at an elevation of over 7,000'. This park is has a four star rating, and rightly deserves it. The park is located at the base of a mountain, with long, level sites, and full hookups. The wifi is among the best we've experienced this year, and is allowing us to catch up with some computer work.

We arrived just after 12, and had time to slip into town to renew our acquaintance with the city of over 70,000 residents. Named for a Ponderosa Pine pole that celebrated the first centennial of the US in 1876, it is located at 7,000 ft elevation and is adjacent to the largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the contiguous United States. The city is home to Lowell Observatory and Northern Arizona University, and is a major tourism center, being adjacent to the Grand Canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, and Route 66.

Our first stop in town was at the Museum of Northern Arizona, where our daughter completed a senior project while in college in the area. We haven't visited for some 20 years, so we expected some changes to her school project, but had forgotten the beauty of the outdoor exhibits. The museum displays both cultural and geological exhibits as well as the nature trail telling of the native flora and fauna that our daughter worked on.

We had another stop to make this afternoon: Macy's European Coffee House Bakery and Vegetarian Restaurante. Quite a mouthful of a name, but delicious coffee drinks. A couple of hot mocha's, served in mugs and enjoyed on the patio, made our afternoon perfect!

We'll be in Flagstaff for a few days. We'll let you know what kind of trouble we get into!

Painted and Petrified

We stayed another day in Holbrook, Arizona, due to it's proximity to the Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert area in the park. We left Holbrook on US 180, heading south toward St. Johns. About 30 miles later, we turned north into the Park, and immediately entered a surreal landscape taking us back 225 million years, as heralded by this 2' tall Raven that greeted us at the Entrance Station.

Sasha went along for the ride today, and had hopes of a couple of walks along the way!

The Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitors Center has wondrous displays of dinosaur fossils that have been found in the park, as well as providing a trail through a series of giant petrified logs.

The landscape is littered with the remnants of trees from millions of years ago.

Millions of years ago, this area was a sub-tropical plain crisscrossed with multiple rivers. The climate approximated that of present day Costa Rica, with thousands of dinosaurs competing in and out of the water for plants and small animals. Heavily forested with huge grass stalks that reached hundreds of feet into the air and tropical trees of all kinds. As the trees died and fell, they were immediately covered with mineral rich composite soils, as seen in this photo.

As the centuries passed, the minerals gradually replaced the cellular structure of the plants, since there was an absence of oxygen and microbes that would have allowed total decay.

This petrified tree root is just about as tall as Donna!

Many of these trees are huge!

As we left the south entrance, we entered a variety of desert landscapes and badlands.

At Cristal Forest Trail, the path leads through hundreds of petrified trees and fragments.

This "Long Log" is over 100 feet long! It's the remnant of a large stalk of grass related to our present day Horsetail Grass.

At times the distant vistas competed for our attention with the petrified wood!

As the logs crystalized, and were undermined by water and soil movement, they broke into fairly regular segments, exposing their inner beauty.

Again with the distant views!

This photo of a petrified log was taken in 2005. In 2007, a ranger passing on his rounds noticed something different in the landscape.

He soon realized that Mother Nature and her minions, water and wind, had once again irrevocably changed the landscape.

This views in the park are breathtaking.

A distant storm, the last of the official Monsoon Season, had dumped enough rain to cause the desert washes to run fast for a short time. It has always amazed me that such a large amount of porous sand could have so much water run off!

A formation called The Tepees shows how different layers of sediment were laid down over millions of years.

Newspaper Rock, near the Puerto River, is so called because of the 650 plus or minus different petroglyphs etched into the rocks here. Possibly used as depictions of daily life or of migration directions, the drawings remain for the most part, a mystery.

The storm clouds were gathering as we approached the northern part of Petrified Forest National Park.

Just a few hundred yards north of I-40, a major east-west artery, the remains of the famous Route 66 highway can be still picked out of the scrub brush. This '32 Studebaker seems still to be trying to get it's family to the promised land in the west.

Entering the Painted Desert Wilderness Area, we saw first hand why the name was chosen. At about 227 million years ago, during the late Triassic Period, layers of sandstone were laid down. As North America and South America slowly drifted apart over the next 180 million years, the sandstone and mudstone was subjected to uplift, burial, and erosion to create the beautiful formations we see today.

A lonely hawk floated in the air currents over the ravines and canyons looking for a meal.

The Painted Desert Inn National Historic Landmark was built of petrified wood and other native stone prior to 1920 by Herbert David Lore, and was registered with the land office in 1924, fulfilling responsibilities under the Homesteading Act. For twelve years, Lore operated the Inn, named the "Stone Tree House" as a tourist attraction, renting rooms for two to four dollars a night. Unfortunately, the building had been built on a seam of clay that expanded and contracted in response to moisture, resulting in cracks in the walls and water damage. The solution? A stroke of genius, really, because Lore sold the building and four sections of land to the National Park Service for $59,400! The CCC refurbished the structure in the '30's, and the Inn reopened in 1940, suppling Route 66 travelers with meals, souvenirs, and lodging. The Inn closed in 1942 due to World War II restrictions, but reopened again in the late '40's under the Fred Harvey banner. Harvey had connections with the Santa Fe Railroad, and provided rail travelers with accommodations that were know for comfort and quality. Harvey's hotels were also known for the Harvey Girls, who were recruited from the East and Midwest to serve customers. The girls had to be of good moral character, have an eighth grade education, display good manners, and be neat and articulate. Their contract stipulated that they could not marry and must abide by all company rules during their employment. They were given a train ticket to their destination, a uniform, wages, and room and board. Harvey Girls have become an American legend, and the Harvey Girls of the Painted Desert Inn still have local ties.

The Inn is now open as an Historic Landmark, as a perfect example of Pueblo Revival Style architecture.

The view from the hotel veranda is spectacular.

A perfect day trip through beautiful country!