RECAP

Miles Traveled: 9735.  Gallons of gas used: 314.5.  Average MPG: 30.9

Days on the road: 41. Average miles/day traveled: 335
Nights in campgrounds: 8. Nights with friends/family: 16. Nights in Motel: 16
Highest price paid for gas: 3.84 (Lake Elsinore, CA).  Highest gas price seen: 4.29 (No. of Winnemucca)
Lowest price paid for gas: 3.22 (Yukon, OK). Lowest gas price seen: 3.09 (Las Cruces, NM)
Last seen Idaho License plate before Nevada was in North Dakota @ Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Parks Visited: Theodore Roosevelt, Apostle Islands, Adirondack State Park, Gettysburg, Shenandoah, Smokey Mtn., Hot Springs, Mt. Magazine, Big Bend, Yosemite
Best freeways: Oklahoma
Most scenic drive: Blue Ridge Parkway
Most unexpected beautiful place: Big Bend National Park
Place I want to return to and explore: Apostle Islands National Seashore
Best Fall Colors: Upper Peninsula in Michigan
Best roadside rests: Alabama
Most sobering attraction:  Gettysburg
Most unexpectedly interesting museum: National Portrait Gallery
Highest Point: Tioga Pass, CA @ 9945 feet.  Lowest Point: minus 20 feet below sea level near El Centro
Only License plate NOT seen: Hawaii
Best park Lodge: Mt. Magazine, AR

Some Differences between east and west

Rapid Transit in the east: crowded subways.  Rapid transit in the west: crowded freeways
Church’s fried chicken in the east.  KFC in the west
“Old” in the east is 300 years.  “Old” in the west is 100 years
Meandering 50 mile/hour roads in the east.  Straight line 75 mile/hour roads in the west

Everywhere people were helpful and friendly and home still looks mighty fine!

Ah San Diego

Phoenix to San Diego on I-8 is a snoozer.  With the exception of the odious dairy out in the middle of the desert and a swarm of cops and border patrol people near Yuma, not much was happening on this stretch of the trip.  But San Diego brought back fond memories : our kids were born here, living in shorts and t-shirts, delicious air with the hint of orange blossom, desert flowers in spring and a dusting of snow on the mountains in winter, and of course, the Pacific Ocean.  Our friends, the Hostetlers live in Del Mar, just a mile and a half from Torrey Pines State Park.  Walkers and hikers in that reserve enjoy forest, ocean scrub, bluffs and beach all in a 3 – 4 mile circuit and we made good use of this wonderful resource while visiting.  We also enjoyed a morning at the wild animal park where the white (or is it the black?) rhinoceros is being kept from extinction. Despite the advantage of many things to do and see in the area, a person’s home needs to be a refuge from all the hustle and bustle of urban life. Our hosts created such a refuge with the most beautiful and interesting patio garden I’ve ever seen, an island of calm and beauty between the freeways.  We skirted LA east of the mountains and headed north into the very dusty San Joaquin Valley.  Our destination is one more look at Yosemite.  After a night in Oakhurst we entered the park at Wawona in the south and headed for the valley.  The last time Ruth and I were there was when Nate was a baby. It’s as lovely as ever and this time of the year including some fall colors, and not the least bit crowded.  If the visit with the Hostetlers was the punctuation on the relational part of this trip, the visit to Yosemite punctuated the scenic part of the trip.  Fortunately Tioga Pass was still open so we exited through Tuolumne Meadows to Lee Vining, and on up through Nevada to spend our last night on the road in Winnemucca.  We awoke this morning to snow and were in snow for the next two hundred miles.  By the time we reached Boise it was rain.  But again, by the time we reached Cascade, you guessed it – snow!  Time find those skis…..

PICTURES: Evie's Patio Garden, 2-5 in the Valley, Tualomie Meadows, Near Tualomie Meadows, Tioga Pass looking into Nevada

Woke up in Deming, NM

Since El Paso, we’ve been in familiar territory.  My Dad pastored in these parts – Santa Fe, Deming, El Paso, and Truth or Consequences, so we made a number of visits to the region in the 70’s and 80’s.  Three of my siblings graduated from Deming High School and Mom retired from teaching in this town as well, so the pictures will mean something to the family.  Driving westward from Las Cruces on I-10 we gradually gain altitude and enter a high desert plain accentuated with small groupings of mounds that look like the backs of some gigantic half buried reptile.  The interstate is smooth and straight.  The only entertainment is reading the many tourist trap signs: Wild West, Akela Flats, Butterfield Station, and The Thing.  Apparently you can get everything from moccasins to sport drinks at these place as well as “kids activities”.  Hoping to also find a restroom we stopped at one of these establishments.  It was closed and a fellow traveler, also looking for some relief was urinating in the corner.  We moved on, pulling into Deming for the evening.  We got a tip and a dollar-off coupon from the motel clerk and had dinner at Palma’s Italian Grill – Italian with a Mexican twist.  The pasta alfredo with grilled chicken and fresh green chilies was really good, I mean really good.  The next morning it took an hour but we finally found the little chapel where Dad pastured at 8^th and Birch.  It’s now an Episcopal church and the parsonage has been replaced with a new home.  Since we’re in familiar territory we decided to take time for something we hadn’t seen before and chose the eastern unit of Saguaro National Park near Tucson.  Ruth read and I took a much needed hike through the cactus.  Muscles eased and the road noise gone we proceeded to Phoenix for a weekend with Ruth’s sisters and family.  Ruth’s sister lives in Sun City Grande where the urban coyotes howl at night reminding the residents of this very tidy community that it wasn’t long ago this area was rattlesnake and prickly pear country.  A cheery smile, a cold Corona, and chips and salsa greeted us and we knew we were in the southwest once again. 

PICTURES: Deming High, The Old DemingNazarene Church, the Florita Mtns, NM Roadside rest?, Wind Power on I-10,  Cholla Cactus, Inside a Saguaro, Not your average Saguaro

Big Bend Country

PICTURES; Marathon, distressed ocatillo, Crane? On the Rio, The Chisos Mtns (2) Along the Rio west of Big Bend

When we left Happy Union and headed south, we stopped in Slayton at “one of Texas’s oldest continuing bakeries.”  Maple bars are dang good when they’re made fresh that morning!  Somewhere south of Lamesa (which is south of Lubbock) the row crop farms yielded to the increasing sand in the soil.  We were at the edge of the Chihuahua desert.  The scene would be the same the 300 miles down to the park and on into southern New Mexico: creosote bush, yucca, and prickly pear cactus.  About the time the desert started, the oil wells started too.  We were in the Permian Basin.  The center of this oil rich area is Midland-Odessa, the former town known as the hometown of George and Laura Bush.  Our destination for the night was Alpine, TX.  I always was curious to know what that place looked like.  Well, it the Chihuahua desert with hills.  The drive down to the park the next morning was a precursor to one of the most stunning national parks I’ve been privileged to witness.  It is in a class by itself, unique.  First the harsh wildness of the place gets your attention.  There has been such little rain that the prickly pear is withered and the yucca leaves are brown.  The ocotillo was turning yellow making me think I was witnessing a desert autumn but that plant does that during drought.  It’s not seasonal at all.  Second, the shapes of the mountain are unlike anything you’ll see anywhere in the US.  They come to needle points, mesas, columns, high bluffs and gentle curving mounds.  The Chisos Mountains form the crown jewel of the park and it looked like a huge fortress complete with turrets.  There are a lot of places to camp, both developed sites and primitive ones.  The park also has a lot of miles of primitive roads for the adventurous.  We camped down by the Rio Grande on a lawn of green grass under giant cottonwoods.  The temperature gage in the car hit 100.  By Thursday morning a cold front came in and we traveled all day never exceeding 64 degrees.  To the west of Big Bend is a huge state park.  The 50 miles from Study Butte to Presidio is the best roller coaster ride you’ll ever take.  Not only are the hills, drops and curves fun, the scenery is awesome as well. Leaving the park on Thursday, our destination is somewhere in the Deming, NM area so that we can make Phoenix on the weekend.

In West Texas

When you travel west on I-40 from OKC to Amarillo, TX, you gain about 2400 feet in elevation.  Oklahoma is pretty green but as you slip over into the Texas Panhandle the colors are muted.  What trees are around are short.  Thirty miles east of Amarillo the trees are gone and you enter a khaki-colored  two dimensional world that gives a whole new meaning to the concept of flat.  With week after week of 100+ degree heat, the land looks distressed.  Wheat is mature at less than a foot high.  Many cotton fields only partially germinated and stand vacant and there is a brown haze of blowing dust.  They had up to an inch of rain a couple weeks ago bringing the total since Jan. 1 to just over 3 inches.  It’s about noon and we noticed Palo Duro Canyon State Park close by so decided to find some shade and catch a snack.  Canyon??  An amazing thing unfolds a half mile from the park entrance.  Suddenly you find yourself perched on the edge of a 600 foot drop off.  You’re looking at the Texas Grand Canyon that extends southeast for some 120 miles.  A wonderful, unexpected, and welcome visual break. But our destination for this day is a dot on the map called Happy Union about 17 miles south of Plainview on state route 400 and a visit with my sister-in-law’s Mom. Happy Union is now a state historical marker and an abandoned building that used to be a cotton gin.  In its heyday during the twenties, Happy Union also boasted a school, store, grain elevator, and filling station.   Coming into Plainview one is confronted with the obvious question, “Is this location a view of the plains or is the view of the plains, plain (unadorned.”)  You guessed it.  The answer is “yes”.  We met Colline in Plainview at Leal’s for a yummy Mexican dinner and then headed down to her country place.  At first glance it seemed lonely down there.  The nearest neighbor is a half mile away but he honks as he drives by to let her know he’s watching out for her.  The wind begins to die down as the sun drops below the horizon.  A vacant house down the road is silhouetted against the evening sky and I have to say that a kind of peacefulness seemed to settle down.  While Happy Union is no longer a town as such, it is a community – a repository of memories and continuing relationships that make a place home.  I think the grit in the air had forged grit in the character of these good people.  On to Big Bend National Park.

OK-C

Pictures: Ginger, Zoo, Pops, Sunday Dinner, Jean and her pig Harold, Oklahoma Centenial sculptures of the great land rushes.

I think Oklahoma and Arkansas share a common imagination.  Listen to some of the town names in this neck of the woods: Blue Jacket, Clebit, Heavener, Smackover, Toad Suck, Ozone, Yellville, Joy and next to it, Romance.  Like an ocean wave sliding to an end on the beach, the eastern deciduous forests and southern pine forests of the south come to an end as we move westward toward OKC.  We’re in the plains again.  Or are we?  Is this the Midwest or the South?  Is this a farming or ranching area?  Some people sound like west coast people.  Some sound like they are from the south.  They get 20 below 0 weather and 110 degree weather.  Oklahoma seems like some sort of geographic, economic and social transition zone.  OKC has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country but in small towns in the hinterlands it’s pretty clear that the recession has hit.  Gas is cheap (3.19/gal) but the Family Dollar and Dollar General Stores parking lots are full.  My metaphor for the ambiguity experienced here is the picture of Ginger the dog.  Notice she doesn’t know whether to have her ears up or down so one is up and one is down!  Had a nice visit with Sister Carol and daughters Erin, Lisa and Jean.  Spent Sat. afternoon at the zoo and then to POPS a gas station and hamburger joint that stocks over 600 flavors of pop – things like Pumpkin Spice and butter beer pop.  Great burgers too.  Before OK was a state this area was known as the “Indian Territories”.  In 1830 Congress passes the Indian Resettlement Act which was to exchange Indian lands in the east for the “unused” lands in the west, Oklahoma.  Stopping at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee we heard the stories of the “Trail of Tears” endured by the Seminole, Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee and Chickasaw, all of whom were resettled in Oklahoma.  We bid farewell to our family here and move on to Texas.

The South - Some Impressions

Operationally defined for this trip, “the south” includes southern VA, Eastern TN, Northern GA, Northern and Central AL, LA and AK.  Why is this the south, you ask?  Well in all these places you hear the term, “ya’all”.  Texas I consider a different country.  And I’m not sure how to classify Oklahoma.  Admittedly, this is a 5-day whirlwind cruise through this area on both country roads and freeways but its hard not to make some observations.  Here’s mine.1.)The motorcycle of choice in the south is Harley-Davidson, 2.) Southern legislators are more adept at getting pork-barrel projects than NW legislators if the number of recently paved, currently being paved roads and road construction projects is any indication, 3.)Apparently, individual property rights are a big deal along with lax zoning laws.  Anything you can think of is built anywhere you can think of.  4.) There is a kind of solve your own problems mentality here, e.g. this sign soon after entering Georgia, “Thieves will be shot on sight”, 5.) They are also clear about what booze is for, e.g. another sign seen soon after crossing into Arkansas, “Buzz-Rite Liquor Store”, 6.) There is an alternative way to spell Utah.  It’s Eutaw and the town is in Alabama.  Eutaw is also the place where I got a lesson in the social system down here.  Upon entering town you see small low houses.  But on any hint of a rise the houses immediately quadruple in size, complete with huge columns, verandas and expansive lawns.  There just seemed to be an aura of dominance between the people of means and those with less.  The church buildings followed the same pattern. 7.) Speaking of churches, the Baptists procreate like rabbits followed by the United Methodists.  Baptists are everywhere!  I’m signing off as “Mr. Wayne.”  It’s a southern thing.

In the south - the trip

Pictures: Cades Cove, Primitive road (2), Crossing the Mississippi at Vicksburg, Miss Beth, Black Bayoo (2), Hot Springs, AK (2), Mt. Magazine, AK

The arc we took through the south started with Great Smokey National Park.  Due to traffic, it took two efforts to gain entrance.  The second day we made it and entered the south west part of the park, driving up a beautiful canyon (bumper to bumper) to Cades Cove.  The cove is a high mountain valley once settled but now a historic feature of the park.  Entered a loop drive (bumper to bumper) and finally opted out of the traffic and headed down a dirt road that appeared to get us out of the park.  It did, on a one way primitive dirt track that would make the west central mountains of Idaho proud.  It took an hour to go 8 miles and we ended up on US 129 – a motorcyclist’s paradise.  This road was race track smooth with high 20 mile an hour hairpin turns.  In the 20 mile section we traveled there (through beautiful woods) we saw no less than 75 motorcycles coming toward us.  And on 4 of the more dramatic curves, photographers were taking pictures that the cyclists could order online.  I didn’t check to see if our Subaru was included.  Had some good BBQ at Bradleys in Sweetwater, TN.  We had to make time to get to our niece Beth’s place in Monroe, LA so we resorted to the freeways and just pushed on for a couple days skirting Birmingham, AL.  Thinking back to the early 60’s and the “line” that was drawn in that city by civil rights activists, it somehow seemed wrong not to stop and acknowledge what happened there.  But Birmingham simply was bounded by a manicured freeway and beautiful trees and we swiftly slid by.  Spent two days with niece Beth in Monroe (that’s Mun-row).  Was introduced to fried catfish and gumbo and my first ever bayou (see pictures) – all great experiences.  Ya know, I always wondered why Beth would head off to such a far and different kind of place, she being from the North West and all.  But it was gratifying to get acquainted with the community of faith she is a part of and teaches for.  She’s loved and well cared for.  It speaks well for the value of Christian community.  And one more thing.  Did you know that the US Gov’t through the National Park Service has been in the spa business since 1832?  That’s right!  Hot Springs National Park in Hot Springs AK has been leasing the site to private spa businesses for decades.  We toured a 1920’s something spa house.  Amazing!  The hydrotherapy equipment looked like something out of “One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest” if you remember the scene of “washing down” the Indian fellow.  On to Oklahoma.