TRAVELS WITH BETSY 2009
TO D.C. AND BEYOND
A journey of new perspectives
May 10, 2009. Mother’s Day. I had received calls from each of the ‘kids’ and a lovely gift, which made the day very special. Picking blooming iris and budding peonies, we wished the garden good luck and finished packing Betsy. Thanks to the Busseys, we are carrying an extra box on the back loaded with camping gear, in preparation for meeting the Morgans in AlexandriaVirginia on June 7th...our destination and deadline.
Traveling up Highway 20 to I-80, I wondered why we ever leave such a beautiful place as the foothills of the Sierra, especially to cross the desert and head east. There is almost no snow left in the Sierras, and people at the Truckee lunch stop were wearing shorts and sandals. We planned to go through Reno and down US 395, but AAA.com and Jack, our GPS, had differed on the best route. The navigator (Gail) had made an error and sent the driver (Gene) on to Reno, when we realized that Hwy 267 would be a better route. Backtracking through the Ag Station (when did they re-open? I thought California had a serious budget problem) we went beyond Incline, for the first time in years. From this perspective, Lake Tahoe looks very different than from the west side our usual travel. The mountains look larger, the lake longer, the shore more boulders than sand. Good thing it was Sunday, as there is major construction on this route over Spooner Summit. Dropping down into Carson Valley, we encountered serious heat and the barren east side of the Sierras; only Monitor pass was open, Tioga still closed, but no snow visible. Just past the tufas of Mono Lake, the sea gulls diving for brine shrimp, we pulled in at Lee Vining to give us all a rest.
Monday began the climb up toward Bishop and Mammoth, four lane divided highway, virtually no traffic. Decision: go to Kingman AZ via Las Vegas or Barstow. To everyone in the Bishop AAA office's surprise, it was shorter in miles and time to go through Barstow, which is what Jack had said. We love the eastern side of the Sierras, and Hwy 395 didn't disappoint this time...lava beds on either side of the the highway, huge cinders and promises of fossils faraway through the sagebrush in bloom. Leaving the Eastern Sierras Scenic Byway and the lava strewn fields, US 395 S takes a dive SE towards San Bernadino. As we hotfooted it over the lava mountains toward the Mojave we saw miles of apparently empty gondola cars parked on rails. What would they have been carrying? Potash? And the brown hills now show carpets of gold wildflowers, yellowing blooming sagebrush and bushes springing to life in chartreuse and emerald. Now we are at 3000 feet, then dropping--abandoned gold mines--past a sign to 20 Mule Team Borax. Anybody remember that powder and its uses?
We've seen arrays of solar panels generating electricity and despite the hot dry wind, no wind turbines. Just east of Barstow, more solar panels sending power to ??? Lunch was at the side of a dusty road in 97 degree heat. The road from Barstow to Needles, west to east across the Mojave, took us through more lava, past the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, just off to the south, over a four lane divided highway where trucks outnumbered cars and RVs by 2 - 1. Mostly flirting with a 3000' elevation, we dropped to Needles at about 400'. The San Berdoo Regional Park was virtually empty of overnight guests...no wonder, it was 97o degrees and windy. We took a cooling walk with Lucy to the shores of a small and muddy Colorado River and for exercise, she chased the laser light back and forth until we were all ready for sleep.
Tuesday May 12. To Gallup NM. Along the way, the contemporary roadside attraction, replacing the dinosaur and giant plaster lizard, was the space station, a shiny orb near the Proving Grounds Road exit, not far inside the AZ border. Climbing out of the Colorado River Basin, we passed trucks and leveled off at 5000' or so of high desert, where the juniper bushes were tree height and some land was still green. I-40 here is in rough shape, but the four lane divided roadway keeps it relatively safe. Occasional ranches. Switched drivers at Ash Fork, which proclaimed itself the "flagstone capitol of the world". Ash Fork has a charming museum in an old Route 66 maintenance station, complete with artifacts and mannequins depicting the early days of the automobile and before, with lots of Route 66 memorabilia. Two couples visiting there were traversing what parts of 66 they could find on three wheeled motorcycles with trailers, Florida license plates. Good for them.
Tuesday May 12. To Gallup NM. Along the way, the contemporary roadside attraction, replacing the dinosaur and giant plaster lizard, was the space station, a shiny orb near the Proving Grounds Road exit, not far inside the AZ border. Climbing out of the Colorado River Basin, we passed trucks and leveled off at 5000' or so of high desert, where the juniper bushes were tree height and some land was still green. I-40 here is in rough shape, but the four lane divided roadway keeps it relatively safe. Occasional ranches. Switched drivers at Ash Fork, which proclaimed itself the "flagstone capitol of the world". Ash Fork has a charming museum in an old Route 66 maintenance station, complete with artifacts and mannequins depicting the early days of the automobile and before, with lots of Route 66 memorabilia. Two couples visiting there were traversing what parts of 66 they could find on three wheeled motorcycles with trailers, Florida license plates. Good for them.
Flew through Flagstaff. Roadside sights: Meteor City, near Crater Road. Old Route 66 trading posts complete with wigwams. FREE PETRIFIED WOOD. Indian Jewelry Best Prices Navajo Rugs Steer Horns Moccasins Fry Bread T Shirts Phone Cards. Faded Route 66 signs painted on old wooden building, 3 pice chicken dinner $3.79, red rocks, sandstone horizontally striated, sage brush and juniper. All the way to Gallup and a little beyond, to Red Rock State Park and overnight. We had parked so we could see Church Rock out our dinette window and watch the shadows creep up the red rocks to the spires. Lots of wind blowing fine red sand over everything.
May 13 we awoke to a dusty but less windy campsite. In our search for a suitable 'camp site' we had passed up two RV parks with rigs side by side on the hot barren gravel lots. We traversed Route 66, which at this point has become a frontage road of fast food, old motels, wonderful signs. Road Food had suggested the El Rancho Hotel/Motel for breakfast, "the charm of the past, the convenience of tomorrow," featuring photos of movie stars no one younger than we are would have recognized, except possibly Ronald Reagan. The huevos rancheros were wonderful.
I 40 seems to be one long construction zone, again with trucks running 2 to 1 to cars and RVs. Paralleling the road often is the railway, carrying coal cars and double stacked containers, miles of them. Albuquerque freeways are very beautiful; the interchanges seem new, pale terra cotta (as is the soil) with turquoise trim, and some overpasses decorated with metal Native American symbols...very aesthetic. We found the Scenic Byway from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, SR 14, and followed the Turquoise Trail over rolling hills, past gated communities (!), ranches, and the outskirts of Santa Fe. The plaza was not crowded; we found parking a few blocks away and enjoyed a stroll and an ice cream around the square without the temptation to shop. Nothing else in Santa Fe inspired us this time; before we had bought paintings, eaten well, enjoyed the church, loved the museums, shopped, and gone to the opera. This time we drove out past Museum Hill without stopping, following the Santa Fe Trail, a bit of Route 66, and on to Las Vegas, NM, and a delightful State Park outside the town. Storrie Lake State Park is in a unique position, just east of the Sangre de Christo Mountains, the southernmost range of the Rocky Mountains, and just west of the Great Plains. A very pleasant New Mexico State Park, a good walk for Lucy, who raised a dust bowl of her own chasing balls.
I 40 seems to be one long construction zone, again with trucks running 2 to 1 to cars and RVs. Paralleling the road often is the railway, carrying coal cars and double stacked containers, miles of them. Albuquerque freeways are very beautiful; the interchanges seem new, pale terra cotta (as is the soil) with turquoise trim, and some overpasses decorated with metal Native American symbols...very aesthetic. We found the Scenic Byway from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, SR 14, and followed the Turquoise Trail over rolling hills, past gated communities (!), ranches, and the outskirts of Santa Fe. The plaza was not crowded; we found parking a few blocks away and enjoyed a stroll and an ice cream around the square without the temptation to shop. Nothing else in Santa Fe inspired us this time; before we had bought paintings, eaten well, enjoyed the church, loved the museums, shopped, and gone to the opera. This time we drove out past Museum Hill without stopping, following the Santa Fe Trail, a bit of Route 66, and on to Las Vegas, NM, and a delightful State Park outside the town. Storrie Lake State Park is in a unique position, just east of the Sangre de Christo Mountains, the southernmost range of the Rocky Mountains, and just west of the Great Plains. A very pleasant New Mexico State Park, a good walk for Lucy, who raised a dust bowl of her own chasing balls.
On Thursday the 14th we took off for Oklahoma over a flat, windy (is all of NM windy?) dry terrain. Just past Clayton we crossed to OK, almost nipping into Texas. The road improved and the plain turned green. Huge irrigation arms sprayed newly planted soil into green feed for the Lost Trail Dairy down the road. We circled the 1923 county courthouse in Boise City, the county seat of Cimarron County and, declining roads to Elkhart Kansas and Amarillo Texas, we changed our watches to Central Daylight Time and continued on US 412. Water must be plentiful as all the fields are now green, with some exceptions, and the few and far between ranches are occupied here. I'm amazed that with the strong and steady wind from the south there are no wind turbine farms or pillars of transmission lines. AHA! now I see....oil wells. Guymon OK, here we come, Texas County, the 'Saddle Broke Cowboy Capitol". At the eponymous Southwind RV park we could hear the pumps for the massive sprinkler irrigation systems run all night, and see the blinking lights on a dozen or so oil well sippers. (Their mechanisms always remind me of the drinking bird, who dipped forward into the glass of liquid, then bobbed back up to do it again.)
Friday May 15th we drove the 120 miles to Fort Supply, an Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) camp on the shores of one of their many water projects. Finally I see wind farms,,,there must be at least 15 miles of wind turbines along a small ridge to the north. We drove up to Beaver for lunch at Beaver Dunes State Park, where there are miles of grass covered sand dunes near Beaver River and miles from any ocean. Go figure. Humidity is now 62%, temperatures in the high 80's, with thunderstorms forecast. We are in the High Plains, after all, with Kansas on one side and Texas on the other of this narrow strip of land, the Oklahoma panhandle. Fort Supply turned out to be a doozy of a lake with lovely grassy campsites alongside; we had enough time to enjoy sitting and walking outside for more than an hour before the storm hit and we were cozy inside until it had passed, leaving the air fresh and clean.
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