Lewis & Clark and Beyond

October 18, Day 61

Today was a travel day. We hit a couple of segments of Rte 66, but were mostly on I40. We did stop in Grants, NM and toured a mining museum. Grants has a varied history with ranching and farming, but took off with the discovery of uranium. The town flourished in the WWII and cold war era. The main floor of the museum was a history of the town and a little bit about mining. The basement was a replica of a uranium mine and included a lot of actual mining equipment in a well developed mine setting. The docents were audio recordings by retired career miners who told about different phases of the mining operation. We learned that the mine replica was developed by the mine workers in conjunction with some of the mining companies and was actually in place before the above ground structure was built. A great museum! We are spending the night in Santa Rosa, NM.

October 19, Day 62

I had my oil changed before we left Santa Rosa. We followed old Rte 66 for the remainder of the state of New Mexico. The road surface was decent and it closely followed I40 on either the north or south side. There were a couple of segments where it was difficult to determine what was old 66 and what was a local road. At one point, the road hit a tee; north went over the tracks and continued east as a gravel road, south went through a very narrow tunnel under I40 that looked more like access for farm stock than vehicles. As it worked out, we needed to go through the tunnel. If our rigs had been any wider or taller, we would not have fit. We entered Texas just after lunch and lost an hour. We are now on Central time for the remainder of the trip. Just west of Amarillo, we stopped to view the ‘Cadillac Ranch’. The owner of the ranch half buried at a forty-five degree angle ten Cadillac cars in a neat row with their front ends in the dirt and the rears sticking in the ground. The cars have been totally spray painted with graffiti. We chose to bypass Amarillo and picked 66 back up on the east side of the city. In Groom, we observed the leaning water tower. Evidently it was built that way. We are spending the night in a rest area just west of McLean, TX. I wonder how much sleep I will get tonight with all the truck coming and going.

October 12, Day 55

We spent the morning touring Hoover Dam. We parked on the AZ side and walked over the dam to the visitor center. The water level was down about 40 feet, but that does not seem to be unusual for this time of the year. The tour was of the generating room. There was also an interpretive center that focused on the purpose of the dam, its construction, and electrical generation. The dam is a most impressive structure and they are in the process of building a bridge a short distance down river from the dam to divert Rte 93 from having to go over the dam. I think this bridge project is in response to security issues after 9/11. There is a security check of vehicles before being allowed to cross the highway on the dam. Trucks are still restricted. We were allowed to take our RV’s over the dam after they were searched inside and out. In the afternoon, we went to the Boulder City Library to check email. The library has an amphitheater with some water features. Very nice!

October 13, Day 56

I woke up to the howling of coyotes. We got an early start and headed to Kingman via Rte 93 which gave us another look at Hoover Dam. Once we hit I40, we headed back west to pick-up a portion of Rte 66 and took it to the town of Oatman. Oatman is a former mining town on the highway that has turned into a tourist center. One of the main attractions is the feral donkeys that freely roam the town. They are very tame and love the carrots that the tourists feed them. We visited the many shops and watched a staged wild west shootout. The 22 mile trip from Kingman was at times beautiful and tawdry. In the flat areas, there are a lot of shanties and abandoned trailers. In the mountain areas, we were on a steep road with a lot of hairpin turns. There were some beautiful sandstone cliffs that we tried to photograph. We are in Kingman for the night. We planned to stay in the Wal-Mart parking lot, but were told by security that we would have to leave at midnight when they close, so we moved up the road and are in a gravel lot behind a Walgreens.

October 14, Day 57

We arrived at Grand Canyon National Park at the south rim about noon. Once again they waived the $25 entry fee because we hold the Passport card. The reference I have on National Park camping cautioned about the importance of having reservations through October, but we came in ‘cold’ to find the campground is barely a quarter full. After setting up, we took the shuttle bus getting to view the canyon from a number of locations. Like Glacier Park, the shuttle bus is free and runs on a frequent schedule. What a great service! This canyon is truly an awesome work of nature. I knew it would be large, but did not anticipate the scale. One observation I made about my fellow tourists is that at least half of those visiting are from some other country. I was told by a camper at Glacier to expect a lot of visitors from other countries in the Fall of the year, but I was still surprised at the high percentage. We talked to visitors from Holland, Germany, France, and Great Britain just in the short time we were on the shuttle bus. We are at 7’000 feet of altitude, so I suspect it will get a little chilly tonight. Tomorrow we hope to do some hiking along the rim.

October 15, Day 58

It was really cold this morning. I learned later at the visitor center that it got down to 30° last night and is supposed to get to 24° tonight. We fixed a real breakfast this morning of pancakes and sausage and then headed for the canyon. We took the shuttle to the east visitor center to view the exhibits and then headed back west. We walked the rim trail for a couple of miles and decided that was enough for the day. That trail provides a variety of views of the canyon. We had a good view of the Bright Angel trail which is the one that goes down to the base of the canyon. As much as I might like to make the effort, the trail descends 4500 feet in 7.8 miles. Hikers that make the trek usually go done one day, camp at the bottom, and ascend the next day. Perhaps another year? When we got back to camp, I saw that someone had closed the door to my rig. I had left the prime door open leaving only the screen door closed for ventilation for Cutie. I suspect she was barking and someone got tired of listening to her. So much for being a good neighbor!

October 16, Day 59

I don’t think it got as cold last night as the night before. I sat outside bundled up with my morning coffee feeding the ravens. These huge bird almost stalk you if they think you have food. I put out some of Cutie’s dry dog food and they loved it. We also say two mule deer in the campground as we were preparing to leave. We left the Grand Canyon National Park mid morning. There was a long line at the dump station and we had to wait a half hour. Your would think that a campground with 200+ sites would have more than one dump site. I stopped en route to fill up on propane as I was almost out. We took AZ180 to Flagstaff and I40 which took us through the Coconino National Forrest laden with Ponderosa pine . It was a scenic route that rose to an elevation of 8,022 feet. The only wild life I saw was a coyote crossing the road in front of me. East of Flagstaff we got off I40 to try to look at some Rte 66 sights, but they were gone. We did leave the expressway to tour Meteor Crater. The area is privately owned, but they have a very nicely developed interpretive center and viewing area at the rim of the crater. The wind velocity today was so high we actually had to hold on to the railings to keep our balance while viewing or photographing the crater. The center focuses on the meteor impact, history of the crater, and meteor impacts and craters around the world. It was worth the entrance fee. Our last stop of the day is at Winslow, AZ. We drove a short segment of Rte 66 to and through Winslow, toured a local museum, and viewed the corner made famous in the ’70’s song “Take It Easy” with the line, ’Standin’ on the corner in Winslow Arizona.’ In Winslow we also toured the former Fred Harvey hotel La Posada. This is a Mary Colter designed building and the last that she did for the Santa Fe Railroad about 1930. It sat vacant for 40 years, but has been recently renovated by the same firm that is doing the hotel/train station we visited in Needles, CA. It is now a five star hotel and is absolutely beautiful! There is a lot of Southwest art on display throughout the public areas of the hotel with some of the original furniture. We are spending the night at the Winslow Wal-Mart.

October 17, Day 60

I did not get a good night’s sleep. The Wal-Mart was noisy and there was an inebriated Native American vagrant knocking on doors trying to get a hand-out. I was awakened at 4:00 a.m. by two diesel rigs firing up and leaving. I took advantage of the time to read. We left about 7:30, drove east on I40 for a couple of miles, and stopped at a Rte 66 vestige called the Jackrabbit Trading Post. It was a beat-up dive, but they had a lot of Rte 66 photos and the like on display and good prices. What they didn’t have was coffee! Our next Rte 66 stop was Holbrook to view the Wigwam Village Motel. This is a throwback to another era! Each 15 or more motel rooms is a stand alone tee pee made of what appears to be stucco. They are each about 16 feet in diameter and 25 feet high. I asked the cleaning lady to show me a room and she was more than happy to oblige. The two double beds pretty much fill the room and the bathroom includes only a toilet and lavatory. They hardly meet today’s standards, but are still in high demand. We had breakfast in Holbrook at a Mexican diner. I had eggs ranchero with mild sauce over the eggs that somewhat hit my upper limit on degree of fire. Our big activity of the day was a run through the Petrified Forest National Park. We drove the 40 miles within the park from south to north stopping at a number of view points and taking two short hikes to view the petrified logs and some ancient Indian remains dating back to 1300 A.D. The former residents are believed to be the ancestors of today’s Hopi Indians. There are a great number of petrified trees in the park and the vistas are varied and beautiful. I am beginning to appreciate the desert. As the day progressed, the wind picked up again. Thankfully, it was a trail wind as we traveled on I40. We are in a nice campground in Gallup, NM for the night. We are both a little tired of ‘dry camping’ and need a long hot shower. The laundry facilities will come in handy as well.

October 8, Day 51

Today is Columbus Day and Brent has the day off while the kids and Melissa have school. I cleaned the rig in the morning and drove to his house. Brad joined us and we went to a local Mexican restaurant. The food was great and very authentic. After lunch, Brad insisted that we go down a few doors and get a bubble tea. This is an Asian beverage consisting of milk, iced tea, and large tapioca pearls the size of peas. They provide it with a large diameter straw. When you suck up a tapioca pearl, it is like getting a ’hocker’ in you mouth. It is a bit of ‘gager‘, but interesting. After lunch, it was time for the end of the school day for Sam and Lilly, so we drove to their school to pick them up. They attend Valley Christian School. I had a chance to meet their teachers and tour Melissa’s classroom. The construction of California elementary schools is very different from the Midwest. For example, the cloak room consists of hooks on the outside of the building under the roof eave. The cafeteria eating area is a large tent. Brent, I, and the kids went to their place and began working on homework. Melissa had to stay for a while and then run errands. I stayed for dinner and then headed back to the campground.

October 9, Day 52

We took our time in the morning to give traffic a chance to clear before hitting the expressway. Brent stopped by before going to work to say goodbye. It was nice of him to go out of his way to do that. We expressed it to Barstow, CA to pick-up Rte 66 and tour a museum there only the learn that the museum is only open on weekends. So we took off on the ‘Mother Road’ which in this part of the country is mostly rough pavement allowing anywhere between 40 and 50 mph. We are essentially in the high dessert. There is hardly any traffic on the road. We might see another car coming toward us about every 15 minutes. There is nothing to see on either side of the road expect a few abandoned buildings and sometimes I40 which somewhat parallels Rte 66‘. We did see an ancient lava flow which was ’cool’. We stopped in Amboy to see one of the few remaining remnants of the era when the road was in its prime. The place is called Roy’s motel and diner. It is in good shape, but not really functioning. Ten miles east of Amboy, Will burned out a bearing on one of the wheels of her trailer. Calls to AAA have yet to yield anything specific. So, we are in what used to be Chambless and is now a group of abandoned buildings. We will camp here along side the road and deal with the issue in the morning. Brent called to check on us and I told him about the break down. He cautioned us to ‘lock-down’ because of the crazies that live in the dessert. We had a quiet night.

October 10, Day 53

I set my alarm clock to wake Will up at 5:00 a.m. so she could call her Michigan insurance agent at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. I went back to bed. She knocked on my door an hour and a half later to tell me all was set and the tow truck would be there within the hour. He actually made it in less because was on a tire change call on I40 when he got the call. He took off the damaged tire, tied up the suspension, and towed the rig to a shop in Needles. It took most of the day to make the repair and check the other wheels. He also fixed my electric stairs which stopped functioning this morning as well. While he was working on the project, we looked around the town. There is not much to see, it is a rather tawdry town. We did tour a railway station Harvey House facility that is going through an extension renovation. We had a chance to look at the project and the job superintendent even let me look at the drawings. We went to an Indian casino, but got called out by security because we left Cutie in the vehicle with the windows rolled down. Evidently, it is against the law to leave a pet in a vehicle in Arizona even if the windows are down. We are camped for the night in a park on the shores of Colorado River in the city of Needles. The park has a pool and Jacuzzi tub and pool of which we took full advantage.

October 11, Day 54

We drove north from Needles to Bolder City, NV. We toured the town which is very quaint. Bolder City is the community built specifically to house workman during the construction of the Hoover Dam. They have done a lot of work recently to upgrade the downtown area. There are a number of shops, restaurants, and hotels to support the tourist trade that come to visit the dam. We had lunch in café that we are told was featured on Food TV on their ‘Diners and Dives’ shows. The food was good. We hit a number of shops. One antique shop actually had antiques rather than ‘old junk’ in it. We are camping at a Lake Meade National Recreational campground. We are finally back in the ‘cheap seats’ after spending a lot of time in CA. It is nice to be paying $5 for camping rather than $30. Of course, we don’t have anything like electricity, showers, or the Pacific Ocean, but we can survive for a couple of days before things start getting a little ‘gamey’. Tomorrow we tour the Hoover Dam.

October 2, Day 45

We drove back north and spent the day in Monterey doing the tourist bit. We toured Fisherman’s Warf, Cannery Row, and the Maritime Museum. Will toured the Aquarium, but I chose to ‘take a pass’ on that. We are at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park again tonight. Tomorrow, we continue heading south.

October 3, Day 46

Today was a fantastic day as far as scenery and experiences. We traveled on Rte 1 through the Big Sur section of the coast. The Santa Lucia Range of mountains extends right to the Pacific with the highway carved into the side generally about a hundred feet above sea level creating some of the most impressive scenery I have seen. There were a lot of ‘turn offs’ to view the scenery and we took full advantage of them. The Big Sur stretch of the highway is protected from development, so the scenery is not spoiled. The undeveloped nature of the area does have a down side. Will forgot to fill-up her gas tank before we left, so was ‘fleeced’ at one of the few stations by having to pay $4.79 a gallon! At one of the earlier view points we took a hike under the adjacent concrete arch bridge down to the shore where there was a lot of sea kept washed ashore. They look like some kind of alien creature. Some of the stems were 10 feet long and the consistency of a rubber hose. They have a round float bladder at the top to keep the foliage on the surface and the remaining 10+ hangs in the water below. Very eerie looking! At another viewpoints after we had left the mountains, we were lucky to view a colony of elephant seals lounging on the beach. I say lucky because we stopped and because they are only there at certain months of the year. According to the volunteer docents who serves the area, the colony appeared in the 90’s with a few members and has grown in size since becoming protected. Those we observed were juveniles, but were by not means small. They will leave in November/December when the mature adults begin arriving. A short distance from this seal beach is the Hurst Castle. We took one of the tours and it was very well done. The construction of the castle and surrounding structures began in 1919 and took 18 years to complete at a cost of $10million (1919) dollars. It is built in the Mediterranean style and has a great many art objects incorporated into the structure such as columns, friezes, tapestries, woodwork, and statuary. The art work was really more impressive than the buildings which are extensive and very well done. The landscaping is extensive as well with many ornamental trees and flowering shrubs. We are parked for the night at Pismo State Beach. The park is clean and the beach is really nice being at least 100 yards wide with very fine light colored sand. We got our first pictures of a Pacific sunset.

October 4, Day 47

We got a late start today as we do not plan to travel very many miles. We had a ‘real’ breakfast, did laundry, and got fuel before hitting the road. We mostly traveled on Rte 101, but when we exited on to Rte 1 it ran right along the coast. There were many RVs parked at the first State Beach we encountered watching the surfers. We would have joined them, but there was no room. We did park a little further down the highway on the coast for lunch, but the beach was not as nice and there were no surfers. We are parked for the night at McGrath State Beach. The further south we travel, the more expensive the camping. This park is $5 more than those further north and offers the same amenities. We plan to take off very early to try to avoid the traffic through the Los Angles area. We rendezvous with Brent some time tomorrow at another State Beach close to camp Pendleton.

October 5, Day 48

We rolled out in the wee hours of the morning to make the run through Los Angles and environs before the rush of traffic. I was supposed to get up at 1:00 a.m., but I guess I didn’t set the alarm correctly because Will had to wake me. We still hit the road at 2:00 a.m. as planned. After getting turned around in Ventura, we finally got back on Rte 101 and made the trip without any more problems. I cannot imagine navigating those freeways in an RV with six lanes of traffic. It would not be so bad if you could stay in one lane and keep going, but lanes keep pealing off and adding, so there was a lot of lane changes. We stopped for gas and a short nap at San Juan Capistrano and ended up at San Onofre State Beach where we hung out for the day. I read some of the references for our Rte 66 trip leg and did some much needed cleaning. Brent got a an ‘early quit’, and met us at the beach, and escorted us to Camp Pendleton Marine Base where we will be camping for the next few days. While we have stayed at a number of State Beaches in California and Oregon, this is the first time we have actually been on the beach itself. At the other locations, we have always been a few hundred yards with some dunes separating us from the Pacific. Here, we are in the sand right on the beach, and with full hook-up! Brent took us to the commissary to pick up some supplies. Wow, are the prices great! Brent left us to get set-up only to returned after dark with Melissa and the Sam, Lilly, and Sam’s friend Josiah along with Brent’s military friend Brad. We had a camp fire and burned some steaks and veggies with the requisite ‘some-mores‘ to follow. Sam & Lilly stayed the night after moving in all of their gear and beach paraphernalia. While the rig has acidulations to sleep three kids and an adult, the ‘living space’ is a little tight. The kids were good about going to bed. I let them ‘get silly’ for a while and then called ‘lights out.

October 6, Day 49

After breakfast, the kids headed for the beach. They swam and body surfed for about three hours and it was time for peanut butter and jelly. A loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter later, Brent arrived to take the kids to a birthday party. I crashed taking a nice long afternoon nap. Brent and family returned at dinner time with ribs and corn. Before dinner, Brent and the kids went swimming. The ribs and corn were cooked on the grill and, of course, followed with another round of ‘some-mores’. The kids spent the night again.

October 7, Day 50

After a breakfast of bacon and eggs, the kids were in the water again for a couple of hours before we had a lunch. We loaded all of the gear into Will’s truck and drove to Brent & Melissa’s house where we are hanging out checking email. Sam & Lilly are reluctantly doing their homework..

Septmeber 26, Day 39

I think this is going to be leisure stay. Barbara is feeding us well and we are not doing a lot except relaxing. This has been a total ’lay-back’ day.

September 27, Day 40 This morning, Thursday, we did pancakes and sausage for Barb. & Rosa. I put my scooter on the ground today and took a spin around the area. There is a winery not far up the road. It is a little high end for my taste, however I love the architecture of the buildings. Barbara and I worked on a couple of small jobs here today.

September 28, Day 41

We laid around most of the day reading. In the afternoon, went sailing with a friend of Barbara’s named Mike who recently picked up a used 27 footer. The wind was good at about 10 to 15 knots. Barbara was at the helm on the way across the lake and I took it on the way back. It was a good three hours cruise after which we drove over to the Indian Casino for a light dinner.

September 29, Day 42

Barbara & Rosa headed for the Bay Area today for a birthday celebration. We said our goodbyes even though we were hanging around until Sunday morning. I did a little grounds work for Barb, took my scooter for a spin and relaxed. Will and I went to Son’s of Italy BBQ in the next town for a meal and that was pretty much the day.

September 30, Day 43

We left Barbara’s and headed back to Rte 101 and south once more. Along the way, Nita decided that she wanted to spend some time at Bonita Beach where they filmed the movie, ‘The Birds’, so we parted ways anticipating a possible link-up some along the route. We exited 101 at San Rafael just as the traffic was getting crazy and headed west to Samuel P. Taylor State Park. It is a small piece of state real estate in the much larger Golden Gate National Recreational Area and the only public camping in the Bay Area. We are camping in a Redwood grove. The facilities are typical of western parks in that there is no electricity, only water and restroom facilities. This is the first time that we have found the showers to be coin operated. The cost, 25 cents for 2.5 minutes. We will see how that goes!

October 1, Day 44

I deposited $1 for my morning shower and could have gotten by for less. There was a lot of hot water! After breakfast, we left the Taylor State Park and headed west to pick-up Rte 1. The first portion was not too pretty, but as road began to follow the Pacific shore, the beauty increased and the road got more and more winding. By the time we got near Muier Woods, it was really bad. At one point, I ‘bottomed out’ which normally only happens if I have to cross a deep gulley. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and made it through San Francisco without any problems. We continued on Rte 1 and stopped for the night at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park just south of Monterey which we plan to visit tomorrow.